The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-10-22

ton of the Rev. Robert Collyer, what
il my own?" There il a. meaning
in this question, more th-n appears on
/ The surface. lfevery person, possessed
whAE ID or che n JUICY entitled to-. az
The fruit Of his or hef own toil, and no
mgre, SIC cSnership Of properly would
change hands very ,nuch y
The inequality Of the compensation
Of men and women for equal work, or
for work equally necessary and useful
10 one Of the great evils of. cur system,
or rather Of our want Of any true
system of labor. The low wages and
salaries Of women in the trades and
professions in competition with men.
as in school teaching, and the no wages
or slave labor that she performs for the
family in the home, has a constant
tendency to degrade all labor, and to
depress the wages Of men.
For this reason, if for no other, the
laboring man should sustain the labor
ing woman in her demands for equal
pay for equal work. The halt paid
slave labor of the millions Of women,
right here in our midst, is more effectual
in degrading the labor Of men than all
the Coolies that could be imported.
In denying to women the rights of
labor, and the means to protect their
rights, the laboring man looses in num-
bers half the advocates and half the
strength Of his cause, and in a moral
sense he loses the power Of justice,
which in the end is greater power
than numbers.
The anti-sisvery movement was a
labor movement, and so is the Woman's
movement. The right of suffrage ID
only an incidental right 1t is only a
means to an end, and that end is the
protection cf the rights Of labor, and
Of the property that accrues from it.
The laboring man must make common
cause with woman in her struggles foI
the rights of labor, if he expects to OBJ.
tain justice for himself She must
know that justice is not a one-sided
principle. 1t knows no sex.
In all the struggles Of men for free.
dom and right, women have always
stood by their fathers and brothers and
husbands and sons. The success Of
man, in every struggle, has been due as
much to the encouragement and self.
sacrificing labor Of woman, as to his
own proves, courage and energy
And now, when both men and women,
as laborers, are struggling for justice
and for higher freedom, they
must work together and sustain each
other.
If laboring meh will not stand by
their mothers and sisters and wives and
daughters, and demand for them and
accord to them, the same even handed
justice, that they demand for them
selves, they will fail, and they will de
serve to fail.
Members and friends Of the labor
movement, now is your time and now
is your hour. If to-day you will make
common cause with woman in YOU
demands for justice you will have the
sympathy and the help of the best and
most intelligent men and women of the
nation. If you refuse, you will loose
the opportunity, and with it your cause
will be lost
Do not misunderstood me. lam no
making war upon capital, or upon the
capitalists. / believe that what is bes
for the laborerer is best for everybody
seek only justice, and that will secure
the best good Of every member of so
ciety.
Ecery member should be in som
sense laborer. 1t is a great wrong L
themselves and TO everybody else, wher
any class is exempt from useful labor
l care not how wealthy a nation is
the weather. the better, when it be
longs TO the whole people, but wheI
any one man Accommodates an inordinat,
amount Of wealth, it generally work
out his ruin, or the ruin Of his family
because it tends directly to idleness
debauchery and crime.
The accumulation Of great ealth il
the hands Of one man, il about Is grea
an evil to his family as extreme povert,
is to another. Great extremes are al
ways dangerous and finally destructiv,
in every relation of life Illness is de
moralizing and degrading, but no NOR
so than severe and constant toll. PEG
pie talk great deal about the homo
and the dignity and the elevating ten
dency of labor. Nevertheless, labor il
generally considered honorable and dig
nifed about in proportion as it pay
well. Unpaid or half paid labor is al
ways dishonorable and degrading. I
is dishonorable to the employer wht
lives and grows rich upon the fruits o
another's toll. 1t is dishonorable t
the laborer who tamely submits to thu
degradation of working continually t
supply the lowest physical wants o
life. There is not much dignity or ele
waiting power to such labor. No labol
is elevating that does not give the la
borer time for mental improvement, and
enough of its profits to surround him
self with some Of the comforts ant
beautiful things, and social enjoyment'
of life, which implies a home for the
family
MIS-. GooDRIoH WILLARD.