People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1895 — THE MILITARY POWER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE MILITARY POWER

A MENACING DANGER TO THE REPUBLIC. It Is Being Strengthened and Becoming More Tyrannical Every Year —We Must Preserve Our Liberties at Any Cost. The citizens of a republic, who have been taught that the voters are the sovereigns, are naturally jealous of their liberties, yet the liberties of the people of the United States have been so encroached upon during the last quarter of a century that it is now difficult to determine where the rights of the citizen end and the authorities begin. We have seen workingmen shot down at the command of corporations for no otfier reason than that they asked for more equitable wages or better treatment, and refused to work until fheie were accorded. Innocent people, in no way connected with these disturbances, have been wounded and killed in this indiscriminate firing. It is in proof indisputable that corporations have produced lawlessness and destruction of property that an excuse might be had for sending the military against workingmen. Forts and barricades have been erected by corporations in advance of any disturbance, but in preparation for the enforcement of orders for the reduction of wages, and these barricades have been used by state and national authority against citizens of the republic. Even now distinguished citizens lie in prison charged with no violation of law\ but at the dictum of a court, for no other cause than that they had been chosen by their fellow workingmen to perform certain responsible duties entirely within the constitution and laws of the country. But these are only the first footfalls of tyranny and oppression in the United States. Our military power is being strengthened and more widely disseminated throughout the country; New army regulations have been made and approved by the president, who promulgates new and startling rules for the government of the military. There is a show of keeping the military subordinate to the civil authorities, but not “in case of attempted robbery or interruption of United States mail, or other emergneies an officer of the army may take such action before the receipt of instructions as circumstances may justify,” and the rules declare that “it is purely a tactical question in what manner troops shall use weapons with which they ate armed whether by fire of musketry and artillery or by the bayonet and sabre, or by both, and at what stage of the operations which or other mode of attack shall be employed. This tactical question will be decided by the immediate commander of the troops according to the judgment of the situation.” This makes army officers both judges and executioners, and past instances prove that corporations have the ears of these officers who are always too ready to do their bidding. We regard these rules as ominous—a startling extension of the military power and a menace to liberty. Had they been in force during the Pullman and railroad strikes at Chicago, or the trolley strike in Brooklyn,we don’t see how open warfare could have been averted. The sons of those who tracked tyranny and oppression from Lexington to Yorktown will not submit to be shot down by military satraps at the behest of soulless corporations whose only shrine is gold, and whose only god is greed. But this is not the worst of it. Sharpshooters are to be employed to pick out and shoot down in crowds any who “may have fired upon or thrown missiles at troops.” This makes irresponsible soldiers and untrained and excitable militia arbiters of human life. In the midst of wild excitement it is only necessary for a sharpshooter to believe or imagine that some one has fired at the soldiers or has even thrown something at them to warrant him in shooting down an American citizen. Have we reached a point when human life is so very cheap? Monarchies, despotisms—kings, czars, sultans —confer no such power upon their military subordinates. When free people sit like scourged and hungry doge upon their haunches, and

, permit the imps of greed in the name ! of party to nominate their legislative i and executive authorities, they are but | sowing the wind and may whet their ! sickles for the reaping of the whirlwind. Under these new rules promulgated by the hangman of Buffalo, the very next labor disturbance will precipitate the catastrophe reformers have so long seen and labored to avert. —Progressive Farmer. A FINE PAIR. Two of a Kind That Stole Everything tn Sight. Mr. Taylor, the defaulting treasurer of South Dakota, who stole everything that was not nailed down, got a sentence of five years in the penitentiary. He is a republican.—Lima Times-Dem-ocrat. Mr. Hemingway, the defaulting treasurer of Mississippi, who stole everything that was not nailed down, got a sentence of five years in the penitentiary. He is a Democrat. Taylor, the republican, stole over $367,000. Hemingway, the democrat, stole over $317,000, but was limited to that amount because there wasn’t anything else for him to steal. A brace of fine ducks, representing the old parties that smell to heaven with rottenness. It is really amusing to see these old bawds making faces at each other. —Lima Sentinel. Why This Change? We clip the following from the .Independent, Lincoln, Neb., to show that President Cleveland's secretary of agriculture was not always the rank goldbug that he now professes to be. We ask our populist papers to give this a wide circulation. Vice-President Stevenson was elected in 1878 as a greenbacker and voted with Weaver and others for Hendrick Wright, the greenback candidate for speaker. Now comes the proof that Secretary Morton was a greenbacker and ran for governor on the same ticket with Ben. Butler. Why this change, Mr. Morton? J. Sirloin, the great secretary of agriculture, mouth farmer and wind pudding of Arbor Lodge, is out in a letter telling how much more valuable a melted gold dollar is than a similar silver dollar. He does not say anything about the law’s discrimination in favor of gold and against silver. He is trying to prove the “intrinsic value” of gold as superior to all things else. He has taken a different view of things since 1880, when he was a candidate on the following: Greenback ticket, national: For president, Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts; for vice-president, A. M. West, of Mississippi; presidential electors, J. M. Patterson, of Cass county; Patrick Hines, of Greely county; R. R. Schick, of Seward county; W. H. Ashby, of Gage county; H. S. Aley, of Cedar county. State: For governor, J. Sterling Morton, of Otoe county; for lieutenant-governor, L. C. Page, of Lancaster county; for state treasurer, D. W. Clancy, of Cumming county; for state auditor, Gustav Beneke, of Douglas county; for secretary Of state, H. E. Bonesteel, of Knox county; for attorney-general, C. S. Montgomery, of Douglas county; for commissioner of public lands, Nels O. Alberts, of Clay county; for superintendent of public instruction, A. N. Dean, of Franklin county; for regent State university, D. T. Scoville,, of Thayer county; for congress, first district, Charles H. Brown, of Douglas county.—People’s Party Paper.

