The Labor enquirer. [volume], June 28, 1884, Image 1

About The Labor enquirer. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1882-1888

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VOLUME XV.-NO, 29.
UHMINIID GLORIOUSSUCCESS!
The Wonder of the People and the
Envy of] the Clothing Dealers !
When we decided npon the plan of giving away valuable presents
to our customers in all departments of our mammoth establishment, -
■'
we struck the public chord, as the crowds to be seen daily at our store
will testify. What man or boy of the present day but what is smart
enough to know that where they can get the most value for a dollar
is the place for them to trade. They know our house dpes give better
value for the money than any other house in the city. You ask, how
do they know? Why, simply because they have examined the goods
and prices of other dealers, and decided in our favor. Add to this the
fact that we always have something to give to them worth giving, and
you have the secret of our large trade.
r -FT |.~ V •j ■ ,
■ I" '~y ■
\f' Tea c ///£
The Waterbury Watch we give with every purchase of a Suit or
Overcoat at $l5 or oyer, has proven the most pleasing novelty in the
way of an advertising medium ever before introduced by us. You
take no chance in drawing a prize, but each customer who buys a Suit
. or Overcoat for $l5 or over gets a prize in the Bhape of a WATERBURY
WATCH. A DINNER BUCKET with every cash purchase of $3 or over in
our Men’s Department, A PAIR OF ROLLER SKATES with every cash
sale of $5 or over in our Boys’ and Children’s Department.
A. JACOBS & CO.,
i
Mammoth One : Price Clothing House,
. i
i
COR. FIFTEENTH AND LARIMER STREETS.
~ 1- 1
D)eijtiirg#% grande :
l^ep*nd«i
across the donlinerii
Connecting the Trunk Lines at Denver and Pueblo, with the Central Pacific at
Ogden. Its Main Lines and Numerous Branches extend to all the Prin
cipal, Cities, Mining Camps. Health and Pleasure Resorts, Coal
) .ands, Stock Regions and Agricultural Sections of Colo
rado, L T tah and New Mexico. Solid Trains, with
PULLMAN SLEEPERS, through with
out change between
DENVER AND OGDEN,
DENVER AND LEADVILLE,
DENVER AND KANSAS CITY.
MAGNIFICENT SCENERY, ELEGANT EQUIPMENT, PULLMAN BUFFET SLEEPERS,
AHD FAST TIME.
R. K. RJCKER, S. K. HOOPER.
General Superintendent. Gen’l Pass, and Ticket Agt.
DENVER, COLORADO.
’ r EDI lEBI'
Have opened a .
Clothing Depatment
With
A NEW STOCK,
At the
miAN STRIE
252 Lcrimer Street,
( . . •# -
All Goods Maiked in Plain Figures.
4 ► •
THE HATCHET Illustrated
humorous )>aper published at the Capital. It
makes a feature ol showing up Public Men as
they really are. I‘. contains a large cartoon
each week on Public Affairs, and is filled
with illustrated comic articles besides. It Is
the largest, handsomest, best and cheapest
ftinny paper in the country. Terms, 52.00 a
year -21 weeks, $ . To five or more names
sent by one party, S 2 each a year. Sample
copies sent free to any address. Agents
wanted in every town. Big commission.
THE HATCHET PUB. CO., WASH., D. C.
THE LABOR ENQUIRER
Workingmen
Will Find it to
THEIR ADVANTAGE
To Buy Groceries at
IE CASH GROCERY,
523 Hartford Street,
M. LEWIS. Proprietor.
He keeps always .on hand the Best Grades
of Staple and Fancy Groceries, Produce
and other articles found in a well-kept
grocery, at Prices which artv as Low as
the Lowest. Don’t forget the CASH
GROCERY.
Wfor the worklng-jdass. Send 10
cents for postage and we will
mail you free, a royal, valuable
box of sample goods that will put
you In the way of making more
money in a few days than you ever thought
possible at any business. Capital not re
quired. We will start yon. You can work
all the time, or in spare time only. The work
is universally adapted to both sexes, yonng
and old. Yon can easilyearn from 50 cents
to $5 every evening. That all who want work
may test the business, we make this unparal
leled offer: To all who are not well satisfied
we will send $1 to pay for the trouble of writ
ing us. Full particulars, directions, etc., sent
free. Fortunes will be made by those who
give their whole time to the work. Great
success absolutely sure. Don t delay. Start
bow. Address Stinson A Co., Portland, Me
DENVER, COLORADO. SATURDAY, JUNE 28, 1884.
