The Labor enquirer. [volume], August 28, 1886, Image 1

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

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VOLUkE YL—NO. 35.
PHILLIPS.
His Address Before the Cris
pins’ Organization *
in 1872.
s , -
Relation of the Labor Movement
to the Republic’s
Future.
“One Third of the People ill the
World Never Hare Enough
to Eat.”
Gentlemen: I feel honored be thia
welcome of your organization, and
especially so when I consider that the
marvelously rapid success of the political
strength of the labor movement, espe
cially in New England, is due mainly to
this organization. There has never
been a party formed that in three years
attracted toward itself such profound at
tention throughout the United States.
Some of you mav be old enough to re
member that when the anti slavery sen
timent, nearly thirty years ago, endeav
ored to rally a political party, It took
them some seven or nine years before
they had an organization that could be
considered national in any real sense.
The political labor movement in three
years has reached a position of influence
which it took that idea nine years to
obtain.
I trace that rapid progress in popular
recognition to the existence of these
Crispin lodges and trades unions of the
state. You cannot marshal 50,000 men
taken at once promiscuously from par
ties and sects ; they must be trained to
work together, must be disciplined in
co-operation, and it is the training and
the discipline w hich the workingmen
got in these organizations that enabled
the labor movement to assume its pro
portions so rapidly. •
Then, again, I stand here with great
Interest from another consideration—l
stand in the presence of a momentous
power. Ido not care exactly what your
idea is as to how you will work in this
channel or in the other. lam told that
you represent over 70,000 men here and
elsewhere. Th:nk of it! A hundred
thousand men! They can dictate the
fate of this nation. Give me 50,000 men
in earnest, who can agree on all vital
questions, who will plant their shoulders
together, and swear by all that is true
and just that for the long years they will
put their great idea before the country,
-and those 50,000 men will govern the
nation. So if I have 100,000 men repre
sented before me, who are in earnest,
who get hold of the great question of
labor, and, having hold of it, grapple
with it, and rip and tear it open, and in
vest it with light, gathering the facts,
piercing ihe brains about them, and
crowding those brains with the facts,
then 1 know, sure as fate, though 1 may
not live to see it, that thev will certainly
conquer this nation in twenty years.
It is impossible that they should not.
And that is yonr power, gentlemen. I
rejoice in every effort workingmen
make to organize ; I do not care on wliat
basis they do it. Men sometimes say to
me, “Are you an Internationalist?” I
eay, “I do not know what an Intern-.-
tionalist is but they tell me it is a sys
tem by which workingmen frim Lon
don to Gibraltar, Moscow to Paris, can
clasp hands. Then 1 say God speed, God
speed, to that or any similar movement.
Now, let me tell you where the great
weakness of an association of working
men is. It is that it cannot wait. It
does not know where it is to get its food
for next week. If it is kept idle for ten
days, the funds of the society are ex
hausted. Capital can fold its arms, and
wait six months, it can wait a vear. It
will be poorer, but it does not get to the
bottom of the purse. It can afford to
wait; it tires you out, and starves you
out. And what is there against that im
mense preponderance of power on the
part of capital ? Simply organization.
That makes the wealth of all the wealth
of every one. So I welcome organiza
tion. 1 do not care whether it calls
itself trades union, Crispin, Interna
tional or Commune; anything that
masses up a unit in order that tbev may
put up a united force to face the organi
iation of capital, anything that does
that, 1 say amen to it. Oue hundred
thousand men! It is an immense army.
1 do not care whether it considers
chiefly the industrial or the political
questions , it can control the nation if it
is in earnest. The reason why the abol
itionists brought t! e nation down to
fighting their battle is tnat they were
really in earnest, knew what they
wanted, and were determined to have it.
Therefore they got it. The leading
statesmen and orators of the day said
they would never urge abolition ; bat a
determined man in a printing office said
that they should, and —they did it.
An so it is with this question exactly.
Brains govern this country, and I hope
to God the time will never come when
brains won’Lgovern it, for they ought to.
