The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1868-02-08

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THE FUTURE.
10 is becoming painfally apparent TO the
people that the present Congress has no
remedy to offer for the commercial disaster
and financial troubles which fave suspended
the business Of the .wholA country, destroy,
ing In . day the accumulated earnings Of
years Of industry, throwing thousands out
Of employment and confronting them with
starvation and all manner Of suffering.
1--we search for the causes Of these wide
spread evils We do not find them to be In
any lack Of production. Ploughing. sowing,
reapings mining and building. have gone
on with all the marvellous energy character
istic Of this country. Abundant hsrvssts
have been gathered, bns the laborer who
produced il all finds the inevitable expenses
Of living can be kept within the limits Of the
profits of his industry only by the most
watchful economy. He has thus Gar looked
on IN hope that the coming years would
bring some favorable change, yield some
longsd for relief. He has seen the aggregate
wealEh OF the nation rapidly increase, but
the statistics which .shsw hun this fact, also
show him that each year this wealth becomes
more unequally distributed, the proportion
Of the poor 10 the rich increases that in
the same degree, as the former swarm in the
poor-houses Ct theland the income returns
Of the latter grow larger.
The Nottingham has learned that no o.
plieation to labor, no frugality is able Ito
change this result. The uncounted thousands
in every northern city who are without work.
who are forced TO accept the degradation
Of living BY charity; the three millions Of
men, women and children, in the Southern
States, who hardfSknow where their next
meal is to come from, reveal a condition oi
things which would awaken the solicitude
Of any but American Lawmakers, and ap-
peal, effectually, TO any other body Of men
than those who have in their keeping the
highest interests, If not the destiny, of the
country. But with Congress there 10 no
purpose to relieve the people Of their bur-
dens-no thought thereof, except that which
is forced upon them BY a growing apprehsa-
sion that the voters, at the next election,
will turn them out Of their present seats ~
indignantly and eontemptuously as Christ
turned out the money changers from the
temple.
Congress, therefore, while heartily approx.
ing the policy of the Secretary of the Treas
ury, in his efforts to return to "specie
basis affect to condemn il by Withdrawing
bis power Of contracting, a. will, the volume
Of the currency monthly and they imagine
that this will satisfy the people The peo-
pie have financial policy Of their owl
which has been advocated for years by many
prominent citizens, and which the working
men Of the nation Incorporated into theil
platform Of principles, and with which Mr.
Pendleton's name HIS become associated By
his adhesion Thereto, after the organixa-
tion Of the National Labor Party last August
by the Workingman's Congress at Chicago
I The Democratic party quite generally, anC
the rank and file Of the Republican party
also Of the Northwest, have adopted th,
financial. policy set forth by the Chi &c
National Labor Convention while Con.
gress denomsss them az repudiationists
copperheads, and allies Of JEFF. Davis
Congress should be careful not to denounc,
as repudistion method Of payment Of tn,
public debt which even the Senate Financ.
COMMITTEES has declared to be legal and in
volving no violations Of faith, otherwise
they may teach the value Of opprobricu'
epithets which they have heaped upon mer
who have differed from them heretofore
and which has enabled them to retain theil
places 10 long rs they have.
The real dependency which exists among
the people and the dark foreboding Of evi
in the days 10 come, universally felt, are MOI
caused by the conviction that the public bur
dens are beyond the resources Of the coun
try, but that those burdens are illmitably
magnified'by the conceptions Of congress
and those resources fritteIed away and ex
hausted BY lis stupidity.
The present possessors Of political power
have :. ee ways to continue in office
! y Manly, honest, patriotic effort to-effacs
the vestiges of the war, abolish the tar
I which has destroyed the cultivation of cot,
ton, the reductions 81 the military and naval
establishments to peace footing" pay
ment of the federal bonds in lawful money,
no interest on any future issue Of bonds be-
yond three per cent. and the repeal Of all
projections to monopolies.
This plan would be successful, but it i'm
plies the existence Of patriotism and hon.
esty which has long since abandoned the
halls Of congress.
The remaining methods may or may not
win, depending wholly upon the extent to
which the popular mind may have been emas-
enlated of its ancient love Of freedom.
Q. An act Of Congress, valid by two
thirds vote over the veto Of the President,
declaring it dangerous to the public safety to
trust toe election Of officers to "unconstruct-
cd rebels" "venomous cOpperheads: I" and
"Pend'eton Iepudiationists." This would
be . coup Tetat which would have the merit
Of boldness.
The third plan, which has nothing Of the
honesty Of the first or the intrepidity Of tie
secosd, and which, for these reasons will be
the one which Congress viii adopt to secure
party ascendancy at the next election Is, to
create n new nolitical nnwar vhich ill go