The Irish republic. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1867-18??, 1868-01-04
The Heroism of Fools:

as they emphaticay declare never was SO dull it is
now" The workingmen out of employment, and
in too many instances their poor wives and children suffer
sore pryaons of which it is painful to think and the
particulars of which the world shall never know The
words we write this subject only faint express
sion of what we have very lately seen and cold and cal
lous indeed must be the man who look upon such
dreadful evils without the desire to discover the
which has produced them and to apply the remedy by
which they may be removed in the present and pre-
vented in the future
Nor are the inhabitants of the commercial capital of
America the only sufferers Alas, it is far otherwise. The
accounts which we have received during the last month
or six weeks respecting trade and manufacture in the
New England States, have been the very opposite of en-
couragng. To use common expression, and say that
"nothing is doing" would, perhaps, be too strong
declaration to be literally correct, For mankind must
live and move matter how stagnant may become their
pecuniary affairs or business transactions STILL the
phrase expresses what the whole, is essentially and
emphaticaly true that capital is invested that work
men not employed that goods not produced and
that as necessary consequence of such unfortunate
condition of affairs want and misery everywhere in
the ascendant.
From all parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut we
have been receiving during the past six weeks the very
unwelcome intelligence that mowners and manufacture
ers either contracting their producing operations
suspendng them altogether Running half or quarter
time appears be the'order of the day; while not
frequently the engine fires are blown out, and the
chnery left to rust in ideness The is obvious
There is little no demand for goods. The conse
quences are what we have already stated The hands
of hundreds of thousands of honest workmen idle
and their children ilfed and cad under the biting
blasts of a North American winter.
Such state of things in the great republic of the
West deeply be depored and it is the duty of every
intelligent citizen devise support such
as will effect its removal If the mans mind and heart
in the right place he will do this regardless of all
party claims which might hamper or prevent the
discharge of duty-a sacred duty-which he owes to
his country and his kind Those-if there are any
such-who act in different give melancholy
evidence that with them factional politics power
full than humanity and justice.
Will it be credited that, at time when American
manufactures are idle and American workmen
employed there is great body of politicians camoring
to abolish the tariff which protects them from the white
slave-made goods of England and to have laws enacted
which would enable that country flood hemarkes ofhe
United States to such extent haas necessary and
inevitable manufactures of this country
would be totally ruined and the workmen of this country
converted into paupers YetSuch as the creed entire
Democratic party supported by all the late save-owners
of the South and by not few renegade Republicans of
the North. We denounce such policy as at once I'M
just, unpatrotc, and inhuman. The men who devise
=
land OF their birth or adoption They are the real
friends and abettors of European despots the toades
and the tools Of English trants and heenemes of Irish
and of universal liberty.
That such policy should be mainly supported by
the votes of Irishmen 10 oo..a.-l -