The Beast

13. The Beast and Reform

c 151 d S O ENDED the great conspiracy of the corporations of Colorado in the elections of 1904. And with the triumph of that conspiracy, the government of Colorado changed from a democracy to a plutocratic oligarchy. I saw it then; I have seen it more clearly since. I saw that the people of Colorado were not free citizens, but enfranchised serfs. They could be killed by their masters with impunity, and the jury would “hang.” As a rule, they could elect no man to a political office unless he served their masters—and my own election was merely “the exception that proved the rule.” If they rose, in mass, to vote for an eight-hour law, and the Legislature passed such a law, their masters, through the mouth of the Supreme Court, declared it unconstitutional. If they rose again to pass a constitutional amendment permitting such a law, their masters, through the Legislature, refused to pass it. If they rebelled against this tyranny , and went on strike for their constitutional rights, and were THE BEAST AND REFORM C H A P T E R X I I I T h e Be a s t c 152 d lawless in their opposition to lawlessness, their masters, through the Governor, called out the militia, suspended the last pretence of justice , and drove them from the state. The citizen of Colorado had no more right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” than a yellow dog on the streets of Denver, unless he wore the corporation collar and tag, came to the whistle of his master and ate scraps from his hand. And it was not only that the American citizen in Colorado had no rights as against his masters; he had none as against the favoured slaves of his masters. I had seen it in numerous cases that had come to my court. For example: a junk dealer had been employing boys to steal bars of lead from box cars, and after trying the boys I advised the prosecution of their employer. He retained a corporation lawyer to defend him before a justice of the peace who aspired to a judgeship; and the case against him was dropped. Or again: a man was once accused in my court of seducing a little girl; the District Attorney declared he was a “regular degenerate”; and his lawyer offered to plead guilty if I would put him on probation. I refused to. A new lawyer was brought into the case—a corporation tool who was then County Attorney—and there was an immediate change in the fervour of the prosecution. The District Attorney reported that he had investigated the charge and found no evidence against the man; and I was compelled, under the law, to accept a “nolle,” which amounted to a dismissal of the case. This sort of thing prevailed even in divorce suits. It prevailed in every sort of suit that a corporation lawyer could be retained to defend before a corporation judge. Just as the king’s favourites in France, before the Revolution, were free to commit any outrage upon the citizens who had no court influence, so, in Colorado, the favourite who wore the livery of the corporations—or was able to retain a favourite who did—could spit upon the freeman, could debauch the son of the freeman, could violate the daughter of the freeman , and then appeal confidently to the corporation ministers of justice to protect him. Our boasted “government of the people, for the people and by the people” had passed away. T H E BE A S T A N D R E FOR M c 153 d Does this seem an intemperate statement of the facts? I hope not. It would distress me to have any one suspect me of impatience. I am trying to relate my experiences, in the Jungle, with the Beast, as dispassionately as possible, without any colour of prejudice, coolly, for the benefit of those of you who live sheltered private lives, purred to in prosperity. I do not raise my voice. If I say that you are not a citizen of a democracy but a sort of enfranchised house slave of an oligarchy of corporate wealth, I say it, believe me, in the politest tone conceivable . It is merely a condition which I wish you to recognize. If, after you have recognized it, you are...