The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-09-28
The Other Side

The following preface To the Trades
Union story. The other Side. refer
red to in our last, explains the circumstan-
ces under which. and the objects for which
il was written Next week We shall com
mence the story proper
In letter written some two years ago,
10 Mr. Pratt, editor uf the american
u OrkHtdH, We ventured the opinion, that
II the laboring class could be made read
ing class, their social and political advance
ment and amehOration would be rapid and
certain. Mr.. Pratt, IN reply, asked us point
edly if We knew Of any method by which
workingmen could be induced to pay more
attention TO passing events, to the present
antagOnistIc condition of society and 10 tn,
remedies hest calculated to eradicate the
evils under which, as a class, We labored
without much hope of redress. This is
grave, momentous question 50 thought
We then, 50 think we now. The men most
to be feared by labor, are not its open and
avOwed enemies, but those of its own
ranks, trho ~ not, JciH not read = Read
ing, says the renowned Bacon, makes
full man, and it may be safely intima-
ted, that he who does not read is an empty,
an ignorant man, and again we repeat, that
we have more Ia fear from ignorance in
our own councils, than from wisdom in the
councils of our enemies. What food is too
the body, reading is TO the mind, and
the mind that does not lore to read, says
Todd, may despair of ever dong much
in the world Of mind which it would affect
But how are We to make the tOilers in our
fields, workshops and factories, toilers in
the vast realm of mind-readers as well as
workers This is the all absorbing ques-
ton. We have long noticed the popular
taste among the masses, high and low, for
fiction n-novel-Feading An inherent love
Of action seems implanted In the many, es-
pecially in those whose educational advan-
tages were limited, or at least did not in
clude classical training, and in contem-
plating this patent fact, we were led TO
think that much Of interest and benefit
10 labor could be conveyed TO the popular
mind through this medium. Here then is
one reason why this work was undertaken;
but there is another weightier, might
Ter one. A few years ago the publishers
Of The Gdllrg brought out a story entitled
. Put Yourself in His Place." written by
the author of i Foul Play" and several
other equally foul works In this story,
the trade unions of England are severely,
brutally handled, and what may seem
strangely inconsistent, the author, except
when forced by the exorable logic Of truth
and history, failed to put himself in the
place Of the men whose shortcomings he
90 savagely deleniated. By a quotation
from Horace which serves as a sort Of pre-
face to the work, it is claimed that the
story is framed upon notorious fact" 1.
il not part Of our purpose "a deny the as
sumption, as we readily and freely admit
that many Of the measures and means EN-
ployed by wOrkingmen 10 redress grievan-
ces and prevent the enforcement Of obnox-
ioGs conditions, are neither born Of Justice
OF wisdom but before we harshly Judge
and recklesaly condemn these men, We
should minutely, faithfully examine their
side Of the story, and IS far as possible
enter into their feelings and views. Should
we do 30 ilnpartiAlly, unbiasedly, it is more
than likely that purer motive, one less
tinged with premeditated or malicious
design, would be found to actuste all viii
ful, overt acts attributed to them. II
would he also found that persecution and
grim, famishlng want, had so tortured their
bodies and brutalized their minds that all
faith in the moral sense Of capital faded
from their souls, leaving void that was
hlled by the conviction that the end JUS
tined the means" on every occasion.
1t Is IN not delineatingt both sides of the
subject, in not putting himself in the
places Of all the characters in his story, that
we are disposed to disagree with TIE author
of the work above mentioned
The other side remained dark, hidden
from the gaze Of men only too apt TO Judge
by the standard of their own peculiar pre-
judices and to throw what light he could
on that side so carefully hidden, furnished
Smother reason why this task was under
taken. Our only regret in entering upon
the work was the consciousness Of our in,
ability to do justice, full and ample, to
the subject, but if by our example, others
Of more extended, wider experience, more
cultivsted, educated minds will be induced
10 enter the same field, the pleasure d
feeling that our labors have not been en-.
tirely in vain, viii more than compensate
rs for any absence Of appreciation for ouI
individual effort. To blunt the shArr
edge Of unspsring criticism, in advance, W.
desire to place upon record here, the fact