Show i a OUR LABOE COLUMN > Items of Interest to Working i People I I The Chicago Riots tabor In Politics II I I Prejudice Against the RichThe Value I 4 > t Wealth TVairo Reductions Notes I The demonstrations of the unemployed in Chicago and jew York are becoming more alarming as their numbers increase It is vary certain that unless something is done to furnish themwith employment or food serious bread riots will occur before I I be-fore long for people will not quietly Bturvo to death The most discouraging feature of these demonstrations is the I I utter ienorance shown of the causes of L their troubles and therefore of the remedy I i rem-edy The speakers generally confine I 3 themselves to denouncing the rich and I insisting that wage earners instead of lawyers ana millionaires be sent to Congress I Con-gress They claim that the money bags instead of the people are represented in the legislatures The only remedies proposed at a big meeting last week in Chicago was calling upon Congress to fix a true standard of alues based upon the product of labor asking the government to employ idle men on the roadways and public improvements where convicts con-victs are employed and resolving that the hours ol labor bo reducod so that all might find employment The utter inadequacy of any such remedies to meet the case is apparent on a moments reflection If the members of Congress and other legislative bodies do not truly represent the workingmen whose fault is it The workingmen wage earners compose the great majority of voters They virtually elect every representative I body If they sell their votes to elect men who dont represent them they are as much responsible as those who bribe I them If they dont take the trouble to I find out the character and principles of the men they put into office who is to blame but themselves And would a wageearner represent them more truly I than anyone else He would be quite as likely to accept a bribs as any other man f and can generally be bought cheaper I It w The trouble is that your average labor leader and legislator ban some little one horse plan like making an eight hour day or preventing convicts from working or supplying a great quantity I of cheap money which is to give everybody I every-body work at high wages He does not L go deep enough iuto the laws which govern F gov-ern wages or the demand for labor or i those which affect production and distribution distri-bution to know what is the cause of the trouble or the remedy Until the great majority of men clearly understand what the causes of lack oi employment low wages and restricted production are there is little hope for any improvement in their condition In the meantime agitators agita-tors like Lucy Parsons and Mrs Goldberg Gold-berg and too many newspapers also continue con-tinue to inflame the minds of hungry and I idle men by appeals to prejudice and ignorance ig-norance and denunciation of the rich The harvest will certainly be one of blood and riot unless the solution of the problem I is found before long f S There seems to be growing up a stronger and stronger feeling against rich menThe men-The millionaire is denounced by labor papers he is the legitimate prey of the I anarchist and socialist Some would limit the amount which a man should be t > er mitted to accumulate others would divide di-vide his estate up at death appropriating the largest share of it to the state Some papers are in favor of a progressive income in-come tax by which the very rich shall Day the largest part of the taxes and the New York World proposes that all public revenues rev-enues shall be collected by a tax on incomes in-comes of only 10000 and over All of this indicates a general belief that great fortunes cannot be accumulated honestly that the millionaire multimillionaire have not come by their millions in a legitimate manner 4 S F Bat I would ask at what point does a I man cease to earn his wealth honestly and begin to accumulate by dishonest methods When he has gathered SlOOO 510000 5100000 or 1000000 I venture to say that as large proportion of the fortunes for-tunes under 1000000 have been secured without rendering value as those above that amount The man who has made 10000 without rendering an equivalent to the community either in services or in I production is quite as deserving of the denunciation of the press as the millionaire million-aire who has gained his in the same way A man is a thief whether he steals a small or a large amount The thing to do is to stop his stealing anything not take a portion of his stealing or limit the amount which he may be permitted to steal or take his stealings after he is deadMen Men accumulate fortues under the operation of certain laws which enable r them if they are lucky or use their money right to gather millions mil-lions and millions without rendering a fair equivalent Most men will take advantage 01 these laws if they are able and will secure still more favorable laws to the same end if they find a legislative body which can be influenced by specious argument or the long green Protective Protec-tive tariff laws which prevent competition compe-tition the granting of franchises which give corporations the power of taxing the people to the utmost limit the absence of restrictive laws by which corporations can get control of natural resources such as oil fields coal beds mineral deposits etc are among the means by which great fortunes and small ones tooare accumulated ac-cumulated The remedy is not in limiting limit-ing the amount which a man may get ia this way but by giving equal rights to all special privileges to none and securing secur-ing for every man equal opportunities for the investment of his capital or his labor There should be no restriction upon the amount which a man may accumulate the more wealth added to the country the better for the country but the more one man has at the expense of others the worse off the country is Workingmen dout join in this senseless denunciation of millionaires mil-lionaires but use your vote towards securing se-curing such legislation will prevent the accumulation of either large or small fortunes without rendering an equivalent equiva-lent S Labor union statistics of England show that last year 431 organizations had a bona fide membership of 1109014 and Ian I-an aggregate 58617600 in the treasury A total of 970065 has been paid for the I relief of the unemployed during the past two years S p A number of delegates to the Farmers Alliance and Peoples party convention among whom are J B Weaver and Mary E Lease have Joined in a call to the I farmers of the west asking them to forward for-ward wheat corn potatoes and breadstuffs bread-stuffs to New York for the benefit of the I thousands unemployed there and in need of food I S > There was good deal of sense in the remark I re-mark of exGovernor butt of Colorado to a delegate from a trades assembly that waited upon him with s set of resolutions resolu-tions If you dd fools would resolute I less and vote more said the governor I uvon could easily secure what you I want i S The great strike of the English miners i for an advance in wages seems lik ° ly to J be broken before long A large number I have already gone to work unable to I hold out any longer The distress and suffering of the others is likely to force them back to work in a short time This result was inevitable from the start If th strike is the only remedy labor has Us hopes of ever securing justice are very email indeed To the laborer a strike I means hunger and suffering To the em ployer it means onlya lesseningof profits and not always that It dont make him fctrffer even for the lack of his cigars and champtgne The strike of 400 or 500 cr pushers at theO the-O exposition Iwt week was rather a novel feature of tta fair They U had been getting f 1 per djr and 10 per j 7s b c r a < it J > c 0 0 0 I ci cent of the receipts making a total of from fl50 to 2 for twelve and fifteen hours work Out of thin they had to pay fW for their suit and also their board The company wanted to reduce them 15 per cent which would leave with barely enough to pay their board The sympathy sym-pathy of the exposition officials was with the strikers whoare bright youBg men and through their mediation the proposed pro-posed cut in wages was not applied and the strike ended The only news in the labcr papers nowadays now-adays id of reductions in wages closing down oi mills factories whole or part time and the wholesale discharge of men I from railroads workshops and DRESSER factories |