Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1871-11-07
Iu,eres,,ne TO workingmen.

The following address by DR.. Elder was
delivered in Philadelphia, Oct. 3Oh:
The subject that address you upon Is the
old grudge and fight that has been going on
for centuries, ever since the designation
"hands" was bestowed upon worklngmen,
in contradistinction TO the title "head'
applied to the masters. II your movement
had anything revolutionary in 1t, or II you
proposed to attain any Of your objects by
force, should have nothing to do win
you. -,- a..
confront and conquer communism and
political economy. The first will not here
allnde TO, Tho second implies that all re.
lAlions OF workingmen and masters must be
regulated by the laws OF supply and de-
mand, not by the personal needs oi master
and man. In Alexander Hamilton's report
remember that he enumerated no less taan
seventeen different branches OF home manu-
iactures, which not only supplied the needs
of the manufacturers, but even furnished
sufficient goods for expectation. Now all is
changed, Unless vast sums are employed
by capitalists in the manufacture OF each
article that is needed for the wants OF men,
men dstain 10 use the article manufactured;
In other words, machines have superseded
men. The time has been when labor did
not think. On many desperate battle field
labor has lost the fight, because lis head wvs
wrong, And if the International mean TO
provoke fight now, it, too, would surely
lose. Violence, force, are not the means
wherewith our battle is to be won. we
must stand on the defensive, maintaining
our rights, but infringing not whit upon
the rights OF Others
Let me say that have given ten or fifteen
wears Of the best part oil my life 10 the eman'
cipation of slaves, and when that work was
accomplished retired from the stump. l am
ready now to come forward again ii any
thing can be done by me in the great cause oil
freedom. (Applause.)
The are several forms Of cooperation, The
first of which as / arrange them is an unior
for relief, such as a beneficial society, BY
which a workingman provides for rainy
day-provdes for It by honorable means, Sc
that when the rainy day comes he can taxi
assistance from the society without blusl
or feeling Of shame.
The next step IN co operation is to secur
economy of the necossaries OF life by what j
known as cooperative stores At thes
stores the buyer is sure OF obtaining goo
article, pure and undulterated, at lai
price, for the agent in charge, paid fai
salsry, mas no object in adulterating or Civ
ing light weight. In all societies there ar
two springs Of action, the physical and lh
moral, and the beauty oil the ply sical basi
il is sure to evenuate in the enlargement an
Improvement Of the moral welfare of mar
kind. On the subject Of cooperative store
il is needless for me TO say much TO yoI
What do want TO call your attention 10
the fact that by the present system of reta
trade every six families support the seventh
In New York the mercantile populaiic
is about one twenty-fiith Of the tohole, an
there every four families support Il
fnhi
lust count in any street here In your ow
CITY the vast number of retail stores. Dor
include the grog'shops or drug stores (cou
them in together if you like). 1t is this ma
of people, middle-men, that you have to gu
M ri, and you have to support, too, thI
jawyers and their doctors and their clerg
men, and, besides, pay for their little pie
sure tIips to Saratoga and Newport in I
summer Co operation does away with
This; It does away with the middle man.
have wondered why corporation suecee
so much better In England than II does he
and think the reason is because there
terrible wrongs which the workingman
England hGs undergone have dripen b
into this, his only course for selipreser'
tiop. And until the American workmeI
conscious OF his wrongs and his impendi
dangers, cO-Operaiion will not gain way he
THE great difficulty that labor encounter
It's fight with capital is that it has no cree
The croWning effort oil co-oporatlon IS the
operalive bank, which gives credit TO IN
who without II would have none. 1t seemI
me that such bank Is a very Jacobs .adC
resting on the lowest earth and reaching
10 the very zenith OF the co-operal
system.
The Doctor here gave skeich oi Gern
co.oneratiye bank, of which he himself
member, SAYING how admirably it
managed, and OF what benefit such sYs
was 10 workingmen. After discussing
operative lauking at some length, he
viewed the progress Of the Rochda'e sooi
dwelling upon the feasibility OF sucl
society in Philadelphia. lie ctnlinued
Let us look at one other generally'
said that the plan on which business is
conducted makes the rich richer and
moor poorer. This Is true 10 a certain