The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1872-05-11
Condition of the Labor Reform Move
maut


The betrayal of workingmen by the un-
principled schemers who control the so-called
Labor Reform" organizations is. crime
which there ought to be some means of pun
ishing. The wrongs of which laborers COM
plain and the disadvantages from when they
suffer are too real to be made the spor. Oh ad-
venturers who avail themselves OF tne iapor-
ingman's discomfort as a mere political make
weight. All thoughtful men, whatever their
condition in life, are beginning to acknowl-.
edge that the share of capitalists in the fruits
of toll is too large, and that the tendency of
legislation should be toward equalizing the
distribution of profits rather than toward
their accumulation in the hands of the favor
ed few. Among those who take this view OF
the case are many of the wealthiest men in
the country, who can no more be suspected
of a leaning toward socialism or agrarianism
than A. T. Stewart. The laboring-men's
cause being so obviously just, it is clear that
if they possessed the power to act in body
all their reasonable requirements must be an
swered But unity of action is condition
combination all the scattering, contradictory
and illogical movements in different parts of
the country will not produce any valuable re-
suits in the next hundred years. Now, al
though nearly all the native laboring men are
persons ofgreat intelligence and considerable
culture, it is indisputable that education is
not SO general among the whole mass of
workers as to make it possible for them to
unite in really independent organization for
political purposes. Such associations as they
form fall uniformly and with very little delay
into the hands of crafty, heartless spectators
who sell the whole movement" to the high
est bidder. The national Labor Reform Or
ganization whose Convention was held at Co
lumbus, and nominated Davis and Parker for
President and Vice President, was predes-
tined failure. Its candidates are men whose
practical interest in the cause of labor has
heretofore disclosed itself only in using
other mems work in order to build up their
own immense wealth. There is evidence to
show that the choice of Judge Davis was
part of the scheme of a powerful political ring
to make that gentleman President. Finding
that they have been once more deceived, la
boring men in different parts of the country
have refused to give the ticket their support.
We notice that even the organ of the apoch-
ryphal Labor Reform party of Maine has
at length tired of the Columbus candinate,
and substituted another name for his at the
head of its column. The result of the whole
matter is that workingmen have most ingen-
iously contrived to thwart themselves Scat
tered, divided and led hither and thither by
false shepherds, their political action in the
year 1872 will either be perfectly futile, or it
will contribute to the restoration to power of
the party which is essentially an anti-labor
party-a party whose traditions are all con-
trary to justice, equal rights and reform, and
under whose leadership the world has taken
no step in advance.
The true course for genuine labor reform
crs to pursue seems to us to be perfectly
plain. They should unite In body with
that political party whose principles are most
in accord with their own and whose history
shows it to be most favorable to human liber-
ty and advancement. They would be numer-
Gus enough to control it for their own pur-
poses, which would be far better than being
made tool by the illiberal party which never
has and never can make any use of the labor
movement except for its own advantage.
Having thus become incorporated with the
progressive and humane party, laboring men
should make it their primary purpose to secure
universal education. Education is for laboring
men the law and the prophets. Without it,
and without higher degree of it than they
now possess, they can do nothing, because
they cannot combine except under selfish and
designing leaders. With it they can do ev-
erything even to bringing in that industrial
millennium when those who SOW shall also
reap. Every Columbus Convention is step
backward; every provision for the education
OF the masses is long stride forward That
education laboring men can obtain through
the agency of the Republican party, large
majority of whose members are already most
favorably disposed toward the good cause.
A CORRESPONDENT of a Boston paper saws
That many farmers are leaving various parts
OF Oxford County for the West, being dis
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