Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-12-11

mans Efemeny anu tAac
InfersatfonaIs.
That people may know how the world
moves and in what direotion--since ignO-
rance of thees facts avails nothing in ar
resting the progress of real or supposed
evils-We have given the disjointed phil
losopby of a rambling lecturer 20 our
readers, and below will be found the ut
tersnces of q profound thinker, who has
led the way IN each great revolution of
fact and opinion to which this country
hiss been subjected for twenty years.
| " endell Phillips Is deemed 4 sort of pn
American Rochefort, Gambetta and Vic
tor Hugo rolled into one; snd he more
over has q keen political instinct which
enables him to discern the signs of the
times with tolerable clearness. A certain
domestic snimal, not otherwise sagacious,
is supposed to foretell the approach of
storms by Running about with leaves in
Its mouth; and, in like manner, Mr.. Phil
lirs foretells the approach OF political and
| social oOnvulsions by running about
| wildly with his spseches. In his lecture,
delivered last Thursday in New York
city, he says:
my impression is that the present topic of
discussion is frsught with mightier issues
| of veal or woe to this country and the
world than any other on which 1t has been
my privilege to speak before. In the sur
vey my predominant feeling is one of
desp anxiety and foreboding. The civil
/ izstion of our day, the growth of all the
centuries of culture and thought, presents
vast and threatening ulcers, which defy
| cure and grow by tims. Civilization, with
lis diseased classes, is not ready 10 meet
| the eruption of the volcanoes which rsge
beneath its surface. The leaders OF our
| civilization are not ready to meet, reco9-
nize snd welcome labor, the gigantic and
resistless influence of the nineteenth cen-
tury.
THE RICH AND POOR.
We divide mankind into two Glasses |
laborers AND capitalists. l am capitalist |
and emploAnf OF labor. am dissatisfied, |
ashamed OF the civilization around me
civiliz alton Is q noble word, 1t n0tes pro- |
pitious. encouraging advances. Since the
day when French noble, coming to his /
castle from the hunt cold, warmed his feet /
in the blood of q peasant, to this day, |
when the workingman stRn7T protected /
in his rights by law and the forms and
machinery of society, is vast, cheering
advance. Still evil in our social compact
displays awful gaps, terrible deficiencies.
Before you stands q youth In the fresh
glow of young manhood, strength in his
arm, beauty in his cheek, but In the fe-
vered cOursing of his blood, in the un-
equal heHving of his chest, you detect the
ease inherited from q long line of ulcerous
parentage. This our civiliz alfonso is it
null of social ulcers, fatal cancers, puzzling
the philsni hropists, ,dismsying the student
of social science.
BE Is PRACTICAL.
am no utopian. My dream of human
nature is too bitter. There are always
drunksrds, always poor mon, shiftless
men, born to suffer, We show IS yet no
Nr.fNI 1f.raw ANrrl I
pect to devise any means by which all
shall be content and happy. Modern civ
ilization shrinks back at the terrible evil
which she can neither fathom nor cure, |
Just as she does in Europe. What Is our |
csuse7 1t is this; There are $50 000, 900 of
human beings in what you call christsn- {
dom, and 200, 600, 600 of them don't have .
enough to eat from January to December.
I won't ask for culture; l won't ask for
opportunities; won't ask for education;
won't ask for travel; / won't ask for
society. But 200 600, 900 of men that are
gathered under christendom don't have =
enough 10 eat; 100, 900 men In ! city of
New York live in dwellings thss a gentle '
man would not let his horse stay IN day. !
Tread the floors vigorously, and the sewer
water dashes in your face. Open the dead
window, and the actual stencil makes you
faint. A hundred Thousand men and wo-
men and children in the city of New York
York. In France there are a mili2n of
men who don't eat meat once a year.
Mentally, morally, or physically, one-half
of christendOm starve.
THE REMEDmEss SOCIAL EVIL.
We have prostitution, that fearful social
evil for which no man has yet proved
wise enough to devise remedy The 5
great root OF this svn is the poverty of :
one class and the wealth of another. Give
Hnr Fat .nho nd
out of one hundred will dis
dain to buy diamonds and velvets by the
wages of shame. The trouble all comes >
from the poverty of the victim.
Intemperance has it's chief root In the I
same fact. Grog-shops in our cities have
the power to make the municipal govern
ments; they subsist on the poverty of the
the masses. What shall five
million men do who wske to toll, and go $
to sleep before they can get to bed, but
have recourse to physical stimulsnts to a
kill care and deepen the pain Of excessive
toll ill-repsid2 :
POVERTY AND WHISKY.
Three-fourths of our crime comes from
the pauper classes, and three-fourths of
our prisoners are of infirm health, sons of
men starved in body and soul. Feed the
laboring population better, teach them
better, you empty The prisons. What will
you do to overcome these gigantic evils2
this is our civilization, the result of the :
moral forces of Qhristendom and of philo-
sophy. - wheat goes up 40 crime in v
cresses. lake the century through and
you find that the price of a barrel of -four :
will correspond with the number In your
8ils and pOor-houses. The msjOrity of
our populations stand on the dangerous ]
edge of too great necessity. Want drives
them into crime. Has the learning of ;
Greece and Rsme, the common sense of
the Anglo-Ssxon no better result of its a
researches into the rights and the needs
of the people9 If our present state of So An
eiety Is the fruit of the mission of the Re-
doefner, OF the designs of the Creator, We ~
have cause to blssphenne. But that lie not Sn
the BEST that the teachings of the age pre- RC
sent us. 1t gives us the labor movement. "a
which means that the creators of wealth
shall have their due share in the control IN
Of affairs. Lsoor intends no war on cspi-
tai. Their interests are identical Some IN
capitalists merit our best consideration =
and respect. Mr.. Stewart, who builds n,
village FOR laborers, God bless him for il an
But blame the system which makes five By
thousand men need the sympathy and aid 2
OF one. IN
LABOR UNIONS. ~ ~
We are told the Crispin and other labor reS
are arbitrary and tyranni-
cal. So they are-but they are the best I I
that organized labor can do st present. 40,
Create home and school which shall pre- -
vent ruf1isnisTn, and you will open the
field for better methods than those of the
labor unions. America has no occasion
for strikes. Here labor can do better. It
can control the working Of the social ma
chine by combined action through the
bsllot-box. England must operate by Q
strikes, that Lord Derby and his followers
may look down from their platform of
power and wealth and say, "Whst's the \
Europe revolts that mOnarehs n
shall have nightmare. am always glad \
10 hear OF such strikes and revolts. But o
American laborers have no occasion to
strike except upon extreme emergency. >,
-- ~~AA-s