People's Pilot, Volume 4, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 January 1895 — RULE BY MONOPOLIES. [ARTICLE]

RULE BY MONOPOLIES.

that is what the country IS COMING TO. The Deeel Machinery So Manipulated as to Make Deb« and Ills Colleague. Of* fender. .Against the United State* Co.rt, la-tead of Against the Railroads. This is what the country is fast coming to—government, not by the people, but by the corporations. Government,, n »t by mrn, a. its founders intended, ami justice demands, >ut by money, i-.very lay someth.ng occurs to demon* s. tms, the latest being the conv ct. and sentence of Mr. Debs ami his six companions in the board ot management oi the American Railway Union lor their having ordered and conducted the strike in sympathy with l.ie I‘ulhuan workmen last summer.

in tliis case the legal machinery is so manipulated as to make Debs and liis colleagues offenders against the United btaiea court, instead of against the railroads, in order to render their conviction of some wrongful act —anything so as to convict them —the less intolerable to the public. If they were sent to jail on a charge 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 everybody will say that while it is too had. yet it must be endured. The courts must be upheld, you know. Hut while the hand is the hand of Esau, the court, the voice is the voice of Jaeob, the railroad, who in this deceptive manner swindles the workingman out of his right to go on a strike. Anu the workingman in this case represents the entire people.

Mr. Debs takes the injustice done him quite like a man and a patriot, and will carry the ease to the Supreme court during the few days allowed him for an appeal from his six months sentence. In an interview he said; 1 am a law abiding man and I will abide by the law as construed by the judges. Hut if Judge Woods' decis on 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 !>o - H- cent, and if two or more of us decide to quit rather than submit to tlie reduction we are guilty of conspiracy. Of course, he says, strikes are all r.ght if they are peaceful, but who can tell when violence will fol-

low a strike? In the strike of lest, summer everv effo t was made by the leaders to prevent violence. We Warned the men to respect prop rty 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 strike:s weie not expected to beta it. Whet right has he to draw such an inference? There is nothing in the evidence to prove it. lx the Supreme court does not prevent this wrong being done Debs and hL- associates future generations may hold it responsible for precipitating the bloody revolution into which the people of the United States are being forced foe ihe protection cf their rights and the overthrow of the reign of plu.ocracy. —lowa Tribune. Is thk judge greater than the pe<* pis who mails the law? _ ' _