The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1866-05-26
TRADES ASSEMBLY, LECTURES.
Rev. Or. cOuvsr On the LaSo- Issa.
DELiTsssD NAY 10, 1866.

(Coacluded)
II the workngmen who hear me vii
rot think ! am occurring them, instead Of
occurring 10 them, there is another thing
would ike 60 mention that feel very cleai
about, and Il is that all real prosperity II
life, rests on frugality, on the right use OF
money, on the power TO save in some way d
part 81 what we earn, and then to put what
yen save to the best possible uses. II
understand the Trades'Uuion right, it il
an association to protect labour from the
tyranny OF capital, to make sure that strength
aud skiI shall bring what it Is worth
That II the black man is never more to bG
the slave Of few hundred thousand planters
the white man is never more to be the slave
of a few hundred capitalists. | believe il
the principle, bat know this that when
ever you hnd an employer that paws his mer
down on the nail, weathers every storm, and
pr0spers right on 10 the end, there you find
a ms +, Jegan his life by practising a
frug, bat never saw in the working
man Wnv lives from hand to mouth, and thai
even now when he is rich be il far mort
careful, aud spends less in proportion to bis
means than the mechanic who earns three
dollars q day Let me tell you Of another
little item IN the personal history Of the
man mentioned who came over here sixteen
wears ago; and in that Of two OF three more
who went in with him. There were alto
gether about twenty men, al young men
nast setting out in life. The one in whom
naturally feel the deepest interest was a
reader. The FIRST shilling he ever had he
spent on book. When he came to this
Ia
great many b. could not spare, he spent on
books. lie Sas poor in everything beside,
but be was rich in books beyond any work
iDgman ! ever met and the books made
rirh his poverty, made his poor home shine
with light which is not of the sun, and
then With his knowledge opened way
TO bin into more eongenial, and far more
amply rewarded employment, for which he
never could have been ftted had he squand-
cred all the money he ever made on the
things that keep SO many workingmen With
their nose on hegrindstone. Right in front
Of him was another Englishman who read
some, but put bis money by. He has now
fine farm in New Jersey, and is indie
pendent. He had to help him an lrishnaD
who read nothing, but put his money by,
went to keeping store at Rising Sun, near
Philadelphia, and is independent. On each
hand were two other men who took care OF
their money ; one is doing good business
IN Princeton in this state, will be indsp n
dent whenever he can make up bis mind to
sell Ont, and the other retired on a compe-
tence last year, and will never work ca nj
as he. pleases, again. Eully one-haf OF
those men wege careful; the rest managed
generally to lie month behind hand. e
to the old shop about once year, they are
growing gray ana weary at their work. By
and bye they viii fall out of the ranks, Il
to doing little JOB, and then die, and Their
children will Rave bury them; while they
are far more now 1t the beck and call OF
their employers than they ought TO be, be-
cause Of The very fact that they have stayed
steadily at that one shop, and that particu-
lar kind Of worn, (hammer making) instead
of being blessing, without fragality, has
come 70 be curse. 1t has united them
for going into something else Every muscle
and fibre in body and brain has taken the
shape of hammer, and will never be IN
twisted any more. Now, then, | bid you Goo
seed in every wise effort to protect labouI
against capital, bat tell you that the frs
protection, after all, lies in the capital itseli
which you get in precisely the way the en-
ployer gets it, by spending less than yoU
earn. Whenever YOU earn more than you
need to spend, aud whenever that il done
generally, in this country, we shall find thai
employment rests oD the consent of the EN-
ployed, as certainly as government rests or
the consent Of the governed.
But this suggests again another thought
| remember once reading an amusing ac-
count of a steam engine that was made By
a man the name of Evans when engines hrst
began 4 be heard Of. Evans was quite q
genius in his way; thought good deal about
engine n aking; was sure be could make one,
tried and succeeded, so as to get an engine
run wit. perfect accuracy and very little
noise; capital engine in every respect but
this, that the moment you tackled anything
to it it stood stock still. On its own &C.
count it wGcld work beautifully. 1t was
az good as gold TO run if you had nothing
for it to do Guss as gentlemen are who want
an ofice), bus the moment you wanted il to
turn even grindstone, then lever, piston,
and wheel, struck work, and would not
bulge an inch. Now, have this fault to
find With most Of the workingmen | have
known in my life, that they were each one
Of them a one man power, but not one
mouse power beside. They never seemed to
understand, what | take to be the grandest
thing ID life, that to be we must do, to be
more tiaG common, we must DO more than
common, aud to be all we ought to be we
must do all we ought to do.
aud this brings me directly to the point
I wanted to come too from the start. Had
this lecture. your committee asked me to
give, been merely one Of the common lyceum
deliyerances that cen be procured by the
mile, If you want them, should have declin-
ed It, as did every invitation from every
quarter this year. But | remembered the
moment heard what you wanted that l am
a good deal more Of workingman than O
q talker can make a better horse shoe yet
than lecture, and SO lenged 80 tclk to you
if you would only come to hear me, on what
! have always considered to be the deepest
and truest Things the men | sprang from,
and belong to, can consider. | know
have told you thst the workingmen in this
country are at the very summit Of all that
the workingman has ever known in any
country or any time, but then this is no
reason why they should not 20 still higher
indeed | think it very strong reason why
they should, and they can do it in some
ways that ] want to mention. The present
contest between labour and capital, as I'M
derstand il, can be settled in at least three
WAYS, each ono Of which Is unspeakably
better than the one way workingmen gen.
eralis take thar of refusing TO work, until
the employers come up to the demand for
p y. !. No - - i L