And the way in which you can compel
the others to listen and to attend to yon
on the question of labor, actually to con
centrate the intellectual power of the
nation upon it, is by gathering together
by hundreds of thousands, no matter
whether it be on an industrial basis or
a political basis, and say to the nation,
we are the numbers, and we will be
Beard,” and you may be sore that you
THE LABOR ENQUIRER
will. Now, an Englishman has but one
method to pursue to be heard. He puts
his arm up amone the cog-wheels of the
industrial machine, and stops it. This
is a strike. The London Times looks
down and says, “What in heaven is the
matter?” This is just what the man
wants. He wishes to call public atten
tion to the facts, and the consequence is
that every newspaper joins with the
Times and asks what is the matter, and
the whole brain of the English n ition
is turned to consider the question. That
is good, but we have a quicker way than
that. We do not need to put our hands
up among the cog-wheels and stop the
machine. Pierpont said' of the little
ballot--
✓
“It executes the freeman's will,
As lightning does the will of Goil”
Now, I turn my sight that way be
cause I am a Jeffersonian democrat in
the darkest bour. England can look
down into Lanca'ihire, lotten in ignor
ance ; and if the people there rise up to
claim their share of the enjoyments of
life, she need not care, because she says,
“I have got the laws of the state in the
hands of.tbe middle classes ; and if that
man down there can Uandle a spade or
work in a mill, it is all I want of him ;
and if he ever raises his hand against
the state I will put my cavalrymen into
the saddle and ride him down. The
man is nothing but a tool to do certain
kind of work.” ;
But when America looks down into h er
Lancashire, into the mines of Pennsyl
vania, she savs literally, “Well, this
hand holds the ballot, and I cannot
afford to leave him down there in ignor
ance.” I admire democracy because it
takes bonds on wealth and power, that
they shall raise tire masses. If they
don’t do it there is no security, There
fore, on every great question I turn in
stantly to politics. It is the people’s
normal school; it is the way to make
the brains of s> nation approach
the subject. Why, la 1861 or
1862, when I first approached
this question, yon could n c get an arti
cle on the labor movement in any news
paper or magazine, unless, indeed, there
was a strike or something of that sort.
Now you cannot take up any of the lead
ing newspapers or magazines without
finding them full of it; editors eat,
drink and sleep on it. The question is
so broad, it has so many different chan
nels, that it puzzles them. Even John
Stuart Mill has not attempted to cover
its whole breadth. It takes in every
thing.
Let me tell you why i am interested
in the labor question. Not simply be
cause of the long hours of labor ; not
simply because of a specific oppression
of a class. I sympathize with the suf
ferers there; I am ready to fight on
their side. But I look upon Christen
dom, with its 300,000,000 of people, and I
see that, out of this number of people,
100,000,000 never had enongh to eat.
Physiologists tell us that this bo ly of
ours, unless it is properly fed. properly
developed, fed with rich blood and care
fully nourished, does no justice to the
brain. You cannot make a bright or a
good man in a starving bi dy ; and so
this one-third of the inhabitants of
Christendom, who have never had food
enough, can never be what they should
be. Now, I say that the social civiliza
tion, which condemns every third man
in it to below the average in the nour
ishment God prepared for him, did not
come from above ; it came from below ;
and the sooner it goes down the better.
Come on this side of the ocean. You
will find 40 1)00,000 of people, and 1 sup
-0086 thev are In the highe t state of civ
ilization, and yet it is not too much to
say, that out of the 40,000,000, 10,000,000
at least, who get up in the morning and
go to bed at night, spend all their
effort to get bread enough to live. Thev
have not enough elasticty left in miud or
body to do anything in the way of in
tellectual or moral progress.
I take a man, for instance, in one of
the manufacturing valleys of Connecti
cut, If vou get into the care there at
6:30 o clock in the morning, as I have
done, von will find getting in at every
little station a score or more of laboring
men and women, with their dinner in a
pail, and they get out at some factory
that is already lighted up. Go down the
same valley about 7:30 in the evening
and you will again see them going home.
They must have got up about 5:30 ; they
are at their work nigh upon 8 o’clock.
