Workmen's advocate., August 20, 1887, Image 2

About Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891

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WORKMEN'S ADVOCATE.
.WOBKMEKSADVOCATfc
a jnniiNAi. or
THE SOCIALISTIC LABOR PARTY
ruiiMiiiKii (vm:r wrkk.
rulilirMtloii Omc, 7X1 CliMil Klrt.
IntoroHtltiK (Mrrepnl("iii HollHled from pro
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quiring aiiHWr kIioiiWI contain mturn mntaio
AdilntHH all coiiimuiilcalloiiH to
Workman' Advocate,
r. O. Irawr lO.'l, New llavmi, Conn.
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is I :i;i m( at 1 1 1 is ill sett lement of accounts.
Wii have more Hum we know wlml In
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OUR SISTERS.
''lie Workimj Woman tlio name
of wilt little weekly published hiuI
edited by Charlotte Smith, lit WiihJi-
ington, D. (!., under the auspices of
the Woiiuui'h Nationiil Industrial
Ijcague. Charlotte confesses herself
susceptible to flattery:
"Wo felt highly Haltered Hint Imh emi
nence had critically read our organ, (lie
Workimj Wuiwih, and heartily synipa
tliized with our eirirlK at organization
and elevation of women kh luead-win-liei-H,"
sho Bays, after tin interview with
Cardinal GihhniiH. And yet wo aro
almost persuaded that tlio Cardinal
would not havo women infringe upon
LiH business and increase tho Hiipply
of cardinals with a corresponding
reduction of wages according to tho
"divine" law of supply and demand.
We will wager that Charlotte, who
wants "equal pay for equal work,''
does nioro hard work than her emi
nent flatterer, but her wages ate not
by any means equal to hit). Tho
hard work of many a poor girl goes
to- pay the Carlinal a princely salary.
Think it over, Charlotte Smith I
The Cardinal advised our editorial
friend to "impress upon women tho
dignity of labor." Thin seems to bo
cool advice, coming from such a
source, and yet Charlotte Smith
don't seem to feel indignant over it.
Cardinal (libboitH told our friend
that:
"The great cause of no much misery
and crime to-day is women in moderate
circumstances living lieyond their prop
er nihere in life, ami looking down on
industrial urHtiitH hh degrading to them.
And their love of drenH is doing more to
demoralize American women than any
other cause."
Our opinion is (hat average women
earn all the linery they usually de
hire. Some women do not perform
awful work : hut our friend might
have with peculiar -propriety im
pressed it ii jkjii "Mis Eminence"
that .smut' men are equally useless
useless as producers as well as use
less sex wise. And as to women
"living beyond their proper sphere
jn life," w ho are they that determine
womaiiB proer sphere? Cardinals?
And what a monstrous assumption
it is for the Cardinal to say that "the
great cause of so much misery and
crime to-day is women in moderate
c! reams! antes living beyond their
sphere. Tho cardinal is a veritable
Adam, to blamo women for the
misery and crime of tho day. Tho
blame is not with tho women; oue
must seek further back. Bebel
says, in his "Woman in the Past,
Present and Future," a work, by tho
way, that should be studied by all
women who would benefit their sex:
"As a general rule tho development of
the heart nod fancy has hitherto been
cultivated in woman to an altogether
disprojiortionate extent; the develop
ment of her reasoniug faculties, on the
other hand, has been checked or grossly
neglected. She consequently suffers
from an hypertrophy of feeling and is
therefore generally accessible to every
kind of superstition and fraud; she is a
fruitful soil for all forms of religions and
other charlatanism, and a willing tool in
the hands of every reactionary party."
The mere taste for "dress" is not
in itself anything to be alarmed at.
Ami when tho young woman devel
ops an ambition to dresH well that
is, in a manner to win approbation,
she does precisely what she is en
couraged to do by just such 'oplo
who presume to criticize her for it.
In the church, on the Btreet, in the
social circle, she finds for herself the
more consideration the more expen
sively and tastefully (according to
current criterion) she dresses.
As wage-workers women are con
sidered more tractable by employers
than men, and they are used as
pawns to lower wages by the substi
tution of their working force for
men's. Under the reign of capital
ism, industrial pursuits are indeed
degrading to women as well as to
men. Slavery is degrading. And
yet Cardinal Gibbons linds fault be
cause some women instinctively feel
this to be so. What is his remedy?
depression contentment in their
"projier sphere," which means, if
it means anything, thai tiie proKT
sphere of a working woman is a far
more contracted one than that of a
"lady," for instance, in his opinion.
The emancipation of woman is in
dissolubly connected with the eman
cipation of the proletariat and the
upbuilding of a socialistic common
wealth where equal facilities will be
free for all alike, regardless of sex;
where the young woman will not
look upon marriage as a means to
obtain a ''home," or lind in prosti
tution the only alternative beside
slavish drudgery or starvation.