ROTTEN SOCIETY.
t ■ v -
A Middle-Class Thinker Makes Ob
servations and Talks to
. ,v ;; ■
the Point.
George R. Peck delivered the annual
address before the State Agricultural
college, at Manhattan, Kansas, last week.
His subject was “The Co-Relation of
Social Forces.” The address is too
lengthy to reproduce in full in the
columns of The Enquirer, but so pointed
with truth and logic was it, that the clos
ing portion is given. The language of
Mr. Peck is a clear proof that the evils
of our economic conditions are forcing
all classes of honest and worthy citizens
to a consideration of sociology, and an
investigation of the ills under which the
peoples of the world are laboring.
Following is the extract from the
address:
“We are informed by practical thinkers
that the state has no right to interfere
with prices. This; may be so, but it
seems to me it has the right to prevent
others from interfering. If the state
cannot reduce, for instance, the price of
coal, it can prevent combinations to raise
the price. It can say to the dealer, if
you must have laissez faire, take it; but
vour customers must have it, too. The
most striking tendency of our business
life is the tendency towards combination.
Smith and Jones, who are rival hatters,
carry on a war of competition, which
gives but small profit to either. “Say,”
says Smith, “a happy thought; let us be
friends; we are fools to fight each other;
the public is our natural enemy.” And
so they combine, and $2 hats now cost
$3. In a little while Smith and Jones
are kings. If Brown or Robinson starts
an opposition hat store, thev know how
to deal with him. They either take him
into the combination or break him down,
sometimes both. Another happy thought
strikes one of the kings: “Let us take
out a charter and become a corporation.”
They do so, and Smith and Jones have
become ‘The Great American Hat and
Cap company,’ capital one or two
millions of dollars, to suit tne taste; and
it is the same old stock of hats. This is
but a leaf of every-day history. “Where
combination is possible, competition is
impossible,” said George Stephenson
many years ago. -How rapidly all the
industries in the country are gathering
into vast aggregations is shown by Mr.
Lloyd in a remarkable article in the
North American Review for June. Coal )
iron, cotton, glass, lumber, chemicals,
sugar, barbed wire, oil, everything we
eat, drink or wear, is wholly or partially
controlled by combinations whose Bole
object is to keep up prices. Those who
engage in these combinations do not
think they are doing < wrong—at least not
very wrong. They are respectable gen
tlemen who are fully conscious that we
live in a practical age. Even lawyers
sometimes combine to keep up fees ; and
only a few weeks ago the undertaaers of
Kansas organized in Topeka, presumably
to prevent the cutting of rates for attend
ing funerals. Ido not say that legisla
tion can cure the evils that spring from
selfishness and greed. But will they
cure themselves? With capitalists com
bined in vast organizations to control
trade, and labor organized in guilds and
brotherhoods to keep up wages, the
situation is obviously strained and un
natural. The result is ill temper on both
sides. We all understand what is meant
when 1,000 men refuse to work. They
have struck for higher wages. But what
is meant w’hen 1,000 men are notified
that their wages are reduced 10 percent?
It means that capital has struck—for
higher profits. I cannot understand
how one is wrong and the other right.
The currents of thought are running
fast in the direction of these economic
questions, But the impenetrable wis
dom of let-alone statesmanship is not
disturbed, for it is sure that business
principles will carry us through every
difficulty. Whether this be so or not, it
is certain that business principles, so
called, have got us into whatever com
plications now exist. Business princi
ples enabled three young men of brief
experience to fail for $15,000,000. Busi
ness principles in a single hour swept
away the future of one old commander,
even as he used to sweep the enemies of
his country, with the shot and shell of
his victorious guns. I believe business
principles which bring about such re
sults are not principles at all, but shame
less counterfeits. Commercial freedom,
in the highest sense, is no doubt essential
to our social progress, but freedom is
misnamed when it permits one man to
rob another, or six men to rob the rest
of the community. There are fleets out
on the ocean laden with the products of
every zone. The mariners toiling home
ward are happy when they know Captain
Kidd is a long way off. Piracy is a crime
by the laws of every civilized nation,
but there are many gentlemen with soft,
white hands and cheeks that never felt
an ocean breeze, who think it proper to
pmaas fortunes by means which would
make an old-time freebooter blush for
shame.