There is a good, solid fourteen hours.
Now, there will be a strong, substantial
man, like Cobhett, for instance, who will
sit up nights studying, and who will be
a scholar at last among them, perhaps ;
but he is an expert. The average man,
nine out of ten, when he gets home at
night, does not care to read au article
from the North American, nor a long
speech from Charles Sumner. No ; if he
can’t have a good story, and a warm
snpper, and a glass of grog perhaps, he
goes off to bed. Now, I say that the
civilization that has produced this state
of things in nearly the hundredth year
of the American republic, did not come
from above.
I believe in the temperance move,
ment. I am a temperance man of nearly
forty years’ standing ; and I think it
one of the grandest things in the world,
because it holds the basis of self-control.
Intemperance is the cause of poverty, I
know ; bat there is another side to that;
poverty is the cause of intemperance.
Crowd a man with fourteen hours’ work
a day, and yoa crowd him down to a
mere animal life. Yon have eclipsed
his aspirations, dolled his tastes, stunted
DENVER, COLORADO, SATURDAY, AUGUST 28. 1886.
his intellect, and made him a mere tool,
to work fourteen hours, and catch a
thought in the interval; and while one
man in a hundred will rise to be a genius,
ninety-nine will cower down under toe
circumstances. Now, I can tell you a
fact. In .London, the other day, it was
fonod that one club of gentleman, 1,000
strong, spent $20,000 at the club house
during the year for. drink. Well, I
would allow them $20,000 more at home
for liquor, making in all $40,000 a vear.
These men were all. men of education
and leisure ; they had books and paint
ings, opera, race course and regatta. A
thousand men down in Portsmouth in a
shipyard, working under a boss, spent
at the grog shops at that place, in that
year, sßo,ooo—double that of their rich
brethren. What is the explanation of
such a fact as that 7 Why, the club men
had a circle of pleasures and of com
pany. The operative, after he had
worked fourteen hours, had nothing to
look forward to but his grog.
That is why I say lift a man, give him
life, let him work eight hours a day,
give him the school, develop his taste for
music, give him a garden, give him
beautiful things to see, and good books
to read, and you will starve out those
lower appetites. Give a man a chance
to earn a good living, and you may Bave
his life. So it is with women in prosti
tution. Poverty is the road to it; it is
this that makes them the prey of the
wealth and ieisure of another class.
Give 100 men in this country good
wages and eight hours' work, and ninety -
nine will disdain to steal. Give 100
women a good chance to get a good liv
ing, and ninety-nine of them will disdain
to barter their virtue for gold. You will
find in our criminal institutions to-dav a
great many men with big brains, who
ought to have risen in the world, per
haps gone to congress. You may laugh,
but I tell you the biggest brains don’t go
to congress. Now, take 100 criminals;
ten of them will be smart men. but take
the remaiuder and eighty of them are
below the average, body and mind ; they
were, as Charles Lamb said, “never
brought up; thev were dragged up.”
They never had a fair chance; they were
starved in body and mind. It is like a
chain weak in one link ; the moment
temptation came it went over. Now,
just as long as you hold two-thirds of
this nation on a narrow, superficial line
you feed the criminal classes. Any man
that wants to grapple the labor question
must know how you will secure a fair
division of production. No man answers
that question.
I hail the labor movement for two
reasons : and one is, that it is my only
hope for democracy. At the time of the
anti-slavery agitation, I was not sure
whether we should come out of the strug
gle with one republic, unless the labor
movement succeeds. Takes power like
the Pennsylvania Cenfral railroad and
the New York Central road, and there
is no legislative independence that can
exist in its sight. As well expect a green
vine to flourish in a dark cellar, as to ex
pect honesty (o exist under the shadow
of those upas trees. Unless there is a
power in your movement, industrially
and politically, the last knell of demo
cratic liberty in this Union is struck ;
for, as I said, there is no power in one
state to resist such a giant as the Penn
sylvania road. We have thirty-eight
one-horse legislatures in this country,
and we have got a man like Tom Scott
with $350,000,000 in his hands ; and if he
walks through the states, thev have no
power. Why, he needn’t move at all.
