The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-11-13
DAILY PRESS.
PORTLAND.
MONDAY NOVEMBER 10, 1871.
ASSIMILATION of an Pretended Labor Re
- a.. form Party im Maine.

~, form Party im Maine.
The preliminary steps are taken to organize
a Labor Reform party in Maine. When MI
Treyellick, President of the "National i-aoo.
Unlon,p was here, a subordinate ohion
was established Ia this city, ana Joseph d.
Hall and Albert II. Waite OF Portland, and j.
NIX. drake of Auburn, and Allison III. |
Brown Of Bath were appointed an executive 1
committee ito organize Labor Unions in the
State until State organization can be effect
ed.n We have no doubt that it is the inten-
ton of the gentlemen woo are in charge of
the movement here to have their organization
ready for the next State election. They in
tend to send delegates to the National Labor
Reform Convention to be held at Columbus
Ohio, on the third Wednesday of February,
1872, to- nominate candidates for the Presi-
dency and Vice Presidency. 81 a'i go g
Probably the real laboring men of Maine
will have sufficiently intelligent apprehen-
sion of their own interest not to engage III
this particular enterprise. There is better
way-a much more effective and radical way.
The objections to the Trevellick plan are
these: s.g lsd .sasz1.da #e
II is proposed to improve the condition of
the laboring man by quack remedies, such as
repudiation, the issue of unlimited green
backs and the arbitrary reduction of the hours
of labor. These questions are made use of by
adroit demagogues, like Gen. Butler and Gen.
Sap Carey, for the sole purpose of making
themselves personally conspicuous, or of i'm
a;ri. hn ct Of
ty in America that has ever lghtened the
burdens of the laboring man one straw's
weight. If all that these self-styled labor re-
formers promise to the working man were
given to him, he would be worse off than be-
fore. The depreciation in paper money has
already cost the labor of the United States
millions Of dollars, and the ruin, inevitably
following such imitation as Gen. Ewing, Pen /.
dleton, Trevellick and Butler propose, would
fall on labor also. The only gain, SO far, to
working men in other States from adopting
these pernicious principles has been to throw
the government, as in New Hampshire. into
the hands of the party that rellnquished at
the point of the sword the doctrine that CAPT
tai should oacn labor-the party that now
cherishes its old hostility to free schools, to
the equal rights of the common people, tc
registry laws that insure to all men their just
weight in the control of Affairs, and to reforms
of every nature l.a isgaB fln3qz aeah lsa
Attic very start this political "labor re-
form" movement in Maine fell into the hands
ofpersons who are not laborers, but mere
capitalists with political aspirations. As
Spraguein Rhode Island, Carey in Ohio and
Butler in Massachusetts attempted to revive a
waning political career By an afectation of
interestin labor and laboring men, SO the
wealthy Democratic candidate for Governor
OF Maine undertook to exc out the slender re-
sources of his party by an alliance with such
poor dupes as he could find who would be-
1ieye that the party of slavery and free rum
was party of labor reform. ai Hoom
4 This alliance between capitalists and labor
ing men Is no new thing in history It is one
of the instrumentalites that partricians have
always made use Of to maintain their posi-
ton. Workingmen, instead of demanding
their rights, have been content to accept the
patronage of the rich and powerful. i, They
have taken few privileges and social rights
from their patrons as concessions. 1t was
SO in Rome, where the distance between the
patrcian and prcletarian grew steadily wider.
1t has been SO in France. 1t was only the
other day that a similar unnatural league be-
tween peers, who ought daily to apologize for
their existence, and the workingmen whose
toll has made England the richest of nations,
was attempted. The party of the second part
was to give up its passion for political rights
and accept certain social privileges as conces-
slons. Happily for the prospects of English
democracy, the alliance failed.
ro What the workingmen of this State and ev-
cry other State ought to demand is a fair dil
vision of the wealth they create. They are
entitled to at least share OF hefruits of their
toll. This they can obtain only by securing
for the laboring masses such universal inteni-
gence through education as will enable them
to combine and divide the profits of their own
labor. Notwithstanding the culture that in
America often characterizes workingmen, it
is not general enough to enable them to cope
with the superior intelligence and consequent
organizing power OF capitalists. There is no
mechanic, artisan, farmer or day-laborer in
Maine who will not best subserve the inter-
ests OF his class by insisting with all the earn
estness in his power upon the reform of our
common school system, which now reaches
only one half of the pupils in the State. This
is the one true specfc-the one panacea for
all the wrongs that labor suffers. Ali other
remedies are pure quackery-and the remedy
sought through alliance with the reactionary
party is grossly ignorant and dangerous
'quackery. Earnest, honest work within the
ranks OF the party Of reform and progress is
: the only means of obtaining valuable results.