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

fioh % THE MAcHTxIsTs' AED BLAoKsNIrHs UEioi
o. henEH AMERICA, AT CLEvELAND, D., FAIoAi
kVaHme. sEPr. %. 1879
ADDRESS,
MIR. CHAIRMAN AND GENrLEMEN IL fee
proud OF the privilege afforded me thi,
evening Of addressing an audience repre-.
seRting DC bone, sincw and vitality oI
our AmeFican commonwealth, on question
which hes very near to my heart, and one
which Is now exciting much public comment
A subject. Mr.. Chairman, of your own selec
ton, for this special occasion, Trades
Unions, their Influence, Effect and Present
Necessity
We live 10 fast ago and fast country.
In critical age and an educated country.
Our progress is measured by steam,
electricity, and the printing press. We are
anxious TO move. We crave change. We
discard the old. We reach forward to the
new. We arc full Of enterprise and move
ment and court experiment But, with
our dash and venture, we are cool and
critical, which makes this test age. The
scale Of justice decides free thinking
people, accept and move on.
We see good and evil, vice and virtue,
Right and wrong, struggling for victory
temperance is being assailed on every side.
Corrupt legislators and avaricious monopclies
are called TO account. The poor and op-
pressed are being lifted up, and the might
Of kings and lords put into their hands.
Woman comes forth N ali the dignity Of a
responsible human being, asserting her
individuality, her rights to equal power,
that she may give equal help in crushing
out the bydra-headed syils Of our social
fabric. While freedom of thought takes
wings unto ITSELF and the American people
are called a nation Of in6dels, who think
for themselves, and propose to form their
own destiny, churches crumble if rational
truths are not proclaimed. As education
streams down among the people and opens
their mental vision, lifting them up to a
higher ideal Of life, even as the stfcaniing
shower Of the suns rays, fructifies vegeta-
ton. making it to bring an hundred fold
to make glad the nation Of men," Old
and young, high and low, rich and poor
drink from this great fountain of mental
inspiration and being-illuminatcd. The
poor and wretched cry give, give, that we
may be the more free to understand life
better, its need and duties.
The great feature Of the age is, the masses
are in eommotion. Never before in the
annals Of history has there been such uni
versal awakening Of all the forces Of society.
Rome has great claims for her common
wealth, but she moved by armies. Greece
has great claims for her ancient valor and
art, but she was moved by the few, but the
Republican age Of to-day has claims superior
to all. She is moved by the people Eng
land, and more emphatically America are
actuated BY the greater. light, the mind not
the sword tie Uo.r popuii, not the monarch
rules.
And out of this commOtion, this boiling
Of the elements, great social revolution is
wrought, aiming at no less than an entire
Of society on truer humani-
tartan basis than bas heretofore been cx-
perienced. This is known as the Labor
Movement.
1t had its birth to power in the fall of
Chlvalry, gained complete ascendency in the
American struggle for freedom. Emancipat-
ng labor from its English lords, broke forth
10 all its fury ia the French Revolution,
Wiping out fcudalism, giving the soil to the
people as their just inheritance. Gained
another victory under generalship Of
Thompson, Golden, and Bright in the
repeal Of the Corn Laws of England. Then
swan the Atlantic, and in a glorious union
triumph made labor free on American soil
BY breaking the shackles of three millions
Of slaves, and with fash OF its heaven
inspired pen armed the black workingmah
with the ballot that executes the freed
mans will as lightning does the will Of
God"
These great strides have all added to the
fceedOm and strength Of labor, and though
they have been through seas Of blood, the
victory has always sped the right 1t has
been constant rebellion against aristocracy
and oppression. 1t was war between labor
and capital. In France, Germany, Britain
aud America wrought out such great re-
suits. 1t was a war between labor and
capital, the worker ard aristocrat, the
slave driver and the slave, and not between
the political parties, that broke the chain
from the labor Of the Southern cotton
fields.
Past revolutions SOW the seed for future
strife. They lay the germ Of greater good,
of higher aspiration. 1t has been so with
the struggle Of the past. They have pre-
pared MS for greater and more momenious
struggles in the present and future. The
present is demand for a truer relation
between capital and labor. Educated men
living under free and Repcblicau govern
ment cannot be made to understand the con-
sistency OF having to suffer such punching
want when so much wealth is produced by
their labor. They know and feel some
thing is wrong, and to right this wrong they
have have united into social compact known
by the name of +" Trades Unions"
Il il unnecessary to enter into detail as
to the many specific causes which give rise
to uniOnism among wOrkingmen. Sufficient
it is to say that is one effect Of the develop
ment Of civilization, a natural product Of
our present stage progress, a condition
which could only AXE its rise among a
thinking and somewhat educated, as we'll
as an independent people. Hence it is a
natural feature, growth Of the nineteenth
cen,dry. 1t could have come no sooner.
1t was a rebellion against oppression,
the effect Ct intelligent resistance. They
were the effect Of strikes, not as is commonly
argued That strikes were and are the
effect of unionism." There never was q
union formed until oppression compelled il
as meaEs Of safety. The nature Of the
organization is proof Of this. Unionism had
its birth, not in ignorance, but with intelli-
gence. 1t presuppcsed q sympathy among