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JULY 29j90'4!
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Mr ta'T
tion o the, .vast sums which the Amalgamated
took from them and "from which others took la
lesser amounts, hut hy equally flagrant methods,
but will demand the overthrow of the' "system"
itself. . .
It must he admitted that Mr. Lawson draws
a terrible picture even in his brief Introductory
diaper; and yet, however terrible the picture may
appear, it is no" worse in appearance than a large
number of people have suspected as to the real
character of the "system" that is now preying up
on them. It will, however, bo advantageous to
bave the story told by one who seems to have had
intimate dealings with the chiefs of the "sys
tem." Mr. Lawson explains that the "system" is
"a process or device for the incubation of wealth
from the people's savings in banks, trust and
public funds." He says that through the work
ings of this "system" during the last twenty
years "there has grown up in this country a set
of colossal corporations in which unmeasured
success and continued immunity from punishment
have bred an insolent disregard of law, of com
mon morality, and of public and private right,
together with a grim determination to hold onto,
at all hazard, the great possessions they have
gulped or captured." He declares that through
this "system" billions of dollars have been taken
from millions of people and these dollars have
been given over to a "a score or two of men with
power to use and enjoy them as absolutely as
though these billions had been earned dollar by
dollar by labor of their bodies and minds." He
declares that because of Amalgamated alone, to
his personal knowledge, more than $100,000,000
were lost by the people; that more than thirty
suicides resulted; that twenty previously reput
able citiens were made prison convicts. Mr. Law-
son pays a high tribute to the stories told by Henry
D. Lloyd in his work "Wealth against Common
wealth" and to Miss Ida M. Tarbell in her recent
sketches; but he says that however thorough these
writers may have been in gathering the facts,
however relentless their pens and vivid their
pictures, they dealt but with things that are dead.
Mr. Lawson proposes to deal with the living pres
ent and it is not at all difficult to believe that
he is determined to be very thorough in dealing
with this subject, because in his introductory
chapter he lays out a wide range for himself. Un
questionably the,. reading public will await with
great interest the disclosures of Mr. Lawson.
The people will undoubtedly be greatly in
terested in the chapter which Mr. Lawson de
scribes in advance in this way:
I shall devote some space to pointing out
the evils and dangers of the latter-day meth
ods of corrupting law-makers, and show how
one entire Massachusett's legislature, with
the exception of a few members, were dealt
with as openly as the fishmongers procure
their stock-in-trade upon the wharves; how
upon the last day of the legislature, because
their deferred cash payments were not
promptly forthcoming, they turned, and made
necessary the hurried departure for foreign
shores of a great lawyer and his secretary,
with bags of quickly gathered gold, and all
evidences of the crimes committed and at
tempted; how after the ship arrived at an
island in foreign seas the great lawyer's dead
body received hurried burial, and his secre
tary's was later dropped, with weights about
his feet, to the ocean's depths; and how ever
since the natives whisper among, themselves
their gruesome suspicions.
Another chapter that will unquestionably be
awaited with interest is described by Mr. Lawson
in this way:
I shall devote a chapter to the doings of
certain financial reputation sandbaggers and
blackmailers; show how through their agencies
they hold up corporations and their managers
for large sums, which upon being paid start ,.
into motion a perfected system for the false
moulding of public opinion for the purpose of
making more easy the plundering of the peo
ple. I shall photograph the men and draw
accurate diagrams of the machinery through
which their nefarious trade is carried on.
Even those who maintain that a court sh"ould
be above criticism will be interested in the chap
ter described by Mr. Lawson in this way:
I shall draw a picture of two dress-suit
cases of money being slipped across the table
at the foot of a judge's bench in the court
room, from, Its custodian to its new owners,
upon the rendering of a court decision; and
I shall, show how the new owners frustrated
The Commoner.
a plot whoreby thoy wore to be waylaid and
the bags of money recovered.
Those who Imagine that In supporting the
republican party in 189C thoy were in fact waging
a battle In support of "national honor," as woll
as those who followed the democratic banner to
defeat, will be interested in the chaptor de
scribed by Mr. Lawson in this way:
I shall deal with a bit of the nation's his
tory in which within a fow days of the national
election of 1896 a hurry-up call for additional
funds to the extent of $5,000,000 was so
promptly met as to overturn the people In
five states and theroby preserve the destinies
of the republican party, of which I am and
have always been a member.
There can be little doubt that the Boston
financier is well informed as to the methods of
the trust system and it may be that the dis
closures ho will make will serve to arouse the
American people to the Importance of protecting
their government and their property from the
iniquitous "system" that has grown up in this
country and which unless checked at an early
day, must result In the complete destruction of
popular rule and the enthronement of a plutocracy
that can be displaced only by revolution.
JJJ
rianifest Destiny.
One of the most interesting of the books pub
lished by Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Is Theodore
Roosevelt's book on Thomas H. Benton. It ap
peared In the Statesman's Series and was copy
righted in 1886. In this book the presidont of the
United States gave special attention to a plnaso
which was much used just before the civil war,
but not much used afterwards until it was em
ployed as an excuse for the exploitation of the
Philippines. On page 40, Mr. Roosevelt said:
"Among such people Benton's views and
habits of thought became more markedly
western and ultra-American than over, espe
cially in regard to our encroachments upon
the territory of neighboring powers. The gen
eral feeling in the west upon this last sub
ject afterwards crystallized into what became
- known as the 'Manifest Destiny' Idea, which,
reduced to its simplest terms, was: that It
was our manifest destiny to swallow up the .
land of all adjoining nations who were too
weak to withstand us; a theory that forth
with obtained immense popularity among all
statesmen of easy international morality."
