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"To hang workingmen by mobs in the absence of testimony to legally convict them.
"To drive the poor working classes into open mutiny against the laws, in order to secure their conviction and punishment afterward.
"These threats and diabolical teachings, I said, had been openly and boldly uttered by the great conspiracy—the solid Associated Press and monopolies of this country—for years, against the liberties of the poor, and the working man of America was as sensitive to the wrongs imposed upon him as would be the possessor of millions. I said that this was the seed from which had sprung the labor movement, and it was as natural as cause and effect. The workingmen present appeared to be very much interested. I never saw a more quiet, orderly, interested gathering of men—and I have spoken to a great many in my life—than was present on that occasion.
"I called their attention to the fact that labor paid for everything—paid all the expenses of Government, of the police, of the armies, of legislators, of Congressmen, of Judges—paid everything, Labor paid it all. That I, as a tenant—I used my own case as an illustration—says I: 'Now, the landlord claims that he pays the taxes. What are the facts? When I pay him rent I in fact pay the taxes. He claims that he makes all the repairs on the house, and paints it up, and does such things. He does not do anything of the kind. He is simply my agent to look after those things, and I, as his tenant, pay for it all. So it is with all tenants. I said that labor bears all the burdens but derives few of the benefits of our present civilization. I referred to the fact that it was through these methods that the working people, who produced all the wealth, were kept poor, and being poor they were ignorant; that the wealth, were kept poor, and being poor they were ignorant; that our school teachers had yet to learn the fact that the great need of the people was more material force before it would be possible for them to become amenable to the influences of educational forces; that ignorance was the result of the poverty; that intemperance was the result of poverty, and for every man who was poor because he drank I could show twenty men who drank because they were poor. I said that this poverty, this discord, this commotion in the civil-
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