If he smokes as Grant does, a puff of the
waste smoke out of his mouth upsets the
legislature.
Now, there is nothing but the rallying
of men against money that can contest
witti that power. Rally industrially if
you will, rally for eight hours, for a little
division of profits, for co-operation;
rally for such a banking power in the
government as would give us money at
3 per cent.
Only organize and stand together.
Claim something together, and at once ;
let the nation hear a united demand
from the laboring voice, and then, when
you have got that, go for another; but
get something.
I say let the debts of the country be
paid ; abolish the banks and let the gov
ernment lend every Illinois farmer (if
he wants it) who is now borrowing
money at 10 per cent, money on the half
value of his land at 3 per cent. The
same policy that gave 1,000,000 acres to
the Pacific railroad, because it was a
great national effort, will allow of our
lending Chicago $20,000,000, at 3 per
cent, to rebuild it.
From Boston to new Orleans, from
Mobile to Rochester, from Baltimore to
St. Louis, we have now but one purpose ;
and that is, having driven all other
political questions out of tUe arena,
haying abolished slavery, the only ques
tion left—labor. The night before
Charles Sumner left Boston for Wash
ington the last time, he said to me, “I
have just one thing to do for the negro,
to carry the civil rights bill, and after
that is passeed I shall be at liberty to
take up the question of labor.”
"Law and Order” Journals.
Doubts exist in Chicago as to whether
there is law enough to hold and punish
the Anarchists now on trial. If the
coprts cannot find law enongh for the
purpose, plenty of good cotton rope can
be had cheap and the lamp posts are
thought to be fairly staunch in th it city.
—Kansas City Times.
It would be good policy on the part of
society, if practicable, to drive this class
of rogues into the open meeting against
the law —New York Tribune.
“ WHO WOULD BE FREE HIMSELF MUST BTRIKE THE BLOW I”
Written for The Enquirer.
THE COMMON CURSE.
BY LIZZIE M. SWANK.
A spirit from afar, passed over the earth
To look upon its sons, and learn the source
Of that sad cry, which trembled through the
spheres
Where’ er the planet hurried on its course.
Poising aloft, on pinions of swift light
Where ocean winds and island breezes
meet;
With wild, free waters rolling far behind
And all the peopled world beneath his
feet.
He looked and listened. Over every land
Himg the same shadow -somber, dark and
drear;
And, rising heavily beneath, the moan
Of suffering myriads, swelling to his ear.
What is the cause ? Why thus do mortals
mourn?
Is Nature derelict? Has earth grown
cold ?
Have oceans, forests, mines turned miserly
That men must toil and slave, and young
—die old ?
He looked beneath the cloud, in every land
And saw that bounteous earth gave back to
man
A hundred fold for every stroke of toll
Yet toilers lived in want as ’neath a ban.
First, hovering on an ice-bound coast he saw
A vast division—dotted o’er with slaves
Whose fates lay in the hand of one proud
man;
Ending in living deaths or tortured graves.
Wealth and starvation, palaces and prisons
Were here. A track parked out with
bleaching bones
And blood, where trav’lers, chained and
driven passed,
Stretched its terrific distance through twe
zones.
The people said: "If our great king were
less a king
And bound by laws we might create,
With lessened power to punish or reward,
We should be free, and prosperous, and
great.”
Now thence, the sphit passed a fair land
Where kindly ruled a queen, whose well
made laws
She could no sooner break, than subjects
might,
Nor take from them a right without a
cause.
A noble constitution, Magna Charts,
House of Commons as well as House of
Lords
Had they—and yet the burdened people
groaned.
Economists witn many learned words
Laid all the poverty and idleness
To “over population,” “greed,” “free
trade,” *
The “monarchy,” “nobility,” “church-rule”
All pretexts but the truth, the cause was
made.
Now onward toward a sunny clime he sped
And saw a wealthy nation reared by
might;
A stern republic, built above the bones
Of those who died for liberty and lignt.
Emperor and king, the people’s rule, the
church;
All forms of government had come and
gone;
And misery witn each—it dwelt there now,
Where neither king or noblemen were
known.
