The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-06-01
The International

WASHINGTON, ID. c., May 26, 1872.
To the Editor Of the woRKNeNAN' ADVOCATE
The Washington Section Of the |. W. A.
had under consideration, last week, plan
Of reorganization providing for the better
dispatch of business. and for more sys-
tematic and efficient action. The following
remarks were made by VIM. NJ. Coleman,
ESQ, Of North Carolina, on the resolution
to create a committee on propaganda
CITIZEN CHAIRMAN Up to this time
have refrained from expressing my views
upon what conceive tn be the aims and
purposes Of the |. W. A. in general; upon
what should be its special mission in the
United States, and what might be the best
means of working this mission out. |
feared to tax the patience Of the citizen
members, and then | hesitated to submit
opinions which seem in opposition to those
of citizens who have been longer identified
with the cause, and who are more familiar
with its history and better acquainted with
its relations and bearings to our present
social and political life.
Of one thing we may be assured, the /.
w. A. has one object. 1t was not organ
lied over in London for debating society,
nor for literary club, nor for social
nucleus around which persons of$congeniAl
tastes might cluster. Useful and interest
ing as such societies are, the |. W. A. be-
n IL
founded by earnest men, by men desper-
ately in earnest, and it was intended to &C
complish practical, tangible results. In
working to arrive at these results, labor
and patience are required our brethren in
Europe have set life and fortune on the
hazard. The stringent laws enacted by
every country there against the /. W. A.,
except England and Switzerland the ar
rest and imprisonment Of leading members,
among them Rebel and Liebknecht, for
high treason, shows plainly enough that
the Internationals in Europe are not anna
teur performers, that they do not regard
themselves as holiday soldiers-that, t. use
a vulgar but expressive Americanism, thes
mean business.
1t is sufficient here, without defining
more closely, to express the common OBJ
ject Of the l. W. A.. both in Europe and
in this country, to be the eieratio. and ad-
pdnceme,t Of the IdboriI,g classes. But we
are in advance Of Europe in our position.
If our workingmen are not SO fully up to
the question, nor % united and determined
as the workingmen across the sea, it il the
consciousness Of the fact that they hold in
their own hands tho means to secure Jus
tice at any time, while the workingmen Of
Europe have NO such advantage. The
grand fight there 10 for the ballot : we al
ready have the ballot The absence Of this
right, and the struggle to secure it, makes
their workingmen united, jealous and ag-
gressive its secure possession by our work
incmen makes them careless and inditfer-
emit. This is what mean by saying that
the workingmen in America occupy an ad-
vanced position. In Europe they have the
first condition of success yet to achieve,
either by resolution or otherwise mean
the ballot-which we have already in our
possession. But the ballot 10 not an end
in itseH, it is only a means to an end. The
question il, what shall we do with it
The answer naturally comes, employ it
20 a. to elevate and advance the oppressed
classes. But is it 80 employed l. it 20
employed by the very men whose interests
are TO be advanced by 90 employing it :
The lamentable fact is too apparent that it
is not % employed. Of two blacksmithS