The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-04-20
SATURDAY EvEN'G, APRIL 20. 1872.

THERE is something extremely gro
tesque, if not logically absurd, in the idea
of organizing political party on the basis
of labor as contradistinguished from that
which is not labor. In our judgment, it
required man of more than ordinary ge-
MUS to strike out the idea Of such an Or
ganization, ard at the same time find
substantial or basis fact on which to predi-
cate its existence as party. For party
Of workers against party of non-workers
u party, in fact, demanding of the nom
workers in society such concessions of
right as are essential to their prosperity,
and material well-being presents an anom-
ally at once as incapable of explanation as
it is illogical in fact. It presents an array
of the busy bees in the hive of
industry against the drones, and implies
that the latter in some unaccountable way
or by some inexplicable advantage taken
of the workers, are in possession of all the
benefits of the hive, and, single-handed
and alone, have the power to retain them.
There is something, we repeat, extremely
grotesque and absurd in this attitude of the
industrious as against the idle. One would
suppose that the indefatigable army of
toilers and workers in the United States
had not only muscular force, but brain
force enough, to make their way in the
world against the non-workers or drones,
without sniveling over rights and privileges
wrested from them by the ineffable do
nothings and be-nothings in society. 1t is
like an army of giants arraying itself
against one of pigmies-an army Of
stalwart Gullivers praying for relief from
the tolls of Lilliputs.
In principle, the organization is absurd.
There can be no such thing as working
mans party, or ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS party,
without some principle-some independent
proposition or ultimate basis on which to
erect party. Slight hours day. en-
bodies no principle-not even an empirical
intuition. Common sense does not even
assert its validity as principle. 1t has no
objective condition that can be put into a
formulary of faith, or worked up, by any
intellectual process, into an ultimate ra-
tional basis for party organization. zone
hour day. is just as much a rational in
tuition, and altogether less empirical as an
assumption for, as between workers and
non-workers, the nearer you draw the line
of distinction the closer you strike to a
principle. ..
The truth is, the kings of American in
dustry-those who organize labor by means
Of capital, or rather WELD capital in the in
terest of labor, and build up centers of ac-
tivity everywhere on the continent-rarely
trouble themselves about the conditions of
this or that political movement, so long as
they do not interfere with the conditions of
their particular industry. They clamor for
no eight hours day. nor are they very
tenacious about getting ten hours pay for
eight hours work. The same is true of
our best artisans and mechanics. You see
them engaged in no such movement. They
are content with what their superior skill
and industry commands as compensation.
If any one is drawn into it, it is the I'M
skilled artisan and mechanic who seeks to
command the wages of skilled labor, when
he is not entitled to it. a.a
We are in favor of all possible ameliora-
tons of labor, but we want to see some
practical way of reaching them. A princi-
pie that does not involve some vital issue
will be of no avail. IL will effect nothing
in the way of reform, nor reform nothing
in the way of effect, you run it as hobby
for whole century of experimental test.
Parties must organize on some vital princi-
pie, and develop into life and activity in
obedience to some law of growth, or they
will die before they begin to live-before
they have attained any actual growth.