Power Of Government Vs. Power Of Trusts

When a condition arises in any form of government that tends to the overthrow of that government, it is the sovereign right for those who execute the functions of state to take cognizance of the fact and by virtue of the authority vested in them to take such steps as are necessary for the suppression of rebellion. There exists somewhere in all governments power to act under such circumstances. If it did not exist and could not be executed then that government ceases to be a government of authority but is in a chaotic condition of legal anarchy. Sovereignty carries with it absolute, unrestrained, unrestricted and uncontrolled authority. Its power cannot be bound nor circumscribed; it is absolute in the domain where it acts. If this were not true governments would cease to exist. It is manifest from the utterances of the chief executive of the State of Pennsylvania and the apparent helplessness of the president of the United States that this condition exists today. Both the state and federal governments acknowledge that they are powerless in the hands of the coal barons, and equally powerless in the hands of the Steel and all other trusts. The menace to the welfare of the people that presents itself during the present coal famine is as far reaching and as dangerous as any revolution ever inaugurated. This is not a partisan problem only in so far as it emphasizes the fact that the republican party, which at the present time is executing, or is supposed to execute, the authority of the United States and that of the state of Pennsylvania, is owned, controlled and dominated by these capitalistic combinations who control the supply, monopolize the product and dictate the price of every necessity of life. The force out of legitimate employment thousands of our best wealth producers. They enhance prices, reduce wages and write the terms of their own contracts. They paralyze opportunity, assassinate labor, and hold both the producer and the consumer in their soulless and uncompromising grasp. They levy tribute on every man, woman and child in the land. They make a hovel of the poor man's home, and give to his posterity the heritage of brutal ignorance and apathetic slavery. They control legislation, escape taxation and evade their share of the burdens of government while their agents construct tariffs in the halls of congress to suit their selfish ends and greedy purposes. They regulate foreign and interstate commerce. The stagnate industry and imperil trade. And these are a sample of the men who say they own the coal mines by divine right and neither state nor national governments can control or curtail their power or purpose. Is it not about time that the people should elect a party to power that is pledged to see that the majesty and sovereignty of our nation is not trampled in the dust under their feet?

The lengths to which brazen republican ripperism in Detroit stands ready to go is finely illustrated by the incident of last Sunday, when a political meeting was held in a Polish church immediately following mass, for the purpose of instructing the Polish voters how they are to vote at the primaries and where they can secure a job after voting, provided they vote right. This is in keeping with the stockade meeting of some days ago in which the commissioner of public works rounded up a thousand of the employees of the department and had Tom Navin tell them how they must vote, if they desire to hold their jobs as ordinary laborers in the employ of the city. These meetings show how totally devoid of the sense of the eternal fitness of things these rippers have become. They have no regard for anything except the forwarding of their own disreputable political schemes. But the people seem to stand it and take it all as a matter of course. They may be heard from, however, in November.

Congressman Smith still keeps up his reputation as a cheerful political liar. He claims to find much enthusiasm for the republican congressional candidate and predicts that he will be elected by four thousand majority. After all, when you stop to think that he might just as well have made it ten thousand, we should be satisfied. Our Hank says he finds much enthusiasm among the young men and they remain to discuss the whoppers the speakers tell after the meetings are over. It is not surprising, probably, that they remain to discuss these fairy tales told by the Hon. Hank. Editor Helber is familiar with these and his giving them publicity had much to do in killing Hank off for renomination. He would better be careful that they do not operate in the same way on Candidate Townsend.

Today, in some sections of the country, it requires nearly one-half of a laboring man's wages to buy the coal with which his meals are cooked. Still the republicans talk about a full dinner pail and letting well enough alone. They talk of prosperity and insist that they should be left in power to continue the good times. But how can a laboring man have a full dinner pail when half of his wages is spent for coal with which to cook his meals? There is prosperity for certain classes of the people, those for instance who own the coal mines by divine right and others engaged in especially favored industries, but for thousands of the working men the so-called prosperity of the present is a mockery.

Charles Braun, of Ann Arbor town, democratic candidate for county treasurer, is the right man for this important office. He has the requisite ability, is personally clean and honest and stands well with all who know him. The public money of Washtenaw will be in absolutely safe hands with Mr. Braun in the treasurer's office.

No prosperity can be endured that does not spring up among the great-industrial masses of the people. To add to the fortunes of the millionaires of the country cannot bring relief: It will only add to our distress.

John L. Duffy has made an able and wholly satisfactory prosecutor and his work was recognized by his party by another nomination by acclamation. The republicans, because of this satisfactoriness, did not name any one to oppose him. This is a high compliment to his ability and faithfulness.

Philip Blum has served six years in the position of deputy county clerk and county clerk and it is entirely truthful to say that the county never had a better or more faithful servant in either of these important places. He is strictly honest, always courteous, knows his business and is always on hand to attend to it. What more does the public want in the clerk's office?

