The Portland daily press., 1872-05-20
MONDAY MORNING, MAY go, 1879.
The Maids Of Dundee.


evidence of disregard of revelation and as an
evidence of mind and heart essentially vi
cious and corrupt. Yet it is logical neces-
sty of the present somewhat Democratic
constitution Of society and of the present
somewhat humane and liberal attitude of civ
ilized people toward the laboring poor that
before long it will be thought as strange
that thousands of men should wear out
their lives in poverty and suffering to pro-
duce immense gains and needless luxury for
small number of their equals, as it now
seems that a few years ago men were forced
to give up liberty as well as life to the same
unjust service. Slavery and nnrecompensed
toll will sometime be thought twin marvels-
twin barbarisms. But at present one who
contends that there is nothing in natural
equity that allows, and nothing in economic
science or the difficulties and complications
practical administration that requires such
an adjustment Of the relations between labor
and capitalists as gives the former bare sub
sstence and the latter all the rest, is too often
met by the time-honored but inane platitude
that there is "no antagonism between labor
and capital" As il anybody had ever said
or dreamed that there Is such an antagonism
Capitals the product of labor, and 1t belongs
to him who creates it. The antagonism arises
when the capitalist comes in with his claim
for almost the entire product of labor. The
capitalist is the man, who, acting under the
forms of law, transfers to himself what many
other men produce, and between him and
the laborer there is an antagonism as natur-
al and as unavoidable as between the slave
and his master. The capitalist starts with
the possession of a large amount of the ac-
cumulated products of many mems labor, and
by reason of such possession he claims the
right to go on adding indefinitely to his
store from what is produced by still
other men. There is an antagonism between
the capitalist and the laborer, and to remove
1T by establishing justice is the great problem
of modern craftsmanship. To learn how
general has become the perception of these
truths one has only to read the debates dur
ing the present session of Congress in the
House of Representatives. Many of the most
prominent members, including Dawes, Hoar,
Kelley and Garfield, have from time to time
expressed opinions not whit less radical
than those which are given in this article.
And, what is still more encouraging, these
gentlemen find no one, except very few fos-
sill conservatives, denying their postulates.
What pity it is that labor, having such a
clear case against the capitalists, cannot find
better practical method of argument than
stril- + 10 &C, G,l
laborer as well as to the capitalist, and so Of
ten futilel But the strikes now in progress
present some singularly encouraging features.
The more perfect organization of labor and
the more general diffusion of intelligence are
shown in the quiet demeanor of the strikers
and disposition to refrain so far as possible
from violence. This is great victory. But
the uprising of the servant maids of Dundee
is the most surprising phenomenon of all
All, what penalty they will pay! How the
comic papers will caraicature them! How
that old joke of the mistress asking permits
sion to go out, or the maid requiring a
character or exacting conditions of her
employer, will be told againi How the press
will lecture, ridicule and denounce them!
How the pulpit will thunder against them!
Perhaps they will be elected bodily from
bonnie Dundee, and the powers of Europe
will band together against them, as they have
against the Internationals! Mr.. Dombey has
become somewhat accustomed to the singular
notion that mechanic, a laborer, or man
servant conceives that he has certain rights and
privileges of his own, but the maid has she
soul, too? This self-assertion on her part
we very much fear, will throw Mr.. Dombey
into an apoplexy. He cannot long survive
the shock of seeing maids Trades Union"
"a meeting, regularly organized, with maid
In the chair-and certain maids while the
most talk foolishly or at random) talking as
gravely as Gladstone, as shrewdly as Disraeli,
as humanely as John Bright and as wisely
and temporarily as John Stewart Mill b.,
To the Late Democratic State Committee.
In the year of grace 1S71-last year in
fact-little dreaming of the political Pentecost
that would in one day change forty odd thou
sand fiinty hearted Democrats to Greeley
Liberals, the Democratic leaders scattered
broadcast over the State in August the ''Tax-
payers Pictorial" The office of our genial
Kimball, SO famous for brilliantly stained
glass and SO gorgeously luxuriant in tapestry
and stuffed easy chairs, was the headquarters
from which thousands of these pictorials were
sent to the oppressed people of Maine. As
suggested by the party magnates, the Pictorial
was conspicuously posted in stores, hotels,
and the more jealous insisted on posting
them in the Post Office to the intense indig-
nation of the '1oir' Postmaster. There they
remain as fresh and truth ~ telling as ever
There they are read every day and sworn by
as Democratic charts; for object teaching, for
various reasons, is very popular way of i'm
parting the Democratic faith. Now about the
Pictorial The central figure is caricature
of Hon. Horace Greeley, ludicrously dressed
as an old woman and styled Granny Greeley
(if we mistake not) and holding in her lap a |
deformed and repulsive child named Protec- !
ton, which she is carefully nursing Now we
don't propose to lecture the Democratic lead |
ers or Mr.. Greeley about the improperly of |
the thing-not bit of it. But in the rural |
towns there are hundreds of these carica- |
lures. Doubtless they are being fondly stud
led this very hour. There is depicted the I
outrageous caricature of Horace; there, too,
is the name of MFR. Kimball in large letters
and the discarded slogan of Democratic"
Can you foretell the baleful consequences?
Who will dare to say but what five or six
thousand of the rural Democracy confused
some way with the rumor that the venerable
old Democratic machine, like the "Deacon,s
one horse shay" has broken entirely down.
will, impelled by the teaching of these Pic
tarials, rush pell nell to the support of Grant,
thinking that the Copperhead Democracy of
the North has now surrendered to him as the
rebel Democracy did at Appomattox in 1855?
Messieurs of the late Democratic State
Communications first duty to your new
political attachment is to scour the rural
towns and tear down every Taxpayers Pic
toral. But the peril of the situation and YOUR
zeal to avenge an insult to your new leader
should add wings to your feet.
THE WORLD declares that the endorsement
OF Mr.. Greeley by the Baltimore Convention
is the moral, political, social and eeonomi-
cal 'mpossibility, which every selfrespectine
Democrat, would have instip ct;valv dacl.rad |