At that time the author did not like the doc
trine of "manifest destiny;" his conscience would
not permit him to Indorse a policy of swallowing
up even adjoining nations merely because they
were too weak to withstand us. How could ho
have condemned the doctrine more severely' than
he did Awhon he suggested that it became im
mensely' popular among "all statesmen of easy
international morality"?
It will be seen that it contained a moral
question as well as a political one. If it was
then immoral to swallow up the land of adjoin
ing nations who were too weak to withstand us, is
It now moral to cross an ocean seven thousand
miles wide and swallow up the land of nations
that do not adjoin us, merely because they were
too weak to withstand us?
On another page he spoke of this method of
securing land by conquest in even harsher terms.
He said: "This belligerent, or, more properly
speaking, piratical way of looking at neighboring
territory was very characteristic of the west,
and was' at the root of the doctrine of 'manifest
destiny' "
"Manifest destiny" at that time was a bellig
erent and piratical doctrine; can it be Christian
and benevolent now?
On page 266 of Mr. Roosevelt's book the au
thor very clearly outlined the difference between
the American method of expansion and the Eu
ropean policy of imperialism. He said:
'Of course no one would wish to see these
or any other settled communities now added
to our domain by force; we want no unwilling
citizens to enter our Union; the time to have
" taken the lands was before settlers came Into
them. European nations war for the posses
sion of thickly settled districts which if con
auered will for centuries remain alien and
hostile to the conquerors; we, wiser n our
generation, have seized the waste solitude that
lay near us, the limitless forests and never
' r ending plains, and the valloys of the great,
lonely rivers; and have thrust our own sons'
. into them to take possession; and a score of
ycaVs after each conquest wo see the con
quered land teeming with a people that is one
with oursolves."
IIq recognized that it was contrary to thfc
principles of a republic to incorporate unwilling
citizens into the Union; ho recognized that people
taken by conquest would "for centuries remain
alien and hostllo to tho conquerors." If lie knew
this then, how could ho so forget his knowledge
of history as to think that tho Filipinos would
soon bo friends to tholr conquerors? Are we less
"wise" now than when ho wrote?
Attention is called to the chango that linn
come over tho presidont morely as an illustration
of the fact that republican policies today are in
violation of history and of human naturo, as well
as in violation of tho doctrfiies promulgated by
tho very same republicans before tho thirst for
empire ovcrcamo them?
When Mr. Roosovolt discussed the subject of
imperialism eighteen years ago he used American
languago to defend American principles; when
Mr. Roosovolt speaks as a republican president of
tho United States, exorcising in the Philippines
tho sa'mo power that tho king of England exer
cises In India, ho uses European languago to dc
fond European principles.
The President's Power.
The Lincoln, (Nob.) Journal, a republican
paper, declares that the big strike in the packing
houses "Is the result of a long contemplated effort
on the part of the big men controlling the pack
ing houses to defeat President Roosevelt for elec
tion." The Journal says that tho beef truat mag
nates have discovered that Mr. Roosevelt has
issued, through the department of Justice, an or
der that tho case against the beef trust bo taken
up by the supromo court Immediately after that
court convenes for the October term. Therefore
according to The Journal, tho beef trust magnutes
determined to punish Mr. Roosevelt by biluglng
on this great strike during the presidential cam
paign. Of course, this statement will be taken with
several grains of salt. Whatever may bo said
about Mr. Roosevelt, he is not "a man of mush."
It is not at all likely that ho will permit the
beef trust magnates to thus organize against him
without his resentment; and Mr. Roosevelt as
president of the United States, holds considerably
more power than all the trust magnates of tho
country put together.
If It be true that the beef trust magnates
are so seriously opposed to his election that thoy
would deliberately bring on a strike In their own
establishments, for the purpose of defeating Mr.
Roosevelt, then, Mr. Roosevelt unless ho bo,
as Bismarck said of Salisbury, "a wooden lath
painted to look like iron" will very speedily call
these trust magnates to time.
There remains upon the statute books an un
enforced law providing for the criminal prosecu
tion of men who conspire in restraint of trade.
No administration that fails to enforce the crimi
nal clause of tho Sherman anti-trust law can bo
said to bo waging a serious campaign against the
trust system.
If, however, the report made by the Lincoln
Journal bo true, then Mr. Roosevelt will certainly
defend himself. He can defend himself by ap-
pealing to the criminal clause of the anti-trust law4
If It be true that tho beef trust magnates hava
conspired to prevent the election of Mr. Roosei
velt, then Mr. Roosevelt has it in Ms power
immediately call every one of these magnates
timer He has it in his power to place every
of these men behind the bars.
The beef trust magnates care nothing for civiF
proceedings. They care nothing for tho injunc-
tion process. Like every human being, however
they are afraid of the criminal process.
Republican editors need not expect that they
will be able to make the people believe that thlg
packing house strike was brought about by the
beef trust magnates in the hope of defeating Mr,
Roosevelt, unless Mr. Roosevelt shall at a very
early day, proceed against these trust magnate,
through the criminal Indictment.
It is a very pretty story, as the Lincoln Jour
nal and other republican organs tell it; but the
story will not be accepted by an intelligent public,
unless Mr. "Roosevelt shall show signs of resent
ment. JJJ
The difference between Mr. Roosevelt the ex
pectant nominee,- and Mr. Roosevelt the nominee
in fact, is very plain. As nominee in fact he has
lost a great deal of that bubbling effusIveneW
that characterized him in the days of old. ' "
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