Across a purple stream a kingdom rose
In proud defiance of a weaker world;
With its “strong government” and army
grand
And flag of menace constantly unfurled.
And here the masses groaned beneath their
toil
Or sulked In idleness ; while Poverty
Gnawed its stale crust at Luxury’s soft feet
And Truth, and Thought in chains crept
stealthily.
From o’er a dark blue ocean gleamed a light
Where “Liberty” in golden letters glowed;
A shield, a flag, an eagle poised for flight
Proclaimed that “Freedom” here had her
abode.
But when the spirit nearer drew, he saw,
The glowing shield was brass, and “Lib
erty”
Shone luminous through tinsel, while the
bird
Was ragged, and looked fierce at all things
free.
The goddess was a tyrant hag, disguised
Beneath a flag striped with the blood of
slaves
As Columbia, and her shadow fell
On needy tollers, paupers, tramps aud
knaves.
Here ruled no king—the people made the
lavls,
“Protected labor” and “gave homes to
all;”
Yet strangely, even here, the shadows dark
Hung heavily and low, a deep’ning pall.
“Oh, blinded race of men!’, the spirit cried,
You would dispel the clouds with futile
breath
Or vow they were not there, while all
around
Your brothers but exist in living death.
You may swear allegiance to a God-sent
king.
Or swear it to republics or to a church;
Thin out your restless crowds of unused
slaves,
Or deep in statute lore for causes search;
Protect your ‘trade,’ reduce production
still
The woe and misery the people feel
Is undisturbed; here will remain until
You dare to know the truth and make it
real.
You hope for happiness, while Nature’s
gifts
Are stolen from her children? Or for
peace
Until the robbery of Industry
By pampered, selfish Idleness shall cease ?
No never! One curse blights each land
alike.
The gifts the bounteous earth bestows
Are stolen by the few—the rest are slaves,
Slaves to the thieves and suppliants to
foes.
He Discuases the Labor and Temperance
Questions With the
Supervisor*.
For the Enquirer.
I reken ihet but preshus fa uv my
reeders hev ever figgered upon what
kind ny a critter a human beein is. Ef
SOAP-SUDS' FILOSFY.
they hed, they wood’nt make so menv
mistakes regardin uv em; and he
wood’nt hev suffered so much from the
effecs uv their ignorance on that pint,
nnther.
Talk is cheep’rn dirt, bat it takes
mony ter by whisky !
A man es wanz ter bild a corraal orter
kno, fast, what kind uv a critter he is
a’bildin it far.
No man, es nu anythin about ’em,
wood make a fish-pond for aturkv-hen ;
nor, wood he bild a chicken-coop for a
trout. ,
A rinosoios np a tree wood turn a nig
ger white with fear, but a fat coon in the
sem place, wood make his teeth water.
This makes me think thet no man hez
a morl rite ter make laus fur a critter es
he don’t understand, fust.
Thecheif glory of our revolnshunary
four-fathers wnr: thet they made an ex
ostiv study of the man-critter ; and arter
they found out who he reely waz, they,
imeejetly-at wanzt writ out a “Declara
tion of independence,” and swore by the
etarnal thet they wood fite fur it. Well,
they fit—and fit d—d hard too—and
got what they wanted —the rinosoros got
outer) the tree, and the nigger got his
coon.
Since thet time, the studyin uv a hu
man beein as a pint in pergressive poln
ticks has kind uv gone to seed, and I’m
uv the opinyun that easten folks nev to
to be licked into it. I mebe rong ; but
by gosh it looks much like it round these
diggins.
The program advocated by sum tame,
closet fellers, with good fat salaries,
all-us reminds me uv what the immor
tal Bill Shakespeare sed, abouten these
yer fine chaps as don’t understand a hu
man beein. Bill know’d ’em! You
bet! and, regarding uv the program, he
sed, ses he is, “one part wisdom and
two parts cowardice” and dog-on my
heart ef it aint so, By Gosh !
Well, the program mebe all rite, but I
think the exercises will be different —
kind er livelier, like!
