The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1871-04-01

the principle of protection to be sound
This legislative discrimination in favor Of
the richer and more favored ranks in socie-
ty, and againet the laboring and producing
masses. ought to cease. Instead Of being
loaded down With burdens and exactions for
the aggrandizement Of few, they should
share the unstinted favor Of the Govern
ment.
1t Is estimated by writer's on public econ
omy that four=fifths Of the people Of nation
are employed by agriculture Probably
this estimation is too large. But it will
be safe TO say that in our own country at
least one-balf Of those engaged in industri-
al occupations are employed in agricultural
pursuits md hey contribute to the gross
value of national production three billion s
two hundred and eighty-two million dollars.
The total number of those engaged 10 man
fractures, including railway services and
fisheries, is seven hundred and thirty tbous-
and, and they produce in value nine humid
red and forty million and fifty thousand
dollars. The estimated number engaged in
MEG anical pursuits is one million, yielding
a product Of one thousand million dollars.
7 If we remember that the gross annual pro-
duct of the country is only six billions eight
hundred and twenty-five million dollars
and that, according to careful official es-
Inmates, only ten millions Of our population
are in receipt Of income, or, in other words,
contribute anything TO the increase of our
aggregate wealth, we shall see what stu
pendous service is rendered to the coun-
try by the great industries I have men,
toned.
These are the vital interests of the nation;
and instead Of being crippled and discour.
aged by the policy to which | have referred,
they should be studiously fostered by lust
and equal laws. Under the influence OF
this policy multitudes, stimulated by the
hope Of immediate wealth, are abandoning
productive pursuits, and seeking employ
ments connected with some form of specu-
lation or traffic. The population Of our
! great cities and towns, instead Of re enforc-
I ing the rural districts, is unduly increas-
ing; and so is the number Of buildings de.
voted to banking, brokerage, insurance
and kindred projects. Not production, but
traffic is the order of the day The en-
haEced cost Of the instruments requisite foi
the prosecution of industrial pursuits, and
the higher price Of fuel. food, and clothing
naturally binder the accumulation of capt
tai sufficient to enable the man Of small
means to establish himself as an independ-
ent producer. This necessarily subordi
mates labor more and more to capital. and
concentrates the business Of manufacturing
and exchanging into large establishments
while working the destruction of thousands
of smaller ones.
OF course the tendency Of all this is t.
render the many dependent upon the few
for the means Of their livelihood rather thar
upon themselves, and ''to divide societ,
into two classes, capitalists who own every
thing, and hands who own nothing, but de
pend entirely on the capital class" Tba
the policy Of the government, to fearful
extent, evokes and aggravates these evil.
can scarcely be Questioned and that thai
policy results from the ugly fact that The
laboriDg end producing classes are unrepre
sented in the government, save by the non
producers and traffickers is, | think, equal
" clear 1t illustrates the evils of class
legislation, and calls on the people to apply
the remedy. The unproductives," says
Commissioner Wells, being the ohiei
makers of the laws and institutions for the
protection Of labor and ingenuity, the in
crease Of production and the exchange and
transfer Of property, they shape all their
devices so cunningly, and work them &C
cleverly, that they, the non-producers, con
tnue to grow rich faster than the producers
Whoever at this day watches the subjects
and course Of legislation, and appreciate:
the spirit of the laws, cannot fail to perceive
how more and more the idea of the transte,
Of the surplus product OF society and The
creation of facilities for it, available to the
cunning and the quick as against the dull
and slow, has come to pervade the whole
fabric of that which we call government
and how large a number Of the most pro-
greseive minds of the nation have been led
to accept as fundamental truth in political
doctrine, that the best way to take care Of
the many is to commence by taking care Of
the few; that all which is necessary to
secure the well being Of the workman is to
provide satisfactory rate Of profit for biz
employer"
Sir, rejoice that facts like these are al
last making their powerful appeal to the
productive classes in every section of ouI
country, and that the workingmen Of al
civilized lands are waking up to a sense Of
their bondage to capital. Were they tc
continue much longer to slnmber in the
presence of the.great dangers which thick
en- about their future and threaten to swal-
low them up, should despair of their eman
cipation. The organized struggle for theil
rights has fairly begun. Elght-bours agi
tations, trades unions, co operative move
ments, labor reform organizations, and the
international association Of the workingmen
on both sides Of the Atlantic, in the main
tenance of their rights, are 50 many unmis
taxable signs Of better dispensation (; but
all these agencies will fail Of their purpose
or prove pallistives at best, if they do moi
necessitate and include such organized
political action as shall compel the govern
ing power to respect their will. That this
action will make mistakes, and abuse its
power when obtained, is very probable
That it will sometimes employ questionable
methods, and suffer the mischiefs of bad
leadership may be taken for granted but
that in the end it will restore labor and
capital 10 their just relat !e basis is as true
as democracy itself The labor question
indeed, is the natural successor and logica
sequence Of the slavery question. 1t is, il
fact, the same question in another form
since the practical ownership of labor b.
capital necessarily involves the ownership
of the laborer himself