“But who is to blame that such practices
grow and flourish under the shield of
modern civilization?' There are many
who are culpable, all of us in some pro
portion. But chiefly they are responsi
ble who have stimulated and pushed on
that mighty force in onr social system :
the love of material success. Laissez
faire has won its greatest triumph in the
most practical age. It is only the vis
ionary enthusiast who believes that false
“ WHO WOULD BE FREE HIMSELF MUST STRIKE THE BLOW I ”
freedom is worse than none and that the
state as the representative of all' should
be the protector of all. \
“Strikes and riots are not remedies for,
but evidences of, social disease. Com
munism, Socialism, agrarianism, lead
only to anarchy, and anarchy is bat the
laissez faire pushed to its legitimate end.
The Mosaic law was content to say,
Thou shalt not,’ but the divine spirit
of Christian morality is ever emphasiz
ing, ‘Thou shalt.’ Responsibility is the
cardinal feature of social duty. The
citizen is not a unit, solitary and alone,
like a star in the infinitude of space, but
he is part of a system to which we all
belong, so united and interfused, that we
are all in all, all with all, and all for all.
You are my trustee. Have you talents,
genius, imagination, hope? They are
mine. They are his, whoever he may
be, who hungers after them. Giye them
to tire states, so that codes and laws and
institutions .shall' be humanized and
made alive. ‘Government,’ said our
greatest thinker, ‘is not a fossil, but a
plant.’ It must grow. The steps we
‘.take toward better conditions, must be
largely tentatiye. How often is the
foolishness of to-day the wisdom of to
morrow.
• * * “ ‘and may be wildest dreams
Are but the needful preludes of the truth.’
“Yonder rise the walls of the ideal
state, Justice, Truth, Courage, Faith; and
aboye them all, based upon all, Law,
‘whose seat is the bosom of God, whose
voice is the harmony of the world.’ ”
The Hydra-Headed Monster of
Finance of the Nineteenth
Century.
Editor Labor Enquirer.
Leadville, June 23. —I fancy I hear
you exclaim; “Well, well, the old
‘Hermit’ cannot write about the explo
sion of a powder magazine taking place
in Denver without lugging in his favorite
theme, ‘finance,’ as he has done in this
letter.” That is true, I could not, and
for reasons which I will try and set forth
in this one. *
Now I admit that you are a Socialist,
and that you are perfectly honest and
sincere in beingso ; and in your advocacy
of the doctrine you chargi those taking
an opposite view from you on that sub
ject that they have never taken the
trouble to get to the fundamental facts
underlying Socialism. You do not charge
them with dishonesty, except in so far
as they make statements about Socialism
without understanding the ultimate ends,
without having given the subject the
smallest investigation as to its bearing on
the moral and social elevation of the
toilers of this as well as all other nations.
And you. never weary in trying to set
before your readers the facts as you see
them, in support of your theory. Now
this is right, if you have but a grain of
truth or but a small ray of light to show
to your readers, that is in conservance
with your theory, thereby showing that
pre-existing views are wrong, would you
not look upon yourself as a kind of cow
ard if failing to take advantage of any
argument or circumstance coming within
your reach to prove the correctness of
your theory. Just so is it with me. Any
circumstance coming within my reach
whereby I can show that the present
financial theory is false and subversive
to the best interest of the toilers, I take
hold of it and try and show them where
it is wrong and detrimental to their com
fort and well being.
Now, there is this much difference be
tween you and I on the subject of Social
ism : You seem to ignore the
tremendous power the finances, or in
other words, the financial policy of a
nation has upon the condition of the
working masses, treating it as a question
of secondary importance, while, on the
contrary, I treat the financial theory of
the nations the world over, as the first,
the fundamental one, taking precedence
over all others, as I think this one can
be conclusively proven to be at the root
of nearly all of their calamities. While
I claim to be with you in your ideas so
far —short of Revolution —of how to
better the condition of the working
classes, 1 claim this much in advance of
your position : That T can show them
without any peradventure where the
poison of the present industrial system
is to be found, which is spreading with
such alarming rapidity throughout the
social body, as will eventually cause its
death. (By death I mean the degrada-
tion of the useful members of society to
a state of vice, misery and crime of all
sorts including intemperance, ignorance,
etc.)