Edgar Allan Poe wanst sed, ses he :
"I am not more sure that my soul lives,
tfian I am that perverseness is one of
the primitive impulses uv the human
heart, —one uv the indivisable primary
faculties or sentiment which give direc
tion to the character nv man. Who has
not a hundred times found himself com
mitting a vile or a silly action, for no
other reason than because he knew he
should not? Have we not a perpetual
inclination to violate tnat which is law,
merely because we understand it to be
such? Of this spirit,philosophy takes
no account.”
I’m a liven witness to the trooth nv
the abuv !
I never got drunk but wanzt, and thet
waz about two hours arter I’d jined a
temperance society as a good example to
others.
I cood’nt stand the plege ! I busted
her afore sundown, and wanted ter fite
the hull bord uv soopervisors fur their
issuin uv license to rumsellers.
But they sed: "Well, looney ; I sup
pose you know we must hev a govern
ment?’!
I sed es “I did'nt know es mv mind
waz quite clear, yet, on that pint.”
“Well,” ses one rv ’em, “we’ll gin you
time to clear it up ! Officer, arrest that
man.”
“Hold on ! hold offl” ses I, “I want to
argv the pint with you. You saves we
must hev a government?”
“Yes, looney,” ses he, “we must hev a
government; and in order to hev one,
we must hev money to run it; and in
order to hev mony, suthing must be
taxed, and the more dangerous to the
health and the morals uv the commu
nity the article to be taxed is, the more
mony the government gets fur it and the
easier it comes on the people.”
“Taxed be d—nd ! you tarnal old bald
heded fool,” sea I, "you hev turned the
‘peepels government’ into a lecherous
procuress. And so far as ‘making it eas
ier fur the peepel’ isconcarned, yer mite
es well tax their taters ; ef through your
procuring powers you hev made rum a
social necessity,—the ‘peepel’ hes to nav
fur it enyhow. You say es only the rich
drink the wines uv the country, and
consequently the tax falls upon them
instead nv on the poor. Yer develish
cute, aint yer,” ses I, “but thet’s not the
pint just now. If 'all men,’ as vou say,
‘are eekal afore ihe law,’ what matters
it ter > on, who drinks, or pays fur it?
I sav, accordin ti yer own doctrine, its
none uv yer bizness, —guverments shud
be imparshul.”
“Don’t yer see, vou gold-pizen’d dunce
thet the hull thing is a boomerang,—it
cums back agen in the shape uv crime,
(murder, arson, etc.,) and vou hev to
pay out to sum devilish cute lawyer or
nuther, to defend the state, the sem
mony, and more, es you kerlected from
yer stupid licence, dog-on you 1”
Immeejctlv-at-wanzt a beefy, wine
complexioned feller stood np and sed es
I was a “soshlist,” and hed “insulted the
dignity uv the court” and orter be
“locked no.” I was bilen mad but had
to go. Some pesky - fool told my wife
that I was in hoc for gettin drunk, and
she sed, ses she : “Thet’s Obadiah to a
dot. He went to a temperance lecter
Sunday arternon, and I’ll bet he’s taken
the ‘plege.’ We’ll never hear the last
of it, for he’ll insist on all on us gettin
drank an a’livin for awhile at the ex
pense nv the government; fur it’s
cheep’ru payin rent and a’buyin uv grub
on credit, at a percentage, at the corner
grocery. Lizzie; git yonr bat and
things on, quick, and we’ll go out to
mothers until your father gits sober.”
Sombodv has sed: "self is odious”
and I fully agree with the doctrine, —
more especially now; being covered
with government lice —consequently will
now change to some one else.
Byron wanzt sed to Lady Blessington,
ses he : “Man being sensible must get
drank.”
Uv corce, to simple folk, thet looks
kinder pazzlin, not to say paradocksical;
but compound peepel kno mighty well
thet man is, and alius has been a para
docks. Ever since the devil hed
himself appointed es a committee-uv
one to intervu Eve in the bushes east uv
Jordan, in order to pnt up a job on her
husband, the hull human family hes
knon both sides nv the question ; and
insists upon their uv prac
tlsin uv it, too,—one side or tuther, or
both,—jist es they see fit.