There is no equality liotween tho
capitalist employer and his depend
ent hireling; neither can there be
equality between man and woman,
so long as the hitter is tleeiit(eiil
I upon the former.
If the Wort imj Woman possesses
any inllucnce let it be exercised in
the noble endeavor to impress upon
its readers the necessity for a fra
ternal co-operation between the op
pressed of both sexes in the warfare
against superstitious usages which
are only dangerous in their observ
ance, and against a system which de
crees that Labor shall be subject to
Capital tho creator subject to his
creation in the hands of the exploit
ers that small class of people who
receive large stipends from the peo
ple without productive or useful
work.
The wage-slave's wife is indeed a
slave, and her emancipation can
only be accomplished with his.
LABOR DID IT.
Rev. Hugh I'enttH'ost should study
a little more, lie recently made tho
assertion that land gave 000,000
to a certain "thing in a dog-cart
driving a tandem team." Now, how
could land give a "thing" ;i,000,000
or even one cent? It took the labor
of many jieoplo a number of years to
create the enormous amount of
wealth represented by :?,0O(t,0OO.
There may lie some reason why these
people passed over their wealth to
the "thing." Possibly they paid
some landlord rent; or boiuo railway
company profit; or some manufac
turer unpaid labor.
"Ah, but they had to have land
to live upon and to use in creating
wealth 1"
Oh, yes. And they needed oxygen
and hydrogen and sunlight. But,
generally, the bounties of nature in
this climate are worthless till touched
by labor.
What true democracy wants is a
party of the people, for the people,
and by the people; not of George,
for George, and by George.
MUTUALITY.
Never in tho annals of tax-reform
agitation has there been such an ex
hibition. of enthusiasm as that which
tickles the ears of the most profound
thinkers, most eloquent orators and
most practic.il economists the world
has ever been honored with. The
daily pajiers tell of great meetings at
tho New York Academy of Music,
at which three great men aro made
greater, while they hurl tho thunder
of oratory against that intangible,
yet ever-present monster, Poverty.
Neither the "curse of Rome" nor
tho ridicule of Pink- can stay the
wild delight of the loyal men and
women who see in each other more
than human excellence. Nor is elo
quent invective the only talent dis
played by tho ureates'. men of tho
age, George, McGlynn and Pente
cost. All three acknowledge the
fatherhood of God and the brother
hood of man the latter including,
of course, the sisterhood of woman.
Nothing can be imagined more beau
tiful than the enthusiastic admira
tion bestowed upon the greatest
apostles of earth the destroyers of
poverty by tho impassioned advocacy
of taxing land to its full rental value,
unless it is the holy zeal with which
these good men dispense mutual
praise.
How different it is with the wrang
ling logicians of the common herd,
as they discuss abstract principles
and their relation to obvious facts at
the Central Labor Unions and the
political meetings. Have the lead
ers there a kind word to say of each
other ? No I They do not even con
sider each other's feelings as they
busy themselves with mere princi
ples, and thus neglect that most im
lortant thing in the world of human
ity, reciprocal admiration. .
In tho bright circle of tho Anti
Poverty society humanity comes in
for its meed of worship, and that is
not left entirely to tho audienco.
The speakers aro not tho least appre
ciative listeners to tho silver-toned
oratory, and no mean jealousy inter
feres with loyal esteem and fervid
expressions of mutual regard. Hen
ry George speaks his honest convic
tion when ho eulogizes Edward
McGlynn as tho greatest priest on
earth, God's own choice; nor does
he forgot Pentecost. Edward
McGlynn is not ashamed, in the
fullness of his great heart, to elo
quently describe Henry George as
tho greatest prophet the world has
ever seen the Moses of modern
times the month-piece of God him
self; nor does he forget Pentecost.
The brave Pentecost, whose elo
quence moves his hearers to tears
and enraptures them, acknowledges
the grandeur-the Christ-like nobil
ity of both his brilliant cotompora
ries, but ho places McGlynn fore
most. In a magnificent burst of en
thusiasm he expressed his ardent
hoio that soon the Statue of Liberty
would give placo to a statue of the
glorious priest, McGlynn 1
Thus the millenium is heralded to
an admiring and hopeful multitude
without the painful slowness of evo
lution, or the distracting study of
Booial political science.
As has lMen often prophesied by
the most learned exponents of New
York polities, the people only need
ed g'xxl leaders to tiro their hearts,
and point out to them the path that
leads to affluence. Tho prophesy is
being fulfilled. The leaders are
there, and what is more indicative
of wealth than Anti-Poverty?
Rome may howl; Corrigan and
his army of wealth-producing priests
may rave; landlords may tear and
swear; the astonished Socialists may
look skeptical; it matters noi. The
perfection of mutuality is proof
against hoary superstition, vested
rights and cold logic alike, when the
soul of that mutuality is admiration.