Then, again, there is this clearly de
fined difference between you and I on
the subject: You seem to think that the
present anomolous state of society can
not be brought back to its normal state
of peace, plenty and contentment with
out a Revolution taking place in the
social body; and, therefore, you, as well
as others of your way of thinking, have
lost all faith in the ballot as a means of
redressing or correcting those anomolies,
while I, on the other hand, contend that
the ballot is all-sufficient for the purpose
the moment the toiling masses see where
to strike with their ballots effectively, so
as to destroy the law-governing finance
and substituting in its place the true
theory. Yon take society as yon find it
and deplore the consequences and find
no better solution then social Revolu
tion, while I take society as I find it and
try and show them a peaceable solution
HELD UP TO LIGHT.
to their troubles by using their ballots
ni destroying the system which impov
erishes them by taking from them their
earnings to fill the coffers of the non
toilers, and as the common phrase is
making the rich richer and the poor
poorer.
Now, without going into any further
comparisons between your theory and
mine, I have no doubt that those of
your readers who will give this a careful
reading thus far, will say to me “where is
your law in finance ; show it to us, and
then perhaps we will believe in your
Way? 1 ’ Well, here it is, study it; and
it is the standard reference, or table of
all money lenders, I believe, the world
over, (except perhaDS the Land bank of
the Russian serfs—recently emancipated
—and among the Japanese, within the
last ten years):
THE PRODUCT OP sl, COMPOUND. INTEHST,
FOR ONE HUNDRED YEARS.
~ co "E oi 5 55 g
£©©©©© ©
:000 O O Q n
:3ad o 3 3 2
I c» c* c* ri c* r*- £
1.. 101 103 104 105 106 108 110
2.. 102 106 108 110 112 116 121
3.. 103 109 112 1 15 119 1«25 133
4.;. 104112 1 16 121 126 f 36 146
5.. 1051 15 121 127 133 146 161
6.. 1,06 119 126 134 141 158 177
7.. 107 122 131 140 150 171 104
8.. 108 126 136 147 159 185 214
9.. 109 130 142 155 168 199 235
10.. 110 134 148 162 179 215 250
20.. 122 139 219 265 320 466 672
30.. 125 2423 24 432 a74 10 06 17 44
40.. 149 326480 701 10 28 21 72 4525
50.. 164 4387 10 11 56 18 42 46 90 117 39
75.. 2 11 9 17 18 94 36 83 79 05 321 20 1,271 89
100.. 2 70 19 21 50 50 131 50 819 30 2,199 76 13,780 61
I have left out the 2,7 and 9 per cent
as it would entail more figuring without
bringing anything stronger to light. If
I was running a labor paper I would
hoist this table at the peak, and say
toilers, of whatever class, behold your
master ! Behold the law by which you,
and in numerous instances your em
ployers, have to crawl and cringe in beg
gary and rags at its feet! Look at it!
This is your most deadly enemy ! Pesti
lence will run its course and die out;
epidemics will do the same; yet here is
a scourge more deadly than ever pesti
lence or epidemic, which never since its
inception lets up or dies out day or night.
But, on the contrary, the longer it is tol
erated the more dreadful becomes its
haVoc. I for one have recorded iny vow
that, so long as God spares me in this
life, so long, at every opportunity that
offers, shall I lift up my voice and pe n
for its destruction.
Brother toilers, look at it again and
ask yourselves the question : “Have we,
by upholding men and measures, been
this blind to our own best interests ; have
we in our blindness (and I add, pur
posely kept in blindness by the money
kings’ organs) been forging our own and
our children’s chains?” Look again at
the table, and at your cheerless, comfort
less, miserable condition and you shall
find your answer. And when you find
your answer, mav I ask you in all kind
ness, will you keep on at each succeed
ing election casting your ballots lor such
an iniquitous system ? I can hardly be
lieve that .you will. Then what will you
do—not vote at all, or vote for the prin
ciples which sooner or later will smash
this table and all its concomitant evils
in the dust? All I ask is, for every man
who reads this table to tell his fellow
men that at last he has found out where
the hydra-headed monster is, and the
way it gathers in the products of his
labor has been found out. Yours for
the cause of Humanity,
D. McK, Whyte, Sr.
Monopolists’ Labor Bureau.