A critter es wanz to do rong, caus he
knos it to be rong, is no tarnal fool, lem
me tell ye that; and I’d rather bunk
with him over night, where injins are
plenty—or, at least, hev ’em within
shoMtin distance—than eny other critter
es I ken think uv jist now, and did’nt
git drunk cause he d:d’nt kno it was
rong.
A critter es can chue terbacco, I say,
and git drunk on rot-gut-whisky, wanz
lots uv room to experiment on his life ;
and its no use abusin uv ’em, nuther, by
say’n thet he does meny silly and filthy
things theta hog or a hen wood’nt be
gilty uv. Thet mebe impashuns, but
it’s not fllosofy,—excuse me.
A hen will never disciver the north
west passage, and a hog will never squirt
terbacco-juice on the north pole.
In conclusion, permit me ter say, thet
a human beein is inexplicable on env
Bistem uv fllosofy thet is not bilt on a
foundation uv, at least, two-thirds mjia
rubber. He is a cronic speckelater and
wanz lots uv room. I say, sum’thin
must give, or sum’body must stand by
with a chib; and if thet sum’body—
whom we all kno —goes awtey, ver bound
ter hear sum'thin bust.
Yours, a’lis’nen,
Obadiah Soap-Suds.
SOLVING PROBLEMS.
The Author of "The New Republic"
Present, a Logical Essay
on the Subject.
For The Enquirer.
BY E. J. BCHELLHOUB.
If anyone were to attempt to gather
up the so-called solutions of the prob
lems of life he would engage in an end
less task. The wisdom of the world’s
sages, ancient and modern combined, al
though brought to bear with special
force upon these questions, has left them
as much in doubt as ever.
The theologian relegates the whole
matter to the domain of the supernat
ural. He ignores all rational attempts
at solution, and declares that implicit
obedience to th# will of God as revealed
in the Holy Scriptures is the only solu
tion ; but he is met at every turn by his
brother theologian with a different m
terpre ation of that will. Upon these
differences of opinion and the conflicts
of interest growing out of them, antag
onisms arise which are sought to be de
termined by the sword and the rack.
The result is, the victor becomes the
tyrant and the victim a cowardly sub
servient slave. These relations resolve
themselves into despotism, self-aggran
dizement and imperial authority cn the
one hand, and bigotry, superstition and
fanatical devotion to authority on the
other.
These conditions do not meet the re
quirements of life; and while the right
to exercise authority thus gained is con
ceded on the part of the subjugated, a,
vague and indefinaule unrest and dis
content pervade all classes of society.
The statesman enters upon the solu
tion of life’s problems by a different ap
proach. He refers the whole matter to
the domain of government. He studies
the origin of customs long established,
which he takes for granted are founded
on justice because they receive universal
assent. He formulates these into laws
which become the supreme power of the
land. Upon their administration he
finds it necessary to establish courts.
Conflicting interests arise which are
sought to be determined by the meaning
and intent of the law. Advocates for
the litigants appear before the judge.
They discuss the law in all its bearings
on the case. A decision is reached
which becomes a precedent for other
like cases. These multiply until thou
sands of volumes are filled with them,
and many other thousands contain the
laws upon which they are founded.
The consequence is, that a large class
of professional men, many of them are
possessed oPrare talent and great ability,
exercise absolute control over the ad
ministration of the law ; and have de
veloped an interest exclusively their
own, and, to say the least, not in har
mony with the people’s interest.
In the eager pursuit of wealth,, indi
vidual conflicts arise involving great in
terests. These are to be adjudicated in
accordance with the law. These pro
fessional men, who have the control of
the whole matter, manage the interests
of those in dispute in such away as to
secure their own greatest interests.
So the conditions brought into exist
ence bv this mode of solving life’s prob
lems reduces the community to depend
ence on a class of men whose interests
are not in common with the people’s in
terest. A growing discontent and fr©:
qnent riotons outbreaks testify to the
fact that the solution of the problems of
life does not lie in this direction.
