OCR Text |
Show THE WEAPOK OF AMERICAN LABOB. The workingmen of the country, especially of the statea, have this leaaon to learn: That no agitation is potent under our form of government, that does not make itself felt in politics, poli-tics, or failu to appeal to the power of legislation. In moat other countries tho labor interests are either excluded ex-cluded from tho polls, or the power of legislation ia so restricted by institutions insti-tutions which have come down from the days ot feudalism, that the. la borer has little influence in framing the laws, and his voice can only be heard through the force of social organizations, or-ganizations, public agitations and strikes, having their origin in Buffering Buffer-ing and discontent. The history ef the strucgles of the British working-men working-men ia a story reaching through generations, a history tilled with the incidents of legal wrongs and cruelties on one aide and the desper ate efforts of starving thousands on the other. It is a history of revolution, revolu-tion, outrage and bloodshed, of injustice in-justice and revenge. Little by little the British workman, by persistent agitation, haB secured a certain status upon which he now stands firmly. Out of the conflicts of the past the principle of arbitration between the employer and the employed has been evolved; a principle in which the rights of both classes are recognized. Its adoption has tended to lessen the evils of these great struggles and to shorten their duration. In America our ByBtem of government govern-ment ia nominally free and open to the representative influences of all classes of Bociely. The laboring citizen citi-zen has the same opportunities of political combination as others, and being largely in the majority of the citizenship could easily control the governments in all their departments. depart-ments. With a proper political organisation organi-sation the meohamc and laborer can make thimeelvss felt in the national and stat? capitals,, and diotate whatever what-ever legislation they may desire within with-in constitutional limits. That they have not done this before is their own fault. They have the forming of the political parties in their hands, and once aroused to the importance of this method of action as the railroad workers were last week to their demands, de-mands, they would encounter no serious opposition. Politicians and congressmen would hasten to their standard and rush to do their bidding. Heretofore the workingmen have allied themselves to one or another of the great national parties, as they are called, but they have generally been content with the plat- j forms framed by the politicians-platforms politicians-platforms meant to be broken and not to be enforced in legislation. When the so-called leaders of the parties discover that the workingmen are in earnest in their demands there will be no lack of champions of the ; rights of labor, and legislation will not thereafter be made with especial reference to the interests of the capitalists, capi-talists, and ignoring the rights of the workingmen. This view of tho case reveals the true remedy of the laboring man for the majority of the evils which may oppress him. We would not be understood un-derstood aa paying that legislation can be mode a sovereign cure all for hard times, a preventative of panics and a source of universal employment employ-ment for the idle; but it is nevertheless neverthe-less true that the policy of the sovereign sover-eign government in any country is the moat potent influence upon the people's prosperity and happiness. The power that controls the questions of peace and war, the money of the nation, its tarifla and its commerce is the leading influence for good or evil upon its citizenship. When the government of the United States permitted the sections to engage ia deadly war in 1S61, it sealed the fate ot millions of people then unborn and made possible, nay, almost inevitable, the distractions and disturbances and poverty and panics of the present. The political quacks manipulated the workingmen to their ruin, under promise of a wonderful improvement in their affairs under the auspices of the republican party. The laboring men now fully appreciate appreci-ate how they have been dragged down to almost slavery by the great war and its waste, and they strike unthinkingly unthink-ingly and employ force foolishly to their own cost. Mobs must be put down ; and the laboring man must aeek his remedy against oppression at Che ballot box. If this fails him nothing no-thing else is possible, and he must quietly lubmit. Tho south paid at terrible cost the penalty of a w.ir against tho organized governmentjund all mob violence will meet a similar .late. The ballot ij the only pallium . of American liberties, and the pro ducing classes should organize upon this; line of attack and never give it up until they have secured a major ity in congress devoted to their own interests. Then they can thwart the constant efforts of capitalists to turn all legislation in favor of the protection protec-tion of hugo monopolies, gre.it bunk and foreign financial syndicates, and 'make the national legislature reflect the sentiments and interests of the producers, who are the source of all national wealth and prosperity. It now appears that the strike of the employes of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad was almost a necessity. The Washington Star shows the immense im-mense reduction that bus taken placo in their salaries. The engineers ol the road formerly made on an average ahout $140 per month. They now receive from $50 to $G0. The brake-men brake-men formerly received from $50 to 360 per month, whereas their com pensation under the recent reduction , was cut down to $25, out of which they were obliged to pay for meals , and lodcing when away from home. i There is no sense or reason in such ' miserable economy. At the present expenses of HviDg few men can sup-a sup-a port a family half decently on 75 a cents a day. |