The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1873-11-22

I'VE do sos hold ourssvs responsible Tor any opinion
expressed BY cur CorresponAentsl
FROM MICHIGAN.


PONTIAC, November IL, 1873.
To the Editor u the woRKnsMAN's ADVOCATE.
1t ia only few weeks since the whole
industrial horizon looked bright and cloud
less, when suddenly there came upon US q
DISASTROUS financial storm, which has
brought loss Of employment and poverty
TO tens Of thousands Of industrious men
and women. All sorts u causes are given,
and all kinds Of remedies suggested. But
this is not the irst storm by many, and
the industrial classes are always the first
10 feel the pressure, and the last to get
get over it. Mill after mill, shop after
shop, are reducing hours of work and
wages, or susPending entirely, and long
winter before as, when work and wages
are more indispensable than 1t other
times.
1t is Of little use TO discuss apparent
causes and inefficient remedies, now that
the evil Is upon Us. But is there not
some preventive for these consta lily recur-
ring calamities Certainly there is, or re-
publicanism, and even civilization itself, is
failure.
Among others, the great firm Of the
Spragues, of Rhode Island, have come to
grief Rhode island is the paradise Of mill
owners, and the purgatory Of mill opera
tives How the first have lorded it over
the last How they they have refused
advances Of wages or reduction Of hours
labor They could not afford it - And
yet the Spragues now show about twenty
millions Of assets, and twelve millions Of
Indebtedness, leaving them a balance Of
eight millions Of dollars The New York
house further surplus of three and half
millions.
As labor is the original creator Of every
thing, those millions Of surplus actually
represent the losses Of the laborers and
consumers On an equitable productive
system, these millions would have gone to
those who created them, instead Of giving
princely power and pomp to a few mill
owners.
Our present financial and productive
system not only robs the tollers Of all
these millions, and creates monied aris-
tocracy hostile to republican institutions,
but exposes millions % the industrial com
munity to loss Of employment and beg
gary How can q republic exist with such
power in some classes and such weakness
| in others The last must necessarily be
the slaves of the first-not only toiling for
such compensation as is doled out to them,
but driven like sheep to the polls to vote
for the tools Of their masters II
The Spragues controlled factories and
other productive enterprises without num-
ber Twenty thousand people are said to
have been dependant on them for work
and wages hence twenty thousand PEG
pie suffer more OF less by their failure.
What a commentary on modern free
dom n Did ever anybody hear of South
ern slaves being reduced 10 starvation, OF
suffering the evils incident to unemployed
white labor
We read Of Russian serfdom, but what
better are these twenty Thousand workmer
than SO many serfs Not only are all tn,
profits Of their labor taken from them, bu
they are deprived even 81 the power t.
labor for themselves or others. All thes,
unemployed workmen represent loss t
the community Of 40 many millions II dol
lars every week Under existing circum
stances here is no help for it. 1t is insan
ity in any body Of men t. nov strik
against reduction u wages 1t only in
creases the number IL the idle, and add
TO the common loss.
What labor needs and must have is tn
power to control its own destiny, insteaS
Of being the slave IF capital 1t must sa,
how long it viii work, what shall be il
wages, and what shall be its accumula
tions. Our republic, with its politica
power in the masses, enables us to do al
this legally, without robbery or confusion
The sole value Of republic consists in tn
facility which it gives the people to regu
late their own affairs. Heretofore We hsv,
used it only for the most trivial matters
having little or no effect upon the popula
welfare. We have, from habit, voted fol
the candidates Of this or that party, anC
gone home under the impression that ",
had performed q national duty.
But it is time now to take broader view
of our position and eXigencies. Thes,
''panics" are altogether too frequent, anC
our losses too great, TO pass them by a
divine dispensatiOns. They are nothing
but great human blunders, Just a. RENE
diable as other blunders. While labor j
politically free, it is socially in bondage
bondage that robs it of money and worl
for the benefit Of favored interests n,
man is free who is dependant for work ant
wages ON contingencies that he cannot con
troll Labor must possess capital, and en-
Joy its own earnings. 1t is as easy TO hav,
peoples banks and a peoples money, a
ring banks and money, working exclusive
ly for rings. That better day" that j
coming, dawns as soon as We begin to top
pie down on political and financial gods
typihed in mere political parties.
j. + BRAY.