[Continued on fourth page.]
PRICE FIVE CENTS.
A RIGHT TO LIVE.
That is What All Who Labor
Are Entitled to and
Should Assert.
Meek Submission to the Tyr
anny of Corporations
Unnecessary.
The Principle of Justice as Against
Law In the Case of the N. P.
Coal Company.
For the Enoulrer.
In The Enquirer of -August 7 is an
account of the conduct of the Northern
Pacific Coal company toward the
miners. It clearly illustrates the stu
pidity so common to working people.
Thev think tha f if rascality is only ac
cording to law it must be respected.
Starving or freezing a man to death, or
kicking him, his wife and little ones out
dcors like dogs, should not be resented
or resisted if it is done according to law.
The twenty-four rules of tlret company
would disgrace a ship. The men seem
to think because they have agreed to
work under those rules that therefore
thev have no right to break them,
though thev well know they were forced
to accept the rules under duress; or in
other words, they could work under
them or go hungry. The law does not
require a man to carry out an agree
ment that he signed under duress.
And getting a man into a position where
he must sign er go hungry, is duress;
and not only the law but common sense
and common decency do not require him
to carry out such agreements, and we
can only sustain our liberty by breaking
such agreements as often as opportunity
offers.
If those men had the manhood that
workingmen ought to have, they would
have united and taken forcible posses
siorqof all the stores of Ihe company and
made prisoners of the officers and then
lived like men on the food and clothing
in the stores, and they should have
taken this course as soon as possible
offer the lockout went into effect.
When the militia came, if too strong for
them, they could have retreated and had
something to retreat with, and not have
to slink off like tramps as they must
now. Having the officers as prisoners
they could hold them as hostages for
terras. But slinking off as tramps they
can get no justice whatever and no hear
ing.
All the goods in the stores were earned
by the honest labor of the men and
stolen from their wages under the law
of prifits and rents. Taking interest,
rent or commission or any other form of
profit is justifiable only on one condi
tion ;to illustrate: When a boss takes
a profit from the earnings of his work
men, if he uses that profit for the joint
good of himself and those workmen then
he is lustified in having taken it. But
wfien he uses it only f-r his own inter
ests, and especially when he uses it di
rectly against the interests and comfort
of those men who produced it, then he
is a robber and ought to be treated as
such, all laws to the contrary notwith
standing. It is time workingmen saw
this distinction and acted upon it. The
law will soon get into line when work
ingmen refuse to respect any title to
property that is being used against the
interests of the producers.
/ The Northern Pacific Coal company
are using their property and the power
their property gives them against the
interests of the men who produced that
property, namely, against the miners.
Therefore, by common sense, in the in
terest of justice and in defense of human
liber v those miners should not respect
the company’s tide to its property.
Liberty and justice cannot be sustained
under any other policy, and, in fact, all
human liberty tuat has ever been sur
rendered to capitalism has been sur
rendered beciuse the producing classes
have through ignoranca or cowardice or
both failed to sustain this policy.
That company hired thotementogo
there and work so th it that company
could reap a profit from their labor.
The company has taken so much profit
from their labor that the men nave
nothing left. Now the company has
seen fit to turn them out as penniless
tramps, with no funds to travel with and
nothing to leave their families, and their
families to be turned out of doors by the
company from the company’s houses,
and turned out immediately. Because
the law does not furnish these men any
defense or any remedy they think they
therefore have no remedy, and this is a
stupid conclusion that they should get
rid of. y
Allowing that the company got every
cent of their property honestly, still that
would be no excuse for allowing them
to keep it if they used it and the power
it gives them to oppress and coerce these
men.
Suppose I own a ship and cargo of
provisions, and hire five men to help me
sail her across the ocean ; and then,
wh6n in the middle of the ocean, I con
clude to discharge the men and refuse to
feed them any longer, because, having
been discharged, they are not at w ork
for me, and not being in my employ, I
eject them from their 'lodgings: what
would the men do in such s case?
Would the men gf peaceably out oq
[Continued on fourth page.