The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-02-13

best men in the land to assert the equal
rights of labor with capital He lived up
on the unrequited labor of no man, ana ne
had pretty hearty contempt Tor those VINO
did. He drew picture of society, of
classes, and of the rapid tendency in this
countrv to aristocracv and serfdom. All
thoughtful persons must feel that some
thing was wrong in our country when we
find SO little of the comforts, so few of the
luxuries of life among the masses, and such
a profusion of wealth among the minority
The producers, the farmers, and the me-
chanics, the laborers create the wealth of
the world, but do not enjoy it while those
who handle the products of labor revel in
the wealth thus produced without ever
having added dollar to the wealth of the
world. There was something wrong in
the laws and government of a
country which produced such results. He
countenanced no war against capital Cap
ital was as necessary as labor-neither was
very valuable without the other. What
he demanded was that labor should have
its share of the wealth of the world-and
he demanded laws which will give labor
it's share. If the labor and capital re-
quired to carry four bushels of corn to
market was worth three times as much as
the labor and capital required to produce
the four bushels, why, then let the transpor-
tatlon and warehouse and commission men
take the three bushels and leave the one.
If not, then let us have fair divide, giving
each an honest share. We make no war
upon railroads they are a necessity we
want them, and we want them to liye,-on
the basis of honest cost and economical
and honest management-as honest and
economical as our farms are managed. We
war upon their dishonest and extravagant
management-no upon railroads or capt.
tai
He then dwelt for sometime upon the
debts-national, state, county, municipal,
etc., etc the extravagant, improvident
and dishonest management of public at
fairs. If this is a government of the
people for the people and by the people,
for heavens sake let the people take it In
to their hands and manage it through bet
ter and honester servants than they now
have. The farmers of this State number
about three-ffths of the population. Shall
the two-ffths rule the three-ffths? Or
shall we have government which will Sc
cure for labor its fair share of reward A
twenty-ninth part of the people hold !
of the wealth, and they never produced or
created dollar of it. Twenty eight TWEEN
ty ninths only own one-third of the wealth,
and they created it all Seven-tenths of
all the farms in the United States are I'M
der mortgage -four-sevenths hopelessly so
and must be lost and their present owners
beggared, unless our revolt against the ty-
ranny of capital and demand for justice
shall succeed and bring relief to the toll
ers of the earth. The interest on capital
was too great Capital demands 10 per cent.
The law robs labor of 10 per cent, while
farms with the labor of their owners brin g
never oyer per cent reward, and rarely ov-
er 81. What we sell is on the foreign, gold
market basis what we buy, on the infat-
ed greenback basis-and thus we are beat
en- when we sell, and beaten again when