Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-05-08
A HEART-REND1Ne SPECTACLE.
rcorreslpondenoe sls of the Chicago JournAl.l


month was 123,400, or IA per cent. -,
| A HEART-RENDING SPECTACLE. -,
Correspondence of the Chicago Journal *
An extraordinary sight was witnessed
in the principal London streets recently.
Rather more than a thousand of the most
miserable wretches that ever wore the garb
of humanity formed procession and
marched in silence from the neighborhood
of Mapping and Whitechapel to the aristo-
cratic quarters of st. James and Beigravia.
There was no disturbance or excess of any
kind. Every man was in rags, and every
form and face bore the unmistakable marks
of priYation and distress. A banner or two
contained inscriptions indicative of their
character and their wants, and a few car
ried money boxes to receive any donations
that might be bestowed upon them.
Why, know not, but it was not deemed
worth while to prevent this. demonstration
on the part of the authorities; but the sight
was one that did not tend to add greatly
to an Englishman's pride. These men, it is
well known, were only the representatives
of body forty times their number, for it,
has been ascertained that there are no less
than forty Thousand in the eastern suburbs
of London not only out of employment, but
reduced to the extreme of destitution, and
dependent on daily charity for their morsel
of bread, or cup of soup that keeps the
flame of life alight within their emaciated
bodies. 1t is frighrful thing to contem-
plate, and what is to be the end of this
state of things Heaven only knows.
T. STRIKES AND SOCIALISM IN FRANCE.
[From Galignani's Messenger.l
The strikes of workmen, which have of
late taken placein various parts of France,
and more particularly in Paris, appear to
the Monde nothing else than socialism in a
modified form. There arc, our cotemporary
thinks, in the present contest between the
laborer and capital precisely the same ele-
ments that marked the dreadful insurrec-
tion of June, l848, when more general-of-
fcers were killed at the barrfcades than
was seen in any battle of the first empire.
The writer quotes a passage from an ad-
dress delivered lately to meeting of fWork-
men in the capital calling for an increase
of wages; the speaker declared that the
masters and men had at last met face to
face on the battlefield OF strike, and that
they, the latter, must either conquer
or die! The Monde then makes the follow
ing comment:
Such are the words of conciliation and
cordial understanding which lately re-
sounded under the roof of the Elysee-
Montmartre. A field of battle was want
ing to socialism. The liberty of strikes
furnishes it, and thence the cry of enmity
to property holders is raised for, let US
not blink at the question, especially as at
present society does not strive to blind
itself to realities. What is at this moment
occurring is nothing else than the reorgan-
ization of socialism; the result of the doc
trines of '48, vanquished on the barricades
of June and by the coup d'Etat, from which
the empire arose. The object is the same,
but the means differ. In 4S socialism
wished to dispossess by force; at present it
wants to have the posSessor deSpoil himself.
1t lays down conditions for capital, in say
ing: ''YOu shall yield, or it will be war to
the knife" Conquer or die, forsooth What
does conquering capital, that is, property.
mean? How is that victory to be gained ??
paralyze it, place it under the impossibility
OF acting, and then the life of the ma
ton is suspended; ruin everywhere, gem
eral misery, the workshop closed and che
plough idle-or to take it from those who
possess it, and that is pillage, brigandage;
in short, social war. Until now, however
except at RonbaiX-only the first alter
native has been put forward; it is in cast
ing an interdict on such or such firm
in coalescing to withdraw from it the
means of production and gain, that efforts
have been made to vanquiSh capital; but,
if they are not successful-if the masters
take up the gauntlet-if they have the good
sense to understand that an augmentation
of 20 per cent. accorded under the pressure
of strike will only be the starting point
for new and speedy demand-if they also
reply. stConuuer or die,n what will happen /
But we are advancing rapidly to that crit
ical instant when the Overstrained cord
willsnap.
COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES AND TRADES uN-
IONS.
How the system of cooperative labor
works in England is shown by the testi-
mony of the Secretary of malgamated
Society of Engineers before the Royal
Commission on Trades Unions. This evil
dence applies to all trades, and what has
be equally successful elsewhere:"
.sIhe witness stated that the society was
formed in 1851, of a number of societies
which had previously existed, and it now
numbered ,33, 900 members, with an annual
Increase ofl2000 or 5000 a year. There
are. ha said. 3O8 branches-in England and