What is Freedom?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7907, 24 August 1905, Page 4

What is Freedom?

OwiD Ulster, author of "The Vir ,'inign,' makes a scathing iml ctmeni a the columns of the Saturday Even,ng. Post on the question o> unionism as applied to employers and employes It would be well if the extremists to l>e foun-1 on lioth sides in <ew Zc.iL.nd would take Um lesson -,o hcnrt- He writes : "One morning mr Senate was to consider a certain imiM>rtant Bill. This 811 was iispleasiih; to li.' .1. B. Rockefeller—eason enough to Mr Rockefeller that ,l should not fre passed ; and he thought it Would lie rqasyn enough or the Senate. He sent a telegram, vhich ttie Senators found upon 4113 r lesks, saying "Do not pass t' .fc Hill, nd signed with his name. The Senate passed the Bill. Another morning >ui Government were requestai Jjy the .'riiters' Union to stop employing a nan called Miller. Why? Mr Millc>. .ras satisfactory to Government ; ihv discharge him 1 Because Mr Mil;r -was displeasing to the union ; he xas a seal). Well, the Government ontinued to employ Mr Miller. l'ra> stop a moment and think of these hings : compare the two cases. In ach the Government are iniiuliliu .heir business ; in each the business .ispleasfs somebody, and this someOdy thinks his own individual dis leisure ruison enough to stop aGo cvwnmjnt. This somebody in each ase is a" trust—Standard Oil nno rinters* Union —Union and 'I rust lie ng two words for on® thi-rg, an organisation for the sake of power. Both rusts a.e so swelkd with powei that they count themselves lpore imortsnt thai seventy millions of I" 6 " 0 •le, l-ijgc-r th.,n tin? I nit'.d States, .nat is the piain Knglish of it. in heir purpose (and ihjir expectation. 0 swinj a Government for their owi, tivute ends there's not a. hair > rtadth difference between them. i ave no Kin,; Georgo to tax my tea . ithvUt my represenUu.on ; hut 1 "o 'ire ifi Oil Trust, a Tobacco Trust nd so forth 1 have no German Km--e.'-ir to say that I shall serve ii .9 army ; but 1 do have the w a lliiiH 1 who sa>s 1 shall nut paint ,iy own fenci except in the way thai i» pleaseS that I cannot shoe my'owi , o rw except in the way that he pieces, tiat "I cannot sliinglo my roof, .lasler my wall. Solder my pinup,ant .orse than all, that I cannot e\fn rork without his permission,- cannol ire jnvseM to anv railroad, mill, or .line : ; if I dare do, h«-'ll have «» tar»ei out, my head broken, m> od. ti-in with dynamite- That is Jii: h;eat. and he makes it good in evry Stat,' of the Union- -Is there much of the Ire- about that ? Is tha' audi let t.-r thin U'ing hanged foi rp. s li by Kin): George ? Oi course, ir/an sation is not only ine\ita!»l«', i' ; 'good—g«Hjtl lor tie llocr.efell-i•> i.d iir ;.ll Ihe r.s: oi us too. wheth •t we liol.-l a pick or a pen. But irC Colics the old st»r\ ' l ' ope, oil as despotism, old as liunir.d : No man can stand an overdo* f |.jw«-r. It [oisons his heart, it ;netls his head, h - biCoun s a tyiant lis niine niiiy lie Hoc dellei or I.a our Union . they're twins nfurswal owing an oveniose of i>ower, all enc • IK'S of liberty. We ar<- dealing *'"■ b3 Rockefellers ; we shall t -ach th.'ii heir place and keep them to it. But e have not yet ..calt with laboui i,lion:. So far. we have merely hml d Jl.em as antidotes to the llocki-ell-rs, which they aie not. We sav. heir wholes-flue influence, their l n oubted ilistitv. their necessity. Bui ive sp>iled them. We coddled them .vith vcr< n; sympathy. »'e blindly upleld ihoii. we gave them our sentimental countenance, »>• took then .ide without inquiry, until they lmaoine tiems»'lves al.-ove criticism, sa--fed characters, privilegwl pets, just s Uockefeller did : and so we tirwi hem (ne morning orlei'ing the '"O" .ei niwnt to disc Urge Miller the iCib at Washington, while at I rip,'le creek they dynamite thirteen i miners because -they are scats lo such things has unionism come Ix'l ,is clearlv understand the significance Of the scab. He is the man who needs our backing now. lie stands tor l»>eriv, the right to «e, the right to work, every right that we have al 'inherited in the land of the free-. As the Patriots stood against Mor-e a«d his stamp AC in 1776. so in 1904 does the scab staid beside unionism .and dynamite. Hens the human symbol of protest against tyranny.''