Newspaper Page Text
4
THE ATL ANTI AN
good and valiant knights and appear to us in our struggle and bat
tle for their rights and cause. The Atlantian wants to see a St.
George, and it assures you that the appearance of such a knight in
such a form will enable it to do much more for the cause of labor and
add to its strength in fighting the battle of common humanity.
Let organized labor and the common people be the twins, Castor
and Pollux, and see how readily we will respond to their assistance;
let the white steeds of your riding represent the truth of your integrity
and the purity of your cause; let your banner be the emblem of labor,
and we promise you to win the battle for labor—carry the day for
your cause.
Our cutlass is keen, our spear is sharply pointed and our shield
is thrust-proof, but we are doing battle against great odds, and while
our courage never lags nor our faith grows dim, your assistance will
spur us to greater exertion, and enable us to carry the enemy’s ram
parts. It was the sympathy that St. George’s appearance represented
that did more good in accomplishing the result than his active partici
pation in the assault upon the walls of Jerusalem, and it is this sym
pathy and appreciation of our labors for you that we want and need.
Will you give it to us? If so, we will give you the credit and glory
that is yours.
Labor and Prosperity
Mr. Taft hopes that Mr. Wilson will not call an extra session of
congress after his inauguration and gives as his reason that he wants
to see the prosperity that the country is now enjoying continue as
long as possible.
Just here we would like to ask Mr. Taft who it is that is enjoying
this prosperity? The money interests, the trusts, the capitalists or
the producers?
The wages of labor are the same today that they were when he
went into office. Have the prices of the necessities of life remained
the same? Has the cost of production increased with the increase
of prices? Has a dollar as much purchasing power today as it had
four years ago ?
These are questions for Mr. Taft and the prosperity howlers to
answer, but they can’t show where labor has been the recipient of this
loudly heralded prosperity. Labor gets the same old wage but his
wage does not purchase the same amount of goods as it did in the past
few years.
Mr. Taft is a standpatter and the standpatters are responsible
for the increase of the price of goods that labor is compelled to buy.
They are responsible for the reason that they are high protectionists,
putting so high a tariff on the products of this country that practi
cally prohibits the importing of goods from other countries. The
government is not benefited by this high protection, neither is labor
but the interests are. They add to the cost of production the amount
of tariff that is placed on the goods and the consumer pays the price
and the trusts and the interests pocket the profits plus the tariff.
We are willing to admit that the money powers have been blessed
with prosperity, but as to labor, well its prosperity is a dream. It
will continue to be a dream as long as American industries are pro
tected by the high wall that the tariff has placed around them.
It is said by those who have made it a study that average working
man’s family yearly pays $119 for the protection of American indus
tries and that only about $21 of that goes into the treasury and the
other $98 goes into the pockets of the trust members.
It is also said that any American made article can be bought on
foreign shores from 20 to 25 per cent, cheaper than it can be bought
here at home. This after the American manufacturer has paid the
freight to that country.
Sure there is prosperity in these United States, but it is going out
of the pocket of labor and into the pockets of the protected interests.
Labor has seen none of this prosperity and never will as long as the
policies advocated by Mr. Taft prevail.
What the people of this country want is a tariff for revenue only
and for an economically administered government. If this brings the
products of pauper labor from other countries it can’t hurt the indus
tries that compete with this pauper labor on their own shores after
paying the freight on the goods to those shores.
No, labor has listened to the dulcet tones of spell binders, paid
by the interests, until they believe that this country would go to
the everlasting bow wows if our “infant industries” were not pro
tected with a high tariff and they have listened until they have listened
themselves next door to the alms house.
Yes, we have prosperity, but who is getting the benefit of this
prosperity ?—Ex.
The Next Congress Should Repeal
the 14th and 15th Amendments
Now that the Democratic party has captured the Senate, the
Lower House and the presidency, the very best thing that they can do
for the future welfare of this country is to repeal the 14th and 15th
amendments of the constitution of the United States. These two
amendments are the ones that give the negroes the right to vote,
and in the States that allow it the right to eat in the same restaurants
with the white, to stop at the same hotels and to ride in the same cars.
Not only would the repealing of these two amendments be for the good
of the country, but it would be the best thing that was ever done
for the negroes themselves.
The right to vote was given the negroes at the time he had ho more
idea of suffrage than does the chimpanzee today. They had no idea
of suffrage then and comparatively few of them have the correct idea
today. Voting with the great majority of them is merely a matter of
prejudice, dollars, or as the “publican” bosses told them.
Few of the negroes when voting consider the welfare of this coun
try. Just to be the equal of the white man is the desire of a large
class of them. To emulate the antics of Tuskegee’s burr head educa
tor, stop at the high priced northern hotels and to ride in Pullman
cars would be equal to a seat in glory. The acts of this one negro has
caused more strife in this southland by the coons that try to ape his
doings, than the average man has any idea of and the right for him to
act as he does forcing himself among white people on terms of equal
ity, was given him by the 14th and 15th amendment of the constitution
of the United States.
If these two amendments were repealed, hotel men could refuse to
let him stop in their houses, railroads could refuse to let him ride in
cars with the whites, and a lot of strife would be prevented.
We don t know if the repealing of these amendments will even be
attempted, but we do say if the democratic party would repeal them
they would be doing the very best thing they could for this country
and the best tiling that could be done for the negroes. If they were
repealed there would soon lie no solid south because the fear of negro
domination would forever disappear. There would be two white par
ties in this country and each would strive to do that which would he
the best for all the people all the time.
the democratic party has ever claimed to be the white man’s
party. Let them prove it now by repealing these two amendments and
make it in reality as well as theoretically a white man’s party.—Ex.
The Hearts of Men
* " ttuuermg minstrel sang Ins song and told his
story by the yuletide board in the manor hall, and master and men,
mistress and maids wept and laughed together, is gone forever. The
sage, the story-teller, the singer of songs no longer stops on his gypsy
way to make us merry and strengthen the bond of brotherhood with
^ n S ‘ r ? Ut int ° ° Ur h ° mes there comes a guest, as gay, as sad, as
till ot human sympathy and human fire as ever sat by a blazing
hearth and strummed his battered harp. The story-writer touches
the source of human emotion m the swarming life about him, and sends
into a million homes his message of laughter and of tears. Ex