“Has Liberty Fled?” Asks the State Guard of Pueblo, Colo., to which Col. Norton, of the Chicago Sentinel, replies: “No, she has not exactly fled. She was thrown out of the front door, kicked down stairs, pitched head first into the gutter, and the last seen of her, with battered face and blackened eyes, she was hauled up in a municipal police court on a charge of vagrancy, fined for contempt of court and sent to the workhouse till she could find friends enough to bail her out or pay her fine. She’s there yet.” Our government is now conducted solely for tihe benefit of “foreign Investors” and Its financial policy dictated by the English money power.

TO EUGENE V. DEBS. Sensational Letter Addressed to the Prisoner by Texas Populists. The text of a telegram to Debs, sent by the State Populists is: “To Eugene V. Debs and your associates, now in Woodstock Jail, Illinois: —We, the populists of Texas, in mass convention assembled at Fort Worth, August. 6,1895, recognizing the fact that you are now in prison for no crime committed by you, but for your defense of humanity, right, liberty and justice to the toilers of this great nation; having been placed where you now are by injustice, without trial by jury, at the dictation of the money power, against the constitution of the United States of America, we hereby tender you our heartfelt sympathy and bid you be of good cheer, for your letter, for which we thank you kindly, speaks with more force and power with you in prison than you could if here in person. We therefore pledge you our united support in the restoration of this government to the original constitution given us by our forefathers over 100 years ago. This we mean, and this we intend, by the help of a Divine Providence now, no matter what the cost or method to be adopted. We regret the cause that has led us to this action, but are determined that the cause shall be removed, for we know that under it no liberty for the wealth producers of this country can exist. Bidding you to be hopeful, we are fraternally yours for a government for and by the people. Unanimously adopted by a rising vote. J. M. Mallett, Chairman. G. B. Harris, Sec. The Social Order and Ilnrinony, Reader, read and ponder over the following headlines that adorn the Chicago Times-Herald of the 19th Inst.: “Are up in Arms—Suburban Merchants Object to Low Rates to ChicagoMeans a Loss of Trade—Big Effort Coming to Force Railroads to Raise Fares —Rockford Takes the Lead — Storekeepers There Gained Concessions, so Aurora, Joliet and Other Places are in Line. Wouldn’t that kill ye? The city merchants and the country merchants fighting to see who shall pluck the geese. Country merchants demanding higher fare so their victims can’t get away from them and leaguing with the railroads to skin ’em! The little fellows claim they have a natural right to make profits off the people, and they must not be allowed to spend their money where they please! Ain’t it rich? The country merchant believes in “protection”—but not to his patrons. They are only geese to be plucked. The city merchants in this case have the morals on their side, however Immoral their object. For years there has been a howl going up from the people for lower railroad fares, and now there is arrayed against it the very business men who have made their living off these same long-suffering people. It will make but little difference how it comes out, for the people will be robbed either way, but one of two things will happen. If the railroads raise the rates the big department stores will put in at these towns a colossal branch and run the little fellows out, and if the rates are lowered they will do it by giving better prices than the little ones can afford. The little chaps may squirm and squeal and kick, but their names will all be Dennis bye and bye. But such harmony, such order, such conconcord! And this is called civilization! —Appeal to Reason. if He Had Walked. In the Harvey-Horr debate, Horr claimed that he had traveled, in the last few years, in thirty-seven states, and had seen no poverty such as Harvey claimed existed. Horr traveled in a Pullman car and roomed at $lO-a-day hotels. Had he ridden in cattle-cars, or footed it, and fed on hand-outs, his story might have been different. Horr is like the infidel or agnostic who does not believe anything he has not seen or known from personal observation. If we limit all knowledge to the little we can each acquire from our own observation, we shall die very ignorant, indeed. Horr is representative of his class, and just as heartless. Because they have not seen, and have not tried to see, they, therefore, do not and will not see—they will not believe. Blind are those who will not see.— Kansas Agitator.

WHA T THE NON-INTEREST BOND WILL DO.