ULTRAMONTANISM IN U. S.
A pamphlet has just been issued
by Adolf Hepnor, Philadelphia, en
titled "Ultramontanism is Unlawful
in tho United States," in which the
very evident fact is accentuated that
allegiance to any foreign prince,
potentate, State or sovereignty must
ho renounced by all who become nat
uralized citizens, and that the Pope
comes under the law in this respect.
The case of Dr. McGlynn has
prompted the issue of the pamphlet,
from which we quote a paragraph,
showing the error of contumacious
Catholics concerning the position of
the Church in regard to land com
munism: "Dr. McGlynn lielieves, and Mr.
George alike, that the land la-longs to
the people, while the Church, based on
the principle that it is ( tod who makes
the one rich and happy and others poor,
aick and shiftless, cannot stand such a
dangerous theory as represented by Mr.
(leorgo's land-communism. If it were
(rod's will to let all his children enjoy an
equal share of the houiitiesof nature and
the commodities afforded by them, lie
scarcely would have U'tliouglit himself
so many thousand years and waited for
Mr. leorge's advice. It is lod who con
sented to the social state of inequality,
otherwise he would have changed it long
since by inspiring the infallible chief of
the Church to model the social world
after a new fashion."
It is to he regretted that tho pam
phlet is not printed in better Eng
lish. In this respect it differs from
Mr. George's later writings which
exhibit better English than logic,
while tho author of the pamphlet re
ferred to exhibits better logic than
English.
WITH SORROW AND TEARS.
Trades Unionists, Socialists and
Knights of Labor on the one hand
and Georgeites and Irving Hallites
("democrats") on the other assisted
in making a constitution for the
United Lalior Party in New York,
in which membership in othor (op
posing) political parties was prohib
ited. Under that constitution they
all carried on business in the various
Assembly Districts. It transpired
that certain salaried "prominents"
wore not elected delegates to the
State Convention by their district
organizations, while certain others
were elected. The disappointed fel
lows cast about them for a means to
nullify the vote of tho people, and
this is what they found: The dele
gates elected were either members
or friends of a socialistic organiza
tion pledged to the support of the
Ijabor Party. With tho assistance
of George's weekly paper, and the
capitalist press, it was made to ap
pear that tho Socialists were an op
posing political party, and the
County Committee, with Chairman
McMackin, "sorrowfully" decided
that the "constitution" prohibited
Socialists from membership in the
United Ijabor Party, and that any
action taken in any meeting in which
Socialists had a voice was null and
void.
As Socialists helped make tho
constitution, that would seem to be
null and void also.
And yet these disappointed fellows
claim to havo great respect for tho
constitution so profound is their
respect for that instrument that
they must against their will and
with tears excommunicato any one
who does not consent to the only
scheme for anti-poverty (among us
fellows) in tho wide, wide world.
NOTES.
The Czar mourns tho death of
Editor Katkoff, which would indi
cate that he was of no benefit to
the Russians.
Labor Day, the first Monday in
September, is becoming an "institu
tion." It will be observed more
generally this year than ever before.
"The "democratic" party seems to
havo sufficient force in the New York
Central Labor Union to successfully
carry tho enemies' tactics by a vote.
Let them remember tho fate of tho
New York Amalgamated Trades
Assembly,
The Knights of Lalior are certainly
"breaking up" Imihs rule, cliques and
rings, and we rejoice in the fact. H (7
miimUm (.V. V.) hutex.
This will be a pleasant surprise to
most Knights of Iakir. Let tho
good work go on.
Cardinal Gibbons is reported as
saying that he would ho sorry and
surprised to soo the K. of L. con
demned by the Pope. We don't see
that the K. of K would be any worse
for papal condemnation, nor would
they all cry jwecari, a la Galileo,
i
Hero-worship seems to flourish in
New York to an alarming extent
Hut we have faith that hard com
mon sonso will in the end prevail
among the working people who are
groping their way amid innumerable
diflicultios toward industrial freedom.
A kind friend hopes that wo will
not get heated in the fray with the
anti-Socialists. Let him rest easy.
A fellow that can remain cool under
atmospheric humidity is proof
against bulla of excommunication
whoso trajectory is as erratic as that
of an Australian boomerang in the
hands of a novice, and about as far
reaching. It is reported that the number of
emigrants arriving from Europe was
larger than ever recorded during
any other month of July. If the
emigrants were given an opportunity
to go to work and receive the full
value of their labor they would he a
valuable addition to our country.
The capitalist system is the curso to
remove, not the emigrants.
The assertion made by Henry
George in his last week's paper that
the Yolhzeilung had urged Socialists
to organizo separate meetings and
draw away members from the United
Labor Party, is evidence that Mr.
