The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-04-06
OUR POLICY.

lie NOMINATION. VI JuuSC laws " lhS
Columbus Convention, was more than
surprise to the old political parties. The
Labor Party had, by the persistent and will
I'll Misrepresentation of thu newspapers of
the country, became identified in the minds
of many people, with communism, with
hostility to Law and order. to individual
right Of property, and to the general welfare
Of modern civilization. To repel these
ISLANDERS workingmen appealed TO the dec
laration Of principles which formed the
grounds of their political organization, but
appealed vainly The newspapers refused
to publish this declaration, the public were
kept ignorant of their principles and their
prejudices we're kept excited by gross and
subtle falsehood.
The nomination of Mr. Davis at once
dissipates these impressions 50 assiduously
extended and intensified by all the agencies
at the command Of the friends of corrup-
ton and human slavery, and successfully
directs the attention Of the whole public to
the real aims Of the Labor Party and makes
these aims known TO every one
A platform Of principles upon which
Judge Davis stands, political and financial
reforms, which he earnestly advocates,
can have no tendency TO disorder, anarchy
and the subversion of government. No
amount Of effort could as effectually have
repealed and silenced the false charges
Party as the nomination of this eminent
civilian. 1t is pre- eminently his distinction
as a judge, to have constrained the govern
ment back into constitutional limitations,
and to have re-imposed upon it the safe
guards of individual right and liberty, en-
dangered by the arbitrary violences engen-
dered Of civil war. And while curling the
expedient license of power in a crisis i'm
perilling the integrity of the nation, he
has, in the recent decision sustained the
constitutionality Of the legal tender laws,
asserted the existence Of power i'll Con-
gress to make and regulate money, and to
put the financial laws Of the country upon
basis which will destroy the control of
the bankers over the media of exchange and
over the products of labor-a power asser-
ted by the workingmen to be essential to
their emancipation, and to their enjoyment
of the fruits of their indurtry
The workingmen desire to remove what
is called the antagOnism of labor and CAPT.
tai As capital is the result of labor, to
charge workingmen with desire to destroy
it, to ignore individual rights of property,
IS as absurd as it isfalse Capital is the exer-
ton Of their own hands, and the laws that
properly guard it especially protect them.
But the system Of laws which enriches
them who neither toll nor spin" and i'm
poverishes them who do, the system which
creates the antagonism we have 30 much Of,
the workingmen propose to overthrow.
They have set forth wherein this system
is a fraud they have shown its tendency
and effect, they have demonstrated, begged
and heartily aided one or the other of the
political organizations Of the country to
obtain promised relief, but they have found
existing parties had no policies bringing
the expected relief. To find policy which
would leave wealth in the hands of its crea-
tors, and to neutralize the system of laws
which at present transfers the earnings of
farmer or mechanic or any other class of
laborers into the pockets Of monopolists and
spectators was the work Of the reformer
That policy is embodied in the platform
Of the Labor Party. 1t is policy destruc-
tive of monopoly, of fraud and injustice.
of course such policy would be assailed
by all the power which monopolists could
direct against it. A subservient and venal
press opened its batteries against it and its
advocates-their policy was robbery, and
themselves robbers. In the full chorus Of
denunciatiOn Judge Davis plants himself
upon this platform, and the public instinct
lively know, that however denounced, that
platform means justice and right. The
Columbus Convention hanked the politi-
clans and dissipated their efforts to mis-
represent the aims and principles Of the
Labor Party.