The Chicago Inter Ocean does not
seem very heartily in favor of a bureau
of labor statistics. After giving some of
the features of the bill, it says: “All is
well, provided a sensible person, who is
not an economic crank or Socialistic
blatherskite like Herr Most, Lawrence
Groveland, Henry George or any of the
stock who are running the Karl Marx
movement in America, is appointed upon
it.” The English of this means “it is all
right to have a labor bureau bill if you
will only let the capitalists or some
capitalist pimp run it, but if any one is
to run it in the interest of the laborers
it is a very bad thing. Carroll D. Wright,
when he started in as chief of the Mass
achusetts bureau, was on the other side
of the question, too, but he had the ad
vantage of being an honest man, and
when he came to look around among
laborers for facts to go into his reports,
he discovered some of the abuses that
were imposed upon laborers, and he
commenced to right them.” Such a man
is unfitted, according to the Inter Ocean,
to be at the head of such an institution.
The article proceeds to, give a little
light upon the subject as follows :
“A statistician at the head of the bureau
of labor who will teach the Moodys,
Wrights and Georges that the surplus
wealth of the rich is the involuntary
servant of the poor, and that the large
ness of the accumulation corresponds to
the lowness of the rate of compensation
for which society will receive its use,
will do good.”
This is specious pleading. The poor
are robbed for the purpose of building
railroads for the rich to ride on. It may
sound nice for the bandit to say“i
am sorry to take your, money, sir; but
the fact is I am going to institute some
great improvements in the country and
I need it for that purpose,” but the poor
man, whose children are dying with
hunger and cold, is not quite able to see
it in that light.—Maquoketa Record.
Boycott Appel & Co. They employ
cheap labor, and they refuse to acknowl
edge the right of tailors and other work
. ingmen to organise for protection.
I ■( / ‘ . ,—IM. . ....
Not every merchant is generous enough to distribute
amongst his patrons Gold Watches, Organs, Sewing
Machines, Dress Suits, Boys’ Suits, Pantaloons, but
—S TRATJS S-~
Will do this very thing on Monday
Evening July 7, at
CALIFORNIA HALL!
«
A Ticket With Every Purchase of $l.
- -- ■-
As the world mores clothing makes the man. We claim
it is the duty of every man to dress well, and when there
comes such opportunities as Strauss offers to-day, it can be
done with very little money. ■
Full Dress Suits, $45, $4O, $35, $3O, $25.
We challenge competition on onr $2O Dress Suits.
Men’s All-Wool Business Suits as low as $5.
Discard for one season the Chinese custom work, about
whieh some of our competitors crow so much, and try one of
our Tailoring Made Business Suits at $l2, $l5, $2O, $25.
We call special attention to. a full line of Blue Flannel
Suits, warranted Full Indigo, elegantly trimmed, at $lO,
$l2, $l5.
Unheard of bargains in our Children’s Department. Chil
dren’s Blue Sailor Suits, $2; Children’s Knee Pauts, 50c;
Childreu’s Waists, 50c.
Fiue Balbriggan Underwear, $1; Fine Dress Shirts, $1;
Lawn Ruffs and Flat Scarfs, two for 25c; Fine White Yests, $l.
Strauss’ Clothing House
407 LARIMER STREET.
We employ no highwaymen to parade in front of our store to
haul in customers. »
HOTEL '.'BRUNSWICK;
(ON THE EUROPEAN PLAN.)
Nos. 267, 269 and! 271 Sixteenth Street, Denver. Colo.
Next to Tabor Block, in Business Center of thelCity.
LINTON & HAGAR, Proprietors.
All the Street Cars pass this Hotel in their trips to and
from the Union Depot. v>
RATES, $l, $2 AND $3 PER DAY.’ \
LEWIS & SCOTT,
Whelesaleand Retail »
HAE-D-WABB,;
i •
STOVES, IRANGES.
Agents for P. F. CORBIN’S Hardware.'!^"—*
Tubular Oil Stoves, Wrought Iron
Ranges, Iron and Slate
Materials. ’I
• - T - m~ ■
STMDIRD FURNACES. BRASS FENDERS,
- ■
* All Sizes and Prices.
’ . ff '- '! ■» • "."I*
—
405 LARIMER STREET, LF NVER, COLO.
PRICE, FIVE CENTS