The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1870-07-02
TO BE CONTINUED.


A lecture recently delivered before the
Lyceum of Chicago, by Ira Porter, Esq. !:
There is human arrangement dating
back, we know not how long, certainly be-
fore Abraham's time, by which humanity is
divided, and castes described by the term
master and servant. The province Of the
former is to do the bidding, and of the lat
ter, to do as he is hidden by the former.
The first supplies the brains, the last the
muscle. The master plans, the servant
executes. The master has time to rest bis
body and exercise bis brain. The servant
so wearies his body by excessive toll, that
his mind becomes torpid-so torpid, that
he has neither the power nor the inclina
ton to deveope the intellect.
The master has wealth, the servant pow
erty. The master is honored and courted.
The servant neglected and treated with
Indifference, if not with contempt. The
labor of the servant produces all neces-
saries and all luxuries, but the master, pos
sesses, uses, boards, or distributes them ac-
cording to his own impulses, whether they
are misery or generous. The wants of
the master are often so fully supplied as to
ultimate in an unhealthy and damaging re-
plction. The wants of the servant are SO
poorly supplied, that he not unfrequently
suffers in body and soul for the necessaries
of life. The master has business and bread
to give, the servant has both to seek.
By master, | mean employer by SER
want, | mean employee.
The masters have nearly all the land,
all Of the houses, all of the banks, the
railroads, the telegraph lines, all the yes
sells, all the forests Of timber, all the mines
Of gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, coal, etc.,
all the machinery, all the manufactures, all
the stores of grain, groceries, and goods
of all kinds needful for the use Of man.
Almost all the natural wealth of the
world, almost all Of the wealth accumulated
by human labor, is in the hands Of masters,
and for its use and enjoyment the servant
class is dependent on them.
The servant class is just beginning to
have some faint gllmpsos Of the wrongs in
hicted upon it. 1t has a dim discernment
Of the rank injustice which marks the dis
tribution of wealth in this possessed land Of
freedom
The war Of the late rebellion brought
forth the income tax. The income list has
been published. To the thoughtful it is q
revelation. 1t has shown that there are
masters who do not know their slaves, and
there are thousands of toiling slaves unedu
Gated, poorly housed, fed, and clothed, who
do not know their masters. In single
year, A. T. Stewards income tax was near
ly one and a half million of dollars. The
slave which brings one hundred and fifty
dollars nett profit to his master, must bt
healthy, strong, industrious, and for that
end must toll constantly and live poorly
must be fed and clothed with misery
economy. 1t will be seen that when A
I. Stewards income reached million anc
half of dollars, it consisted Of the net
earnings of ten thousand of these self deny
ing, hard-working sons of toll. He die
not whip them into service BY the lash
but be used the means which societar,
arrangement had placed in his hands t
convey the fruits Of their labor into hI
j own Overhowing Golfers. So far as
known, A. I. Stewart produced nothin!
in the year when bis income was one ant
half million, and yet, be gathered to him
, self in that year, what one laboring mai
could save in ten thousand years of sever
toll and strict economy. He was one o
T; the commercial mediums between produc
ers aud CONSUMERS. He so adjusted To
5 business, by giving as little as possible +
: the producer, and getting as much as posi-
BE from the consumer, that his compenss