People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1895 — RULE BY MONOPOLIES. [ARTICLE]

RULE BY MONOPOLIES.

THAT IS WHAT THE COUNTRY IS COMING TO. Th« Laval Machinery Ho Manipu'ated at to Make Deb* and Hla Co leagues Offender* Against the tin ted State* Court, Instead of Against the Railroad*. This is what the country is fast coming to —government, not by the people, hit by the corporations. Government, n >t by men, anaits founders intended, a.id justice demands, >ut by money. Lyery Jay someth.ng occurs to licnions rate this, the latest being the conviction and sentence of Mr. Debs and hia six companions in the board <»f mantgemeqt o/ the American Railway L nion for their having ordered and c mductcvl tne strike iu sympat.-y with tue PuilmuD workmen last summer. In this case the legal machinery is so manipulated as to ma><e .mbs and his colleagues offenders against the United ktutes court, ins end of against tiie lailx'oads, in order to render their conviction of some wron.ful act —anything so as to convict them—the less intolerable to the public, if they were sent to jail on a unurge of something done against the railroads, it was doubtless reasoned, public opinion would not stand it; but let it be made out that the offense is against the court, and of course everyb >dy will bay that while it is too bad. yet it must be endured. The courts must be upheld, you know. Bui wlihe the hand is the hand of E-.au, the court, the voice is the voice of Jacob, the railroad, who in this deceptive manner swindhs the workingman out of his right to go on a strike. Anu the workingman in th s ease represents the entire people. Mr. Debs takes thp injustice done him quite like a man and a patriot, and will carry the case to the Supreme court during tfye few days alluyved him for ap appeal fyopi his six mouths sentence. In an interview lie .-aid: | am a laxy abiding |n;vn au-| I will abide by the law as you-.trued by tiie judges. But if Judge Woods’ decision is the law all labor organizations may as well disband. According to him every strike is a conspiracy and is unlawful. Even If our wages are reduced 50 per cent and if two or more of us decide to quit rather than sub mit to the reduction we are guilty of conspiracy. Of course, he says, strikes are all right if they are peaceful, but. who can tell when violence will follow a strike? In the strike of last supimer pvery effo t was ma-ie by the leaders to prevent violence. We warned the men to respect property rights and even to keep off the right of way of the railway companies. Judge Woods intimates that this advice was given for the effect it would have on the public and that the strikers x\ere not expected to heed it. What right has he to draw such an infeience? There is nothing in evh deuce to prove if. If the Supreme court does not prevent this wrong being done Debs and his associates future generations may hold it responsible for precipitating the bloody revolution into whiuh the people of the United States are being forced for the protection of theli rights and the overthrow of the reign of plutocracy.—lowa Tribune, Is the judge greater than the pie who make the i§w? _ _