Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1847-09-09
A Way Word to the WOrkinsmcn Of
ChriStcndOm.
BY ELIHU BURRITT.

d I1l'ihb hbhhil l.
Brethrcn,-The London Times recently stated
that nine-tenths of the revenue of the British
Government came, directly or indirectly from
the laboring classes Of the kingdom. If this be |
true with regard to our brethren in Great Brit
ain it is equally true i'll the United States, France,
Germany, and in all the Continental nations
Let lis pin that fact upon the wall over against
our work benches and mantc-picccs; for it is a
fact that has something to do with every meal of
food and every hour of our labor We working
men Of Christendom supply our respective gov
ernments with nine-tenths Of their revenues
Remember that Then ninc-tenths of all the
national debts Of Christcndom are our own
debts, and we must pay them to the utmost far
thing. Let us see the worst of our case now
What is our share Of these national debts Why
their sum total at the lowest calculation, cannot
be lets than Il 500 $50 goo or 81 5000 900 900!
and all for wars, every farthing of it. There is
not Government in Chrstendom that can show
single school house, mile of railway, or Ca
nal against this tremendous expenditure. Well
nine-tenths of this vast sum the working classes
owe; as much as if every man of us had given
his note Of hand for his share of it. Then our
share of these war debts is 81 $50, 600 600 or
5000 900 600. And this for war; brethren for
glorious wars Of the past This is ar debt
remember that. Shall we ever work it off! shall
we ever pay it That is a question our govern
ments care but little about. They know that the
working classes care good" for the amount or at
least good for the interest of it. We may send
the principal down from generation to genera
ton of our posterity to be a great milestone
about the neck of their industry; but we cannot
get rid of the interest in that way That we
must pay, not at the end of the year. as in other
cases of debt, but at the purchase of every arti-
Gle Of food and clothing and even at every glance
at heavens gratutous sky through our windows
And what is this interest Let us see how much
we must pay every year on this old score of
bloodshed. The interest of the workingnen's
share Of the war-debt, of Chrisendom, at 5 per
cent sG61 800 000,or 1887 ,000, 600. This is the
sum they have had to pay annually ever since
the sun went down on the carnage of Waterloo
Since that day of blood, they have paid in inter-
ests on the war debts, which it left upon their
industry, more than 81 900 600 600 or $40
600, 100000. During the next 30 years. fellow
Workingmen of Chrlstcndom, we shall have to
pay 90 600 geo GEO more in interest on this
debt of ours Thus the laborng classes of Eu-
rope alone will have paid $4,000 900 900 or
S20,00O,000 900, during the sixty years succeed
ing the battle of Waterloo in interest of their
portion of the glory bills of human slaughter !
Now think Of that to-day, tomorrow, next week,
and all the weeks of the year, All you men in
the fields in the factories, in the forests, mines
mountains, and you who do business upon the
great deep, think of that sober fact Think,
what one million is, when cut up into days wages
then what tr0 Thousand millions sterling must be
for the worringmen of Europe alone to pay dur
ing the next 30 years! How many days works,
at three shilIings day, must be given to sweep
off this interest score!
Surely this tremendous burden must be all
that the system of war can have saddled upon the
laboring classes of Chrisendom! No; far from
it, Like the breast referred to in Scripture,
they are 'crouching between two burdens, of
equal weight, and both imposed by war, past and
prospective We have been weighing the bur
Den of wars past; let us now weigh, in the same
scale, the burden of wars prospective, For, ev-
er since the great slaugher-day of Waterloo,
wars prospective have beed reddening the hor-
rizon of the future, with their bloody omens, in
the eyes OF our respective governments; wars to
be prepared for, and paid for in time of peace
Well, nine-tenths Of this preparing and paying,
of course, have deVoVed upon the laboring clas-
SEES again, and make up the other burden saddled
upon their necks Let us see if it be an ounce
lighter than the first.
Al the lowest calculation admissible, the gov
ernments of Christendom, including that of the
United States, have expended GI50, 600 900 a
year, in mere preparations for war, since 1915.
Nine-tenths of this sum amount to seI35 900 900.
This is the working-men's part of the annual
preparations, which, being multiplied by -,
the number Of years since the peace in 1915,
gives us the snug little sum of "a, 800, 600 900,
or about 81 800 900 900 dollars, which we lab
oring men of Christendom have paid out of our
earnings merely for preparing for future wars,
during the last - years! Why this burden is
heavier than the other Yes, more than twice
as heavy and it is growing heavier every year in
Great Britain, France, United States, and in al
most every country in Chrlstendom. But stop!
we have not put the whole of it into the scale
yet. There are at least 100000 able bodied
men IN the standing armies of Chrisendom; all
able bodied men these, according to the surge
on's certificate, which is never asked when men
are merely wanted to NOV, plough, and SOW and
make stone-wall, or for any vulgar utilitarian
purpose. Every common soldier is taken from
the laboring classes, we may be sure of that
The population embracing the laboring classes
of any country, will not average more than one
able bodied man, according to the surgeons mil
itary standard, to every ten individuals. Then
it would take out all the able bodied mem from
100000 of the people to raise the standing