George is either the dupo of some
unscrupulous mischief-maker or is
ono himself. A cause that seeks
tho support of falsehood is weak in
deed. German Socialism is so confused and
confusing in its terminology, so illogical
in its methods; it contains such a mix
ture of important truths with Huperticial
generalizations, that it is difficult at
least for people of English speech to
readily understand its real meaning and
purpose. Henry George.
This is really too bad, and much
to be regretted. Nevertheless, Hen
ry, some "people of English speech"
have sufficient intelligence to get a
mental grip on it
The Socialists know how to write, talk
and tight. Union Muter.
And what is of more importance,
they use their knowledge to defend
sound principles Hut, after all, we
think that the Socialists are greatly
overrated in reBpect to their abilities.
It doesn't require near as much abil
ity, from a logical point of view, to
tell the truth and defend it, as it
docs to defend sophistry and false
hood. It is not the ability of Social
ists, but the science of Socialism that
appeals to men's reason.
It does seem that there is a certain in
congruity in a struggle against Socialism
in the United Lalior Party. Mr. George's
land scheme is distinctly socialistic.
Where is the line to be drawn in the
United Lalxir Party between the Social
ism that is fiermitted and the Socialism
that is tabooed N. V. Hun.
That is an easy conundrum. The line
is drawn between Mr. George's theories
and thorn of any other Socialist Truth
Seeker.
Well answered. But to call George
a Socialist is to give him credit for
more than he claims as well as for
more than fact would warrant
While we believe that the political
forces of the working people will ul
timately harmonize, we do not favor
compromise with tricksters and self
seekers. When men havo proved
themselves to bo Buch they Hhould
ho avoided and never trusted. If,
perchance, they repent and roform,
they will be satisfied to remain in
the rank and file and humbly assist
in working out their own salvation.
Tho unwarranted attack upon their
brother members in New Y'ork has
unmasked a number of people whom
it will be wise to avoid in future, no
matter what their "talents" are.
If tho United Labor Party has begun
a policy of exclusion that demands ex
clusion of Socialist from it, it will per
ham next object to Baptists, red-haired
men, etc. It apears to lie another case
of taking counsel from the enemy instead
of from common sense. I'romdi'nce
I'eople.
The United Iiabor Party, let us
hope, will not follow tho evil exam
ple of the little faction in New York
City. Uy the way, it's strange, isn't
it, that tho very people who havo
been howling against excommunica
tion have themselves engaged in
that business ? A Labor party will
never exclude Socialists from its
ranks. That is simply impossible.
THE LESSON OF THE HOUR.
On page 294 (Appleton edition) of
"Progress and Poverty" we find the
following notable words in relation
to remedies for economic disorders:
"Nor is any remedy worth consid
ering that does not fall in with the
natural direction of social develop
ment, and swim, so to speak, with
the current of tho times. That con
centration is the order of develop
ment there can be no mistaking
the concentration of people in large
cities, the concentration of handi
crafts in large factories, the concen
tration of transportation by railroad
and steamship lines and of agricul
tural operations in large fields. The
curent of the timo runs to concentra
tion. To successfully resist it we
must throttle steam and discharge
electricity from human service."
No one could have put this signifi
cant truth into more vigorous words;
into sentences that could more aptly
express the fact. And it is just this
truth tho radical teachers of Social
economics are constantly affirming.
There is no need, however, to "re
sist" this power of concentration.
The real thing is to ubo it, and in
doing so make it as serviceable to
the whole people as it is now profit
able to the capital-owning class.
Until "concentration," which is a
social force, irresistible in its econ
omic power, is made subordinate to
and compelled thereby to serve the
social order, it must remain as it now
is, the most tyrannical and danger
ous foe to personal liberty and in
dustrial independence that tho world
has ever beheld or felt Henry
George knows this.
All social reformers believe, as he
does, that the confiscation of social
land values must and will be the
only effectual means of resisting this
tendency to concentration. Thore
needs lie no quarrel with him on
that score. But there is also no need
for his friends to assume as they have
dono, that everyone who holds that
economic concentration is correct,
but that to be just it must be social
ized and made serviceable to all, is
personally hostile to their teachings
and in opposition to the course he
and they have pursued. There is
no room for such ideas in our strug
gle, and there is the greatest need of
all opinions and all counsels that
tend directly to a common end, and
that for the common benefit Some
friends fail to remember that a party
and an agitation are different agen
cies, though their purposes may be
the same. In a party all members are
responsible for the acceptance of a
general agreement; in an agitation
the leaders are responsible only to
themselves; their followers only to
their own acceptance of the opinions
expressed. The one prepares; the
other crystalizes. The one is indi
vidual; the other is concentration
for a general purpose. The lesson
of this is an obvious one and we will
all do well to take heed of it X. Y.
Leader.
Keep Your Eyes Openl