shoes, and then buy the shoes bat-It, paying freight on the hides
east and freight on the finished product west, and all-the money
save the little for the hides goes east to build up big business there.
We are a vry foolish and short-sighted people.
Every member of congress who voted for the woolen schedule in
the Payne-Aldrich tariff voted to put a tax if $7 per capita on every
man, woman' and child in the United States. For what? There
is less than one-seventh of a sheep in this republic for each man,
woman and child. The wool tariff simply means that the consumers
of wool are taxed $49 per capita for every sheep raised in the coun
try. And we've heard men stand up and defend that sort of thing
and vote for the re-election of congressmen and senators who voted
for it. Wool tax per capita, $7; sheep per capita, one-seventh!
"Aren't we the easy marks? '
Now that the back- of smokle or as Ave meant to say, the boke of
smackle no, the smack of bokle no, no ! Now that, the smoke
of battle has cleared away, let's get down to business, wipe the
slate, clean and start all over again. And here's a contribution
to help provide the boiling oil for the first 'man who undertakes
to inject libelous personalities into the next campaign.
SHORT ARM JABS.
Of course LaFollette won out in 'Wisconsin,
would have it otherwise?
What honest man
Champ Clark is doubtless looking about for that span of mules
he expects soon to drive up Pennsylvania Avenue.
"1 have absolutely nothing to say," exclaimed Roosevelt at 11
o'clock last Tuesday evening. All of which reminds us of a certain
little boy on an historic occasion.
WoodroW Wilson is elected governor of New Jersey, which
means that the special interests are grooming him for the demo
cratic presidential nomination two years hence. Wilson will run
in the west about as well as a prohibition candidate in a distillery
'district or Jim Dahlman in University, Place. , .
Mr. Roosevelt will doubtless announce that the defeat of his
preferred candidate for governor ih New York is the resvdt of an
alliance between vice and crime. The fact is, it is a rebuke ad
ministered by an independent people tired to death of bloviation,
bulldozing and abuse.
One of the really bright spots in the congressional election is
the. triumph of Henry George, Jr., in New York City. It means
just one more member of congress' who can not be controlled by
privilege, and who will be a consistent fighter for the reforms that
really mean something to the common people. The trouble is
that too few men of the Henry George, Jr. calibre are elected to:
congress.
The democrats have won out handsomely all over the 'country.
The result of last Tuesday's election is merely to show that the
people are protesting against abuses heaped upon them. The pity
of it all is that the protest Ayill simply amount to nothing. The
result merely means that privilege has moved its lares and penates
from the republican domicile to the democratic domicile, and in
due time privilege will resume its old game of running the domi
nant party.
Roosevelt went over into Iowa and made an especial plea for his
friend Grilk, republican candidate for congress in the Eleventh
district. Ordinarily the . Eleventh is overwhelmingly republican.
The most noticeable effect of Roosevelt's pleas for Grilk was the
wonderful race made by Pepper, the democratic candidate. ' It
was the real pepper that Pepper put into the campaign, and Grilk
was defeated by a majority that is really brutal, considering all
the circumstances. The Strenuous .One should content himself
'with cursing judges who refuse to construe the law as the Strenu
ous One would have it.
. EARLY HISTORY OF LABOR
. -..By. the . Rev: "Charles Stelzle.; ,
History has been written around-the lives of kings and warriors.
The common people have scarcely been considered in the narratives
of the world's development, excepting as a back-ground to picture
the glory and the achievement of the ruling classes. There is,
therefore, very little of an authentic nature which tells the story
of the working people. Only here and there do we get a glimpse
into the lives of the masses.
While there was a civilization of a very superior kind centuries
before the Christian era, men had not learned the lesson of brother
hood. Indeed, even the noted philosophers of ancient times some
of whom the world' to-day delights to honor declared that a pur
chased laborer was better than a hiled one, and in accordance
with the principle half the" world lived in slavery when Christ was
born. Practically all the work of the world was done by slaves.
To labor with one's hands was regarded as dishonorable, and to be
a laboring man was to be placed on a level with the beast of the
field.
The wise men of the times said that the slave had no sold. It did
not matter whether that slave was a 'man of their own race.; the
mere fact that he was a slave took from him all claim to manhood
and citizenship. Whether men became slaves by birth, through
their sale when children by their parents, through the sale of them
selves because of poverty or debt, through capture in war or by
pirates, they were all classed alike they became less than men.
even though they had been endowed by -4 nature, with temperament
and ability far superior to their captors.
The struggle of the ancietn Israelites against the tyranny of Pha
raoh, presents a picture of the condition of labor in the earliest
days. For hundreds of years they sought release from an unendur
able situation, until Moses -'came as labor leader and emancipator,
with the oft-repeated demand: "Let my people go." While it is
true that the Jews themselves later became slave-holders, the Jew
ish law protected the slave from violence and from permanent
bondage. , - ;
Tn some countries and at certain periods the slave was given a
measure of privilege, sometimes . equal to that of the citizen, but
this privilege was usually limited and very rarely did it change
his economic condition. As a workingmari he was always a slave
the beast of burden and the helpless victim of his owner. The por
ter was chained to his master 's house. In the mines and in the fields
the slave Avas driven with the lash. To give his captors pleasure,
he was torn and mangled by wild beasts in the arena, as he strug
gled, weaponless, to defend himself. As a gladiator, he stabbed,
strangled or disemboweled his fellow-slave. When he became old
and worn out, or sick, he was turned out or killed, in accordance
with the advice of such as Cato, the moralist -sand reformer.:
The effect of such treatment upon the slaves themselves was bad
enough ; but the effect upon the masters was utterly degrading.
The morals of the ruling class became corrupt and kingdoms and
empires founded upon the system of slavery went down in ruins.
FOR SALE
r furnished iRooms
TTT
.ooiMsa
mdB
oara
The above signs, neatly printed
on heavy cardboard for sale at
THE WAGEWORKER
1795 "0" STREET
