The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-02-05
FROM NEW YORK.
New YORK, Dec. IA, 1876

| FROM NEW YORK.
New YORK, Dec. II, 1869.
Tofh4 Editor OF the WoRKIEeNAH's ADVOCATE.
10 take up my letter where | left it
| trish it had been an ADLER hand to deal
wal the subjects have presented in
thf series of my letters. Let cOmpe-
te1t writers take the pen if they do not
life to have tyros do it, and give US pO-
litcal works which shall cover the
wSole ground, and do it in a way that
it shall be Ineligible to the humblest
reader. If I have said some plain
tfAngs, the truth, which it was my
WISH to serve, should bear it. And l
aa sorry if have wounded the Sensi-
blities Of any. | thought after the
Publication Of one or two of any former
ebistles, that many conscientious per-
ssns might be troubled by the appeal
tSat made for the extreme poor IN this
csty. Their sympsthies may have been,
II possible, over-wrought by the few
shenes of suffering which 1 humbly de-
Hicted. Let such not be troubled. Ex-
Creme poverty is an evil which l am
end Ofhoping will one day be removed
Eom the world, though it have, by
Glow degrees, TO work its own cure.
But it is part Of the Labor Reform to
sure poverty.
There is much pleasant reading in
The ADVOCATE for the past few months,
Especially concerning the miners (by
your correspondent I. H. W., which l
have not been able to keep pace with,
but promise myself the treat of read
ling all the back articles when can get
1.-THE time. All the editorial travelling
asketches of course | have delightedly
Tread.
There has been, in these few months,
! some sad intelligence published in the
were shocked by the death Of Mr..
Sylvis, the hOnOred President Of the
National Labor Union; and lastly by
] the painful accident at the Avondale
] mine. In regard to the prevention of
! similar accidents to the latter, it must
/ be the work Of the Miners Unions to
prevent them if no higher powers will
/ take it up. | would say, let the miners
! demand law Unnecessary let them 60
in body to the capital Of their State
to do i0 that two shafts shall be sunk
to all the mines, and the mischievous
" breakers removed from over the
mouths Of the same Gall this as sug-
gested by others); besides laws enforc-
ing any other needful regulations for
the saving of human life in the mines.
Capital must succumb to humanity in
these and all other evils when once the
effort is made to compel it to do il
But if the miners cannot obtain this le-
gislation, let them desert the mines as
they would some malarious region,
where death is only a question of time,
and flee to the west where lands await
them to cultivate. They must look out
for themselves lin the language of the
cold world) in this and other ways-OT
wait for the slo~ er process of the OBJ
. truse sympathies Of the governing elias:
W DC CACltGu III OCu0iA-W uACAAs
is possible, after all, may not be ex
cited. (Since writing the preceding
have seen in the papers that one Oh
more hair-breadth escapes from similar
accidents to the Avondale disaster have
happened since that event. In the last
one Of these the action of the men ii
refusing to work in the mines, till pre-
cautionary arrangements were made
was commendable In the extreme
though it was only a necessary course
for them to take. Let them always be
as prompt to act when precautionary
remedies are needed, and they will find
how easy it is, not only to gain then
object, but to procure for themselves
selfrespect and the respect Of the com
munity. 1t may be proper to add
while on this subject, that since writing
this letter | have seen in the Miners
Journal, Of Pottsville, Pa, for Sept
18th, 1869, that the a 'cident in Jan'y
1862, at the Hartley English) colliery
a NINE at the time with but one shaft
led to the passage Of law by Parlia
ment requiring two shafts to be sunk
either to such mines as had but one, o
to such as should thereafter be opened.
The workingmen should have place
of meeting, halls, their own property il
every town and city, one or more.
see this has been already recommended
in Chicago, and has been carried on
in East Weymouth, Mass. 1t was
thought of mine, however, to sugges
it for all the towns before / had hear,
Of these attempts. These halls shoul,
be the workingmen's churches, so T.
: speak. Here their oracles should speaI
to them and advise them what to dc
They should also send forth Lecturers
and have lyceums according to on
, meaning of the word) 70 discuss tn
, subjects of reform.
Finally, let the workingmen take tn
WoRKINGMAN's ADVOCATES "power
! in the country, worth all such as the Chri
!. tian Statesman, published ! do not no.
< recollect where), the Chicago AdOGnc
8 and the New York Lmper1Glist-whos
object if not to keep down labor, is t
I assert the power and privileges Of tn
I few, which is nearly the same thing.
The workingmen found the truth {
, the saying that God helps those VIII
help themselves, illustrated when tn
e capital press Of the country was force
e (perhaps it did it freely to notice re
/ spectfully, and at length, the proceed
!. mos of the late National Labor UniO