The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1871-08-24
The Labor Reform Party.

In ashort paragraph last week we
took occasion to refer to the "Iabor
Reform Party" and to express the
opinion that It would not amount to
very much outside the larger cities.
Since then we have received a copy of
the New York Herald, which takes a
different view ofthe subject. That Jour
nal sees in the organization the starting
point of movement which is to exert a
tremendous influence upon the political
parties of the country, if II does not rev.
olutionize things generally. Without
partaking very largely of the views
therein expressed, and in the absence of
something more directly interesting, we
quote a portion of the Herald's article
AS follows:
The new Labor Reform or National
Labor party has been holding general
Congress ut st. Louis, and, considering
the widespread and omiuous agitation
of this labor question on this side as
well as on the other side of the Attain
tic. the proclamation of the principles
and purposes Of this new party may
well challenge the attention Of the sta
tesmen and politicians of all other par
ties in the country. These labor reform.
ers, in their political platform for the
coming Presidential campaign. say that
''the land, water, air and all natural ele-
ments are common gifts" and that
governments are only trustees to guard
against their Interpretation that all
class legislation perverting these COM
mon elements from the many to the
few is wrong and subversive of good
government; that call able-bodied, in
telligcnt persons should contribute to
the common stock, by fruitful industry.
a sum or quantity equal to their own
support.and that legislation should tend,
as far as possible, to the equitable dis
tribution Of the surplus products.
They say, furthermore, that "pauper-
ism and crime are the prevailing ques-
tons Of all modern craftsmanship, and
it is with these we have to deal;" and
that. although "chattel slavery has been
abolished, the rights and relations of la
Dor stand just where they did before
emancipation in respect to the division
of the laboring masses Of the country"
This is substantially the bill of griev-
ances of the International and of the
Paris Commune, and the remedies sug-
gested from the bare recital of these
complaints simply mean the approach
of the most radical and sweeping polit-
ical revolution in the history Of man.
kind.
The article concludes with this para
graph:
We have repeatedly within the last
year or two discussed the great political
CANCERS threatened the country from
our gigantic railway and other powerful
moneyed corporations. This Labor Re-
form party, therefore, in our estimation.
in opening the war upon these over
shawdowing monopolies, and in its
general design of the subordination Of
capital to labor. is initiating. we repeat,
a movement which is destined 20 be
marked by the fiercest political agita-
ton and the most radical and compre-
hensive revolution ever known in this
or any other country. These labor re-
formers may not be able to make any
serious diversion as third party in the
coming Presidential campaign but they
have large and inviting field before
them in which the harvest will soon be
ripening. Many of our readers will re-
member the general contempt and de-
rision with which the original abolition
party was met, even in the Puritanical
city of Boston. in its agitation Of the
abolition of A frican slavery. Yet that
"stone which the builders rejected has
become the head of the corner"