The entire fitness of the democratic candidate for sheriff in this county, Joseph Gauntlett, is conceded by every good citizen who knows him. A very great affliction has befallen Mr. Gauntlett in the death of his wife which sad event has materially interfered with his campaign, but his friends should and will see to it that every vote intended for him is gotten to the polls. Mr. Gauntlett will make a sheriff of whom the county will be proud. He is the kind of a man who will administer the office solely in the interests of the objects for which it was created.

was one of the prominent Lansing republicans who attended the Durand meeting at Lansing last Wednesday night. He has known Mr. Durand for twenty-five years, he says, and he believes he would make a splendid governor. He says farther: "He is a man of character, brains, courage and conscience. He has always been an exceedingly modest man, and has never been prominent in politics, in that he never sought an office. Mr. Durand is essentially free from the taint of any machine, and combines those qualities which distinguish the gentleman and the scholar. He has the courage to do what he believes is right and the brains to know what he ought to do as governor of the state. If he has not I am wofully mistaken in my estimate of the man." Similar expressions are heard from republicans all over the state, but many of them do not come out as publicly as has Judge Cahill in expressing their opinions, but they will support Durand just the same.

L.T. Durand, placed at the head of the democratic ticket by the State Central Committee, stands for each and every principle of the democratic state platform and affirms and endorses the views of his brother, Judge Durand, in the latter's letter of acceptance. The change in the head of the ticket rendered necessary by the unfortunate health of the judge, alters not one jot or tittle the issues of the campaign. The same foe is in the field against good government, opposed by the same element - the people, who are struggling to be free from railroad rule, ring bosses, a dictated tax commission and a governor subject to the visions of lobby-influenced legislators and night-prowling promoters of ripperism. The campaign can go on without interruption. A general has fallen before now while rallying his forces to victory, and those forces have won victory over his body with another in command. So, with L.T. Durand at the front, shall we win a people's victory this fall over boodleism and government by railroads and ring bosses if the people are honest and true to themselves. - Monroe Democrat.

The action of Commissioner Moreland, of Detroit, in rounding up the hundreds of employees of the department of public works in a stockade, locking them in and then, in conjunction with Tom Navin, telling them they must vote for certain men for office if they expect to hold their jobs, shows the depths to which ripperism has reduced public employees in that city. In other words, the price of holding a laborer's position in Detroit is the surrender of one's right to vote as his conscience dictates. In order to hold even so humble a position as that of a day laborer in the employ of the city a man must surrender his right to vote to the ripper commissioner of public works who holds his position, not by the consent of the people of Detroit, but by the grace of a boss-ridden and boodle legislature sitting at Lansing, assisted by a night-shirt governor in whose interest the primaries of the state were debauched as never before in Michigan history. If the good people of Detroit do not resent such high-handed efforts to enslave the employees of the city, then the metropolis deserves to be ruled from Lansing through ripper legislation and the creatures of the same who hold office by virtue of this kind of legislation.

The state campaign in Michigan this fall, according to the principles of the democratic platform, is one in the interest of cleaner and better government alone. The platform demands nothing of a partisan nature. It is simply an effort to bring the government back to the people from whom it has been wrested by the forces of corruption and greed. The government of Michigan today is not the servant but the master of the people. It is not a public utility but a corrupt machine used to further the interests of corporate power and purchased legislators. A weak and spineless governor, personally not corrupt, but so vacillating as to be nothing more than a puppet in the hands of designing and unscrupulous rascals who surround him, aids and abets these representatives of greed and dishonor. The picture of this governor being called out of bed in the darkest hours of night by Tom Navin, formerly of Adrian and Jackson, now the boss of Detroit, to sign the ripper bill by which the city of Detroit was deprived of its rights of local government, while in the distance is seen the sinuous form of Frank C. Andrews, now under sentence of fifteen years at Jackson for bank wrecking by which he robbed 8,000 poor people of the savings of a lifetime, waiting to receive his commission, is one for the gods. But by such creatures is the state of Michigan governed and against them and their infamous acts is the fight being made by the democracy and the honest citizens of the state who believe the government should belong to the people themselves. The demand is that laws be placed upon the statute book through which the people may regain control of governmental affairs and again make the government of the state a public utility. To this end a primary election law is demanded by which the people may once more be able to select honest and capable men to place upon the ticket for the various offices, men who will serve the public rather than the corporate interests which are now in the habit of buying nominations for their corrupt tools.. Likewise the incorporation into the statutes of the state of the initiative and referendum by which the people may initiate legislation in their own interest and reject that passed by the legislature which is not designed for the public good. By such means the democracy of the state and thousands of other good citizens are striving to take the state administration from the hands of the disgraceful and corrupt representatives of misrule and rascality and restore it to the people, where it belongs. The voters have the opportunity of correcting these evils which have so humiliated all decent citizens. Will they do it or will they continue the present scandalous regime which has left to the people only the husks of control of public affairs?

Reward where reward is earned. Honor where honor is due. Compensate where compensation is just. Philip Blum, democratic nominee for county clerk, has made one of the best clerks Washtenaw county has ever honored with the position. He is always on duty and performs his work in an intelligent, efficient and business-like way. He is courteous and obliging. His honesty and economy in the administration of his office cannot be questioned. He is now asking the support of this county for re-election. It would be a just reward for honesty and efficiency in office to re-elect him county clerk.