The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-12-10
Address Of C. Ben johnson,
DELIVERED AT
Mass Meeting Of Cigar Makers,
PHILADELPHIA, DOT 81.
ISnIFFEREEcE % THE woREISGMEE TO TIE POW
ER AND VALUE OF The BALLOT"
CONCLUDED.

CONCLUDED.
If IT had not been for our indif-
ference-our to me inexplica bic, Ms
well as lamentable indifference to this
boon of the ballot, these laws and customs
bad not been, our earnings would have
been our own to enjoy and we might in
charity, and with perfect IMMUNITY, have
extended helping hand to the Chinaman,
instead Of having to pray, as we are pray
ing, that he be not permitted to come
here and drive us from our homes. And
we should have regarded it an occasion
TO be grateful, for, when it anne our priv
ilege to say to every refugee from autocrat-
ic tyranny ''welcone n. lend, thrice wei
come to free participation in the blessings
this land Of perfect liberty"
The damage, the irretrievable injury for
which your indifference to the value and
sacred character Of your political privileges
is responsible, is apparent at every turn
ing, but in nothing lie it more plainly per
ceptible than in this very cause you have
to fear that too many of the oppressed Of
other nations will avail themselves of your
| published invitation to come and dwell
among you. They cannot come here with
out swelling dangerously the tide of pow
erty, and proPOrtioDately increasing the
tide of monopoly. And where excessive
poverty and great personal wealth is, there
crime holds up bis hideOus head against
all assault. The excessive poverty OF the
many, is the logical and natural sequences
of the Capitalization Of wealth. The legal
izalion of usury, and the absence of any
provision against the practice of that bell
ish art to any extent, limited only By the
voracious cupidity Of the few, and the PEG
pies powers of endurance, are the deform-
tiles in your laws and customs, which you
with the ballot may eradicate, and for which
your Indifference is wholly responsible.
Pove ~ among the many, and the ex-
cessive wealth of few in community are
not, as is usually believed, the out growth
Of any inevitable law of natures making,
else poverty would be the reward do.
lence only. and wealth the heritage u Ion.
est industry, but as you need not be told,
poverty is nearly always a misfortune, and
not an ind vidual fault, while wealth comes
almost invariably from ont a system which
gives to the cunning, control Of the profits
made by the labor of the many.
| do assure you gentlemen that ours Il
such system, though that assurance is in
Gods name not necessary, and do assure
you also that ii is wholly in your power ia
supersede it by one under which no man
dare rob bis neighbor. / have not the Time
to 90 into an elucidation Of the system, OF
the unfolding of its merits. | have refer.
ence TO the Platform Of the National La
Dor Union, and of tie comiag National
Labor Party, which you may have for the
asking, and understand freely with tri'
fling amount of study.
Its philosophy teaches, among other
things, that the laborers being the only
party to production whose services canno,
be dispersed with. possesses the inaliena-
BILE right to control the results of bis own
labor. That money, having no participa-
| ton in the burdens Of production, is en-
titled only To- what may remain after all
lust demands of the laborer have been sat
isfed. That no man, except as laborer,
even though he were twenty times q
Crasus, or thousand times Jay Cooke,
can by any natural or homes. possibility be
entitled TO any greater share. That land
like air and water, is free gift Of God to
mankind, in common, and no man may
Justly, by right either of conquest or legis-
lation, deprive others Of fair proportion
of it, no more than is be expected to
possess the right Of combining the air and
water for his own axslusive use That true
philanthropy consists, not in the few Civ
ing to the many. that which cannot honest
" be theirs to give, no more than it was the
DEVILS to give our Lord what be promised
him. if he would fall down upon the mount
and worship him, but that il teaches US
how the many may retain their own, with
out lst or hindance.
II persmptorily and Indignantly denies
that the laborer, like The horse, 10 well paid
when we'll fed, or that he Is intGnded to be
= pack muis 10 bear the burdens Of priv
legged few.
Il holds that whsre thsrs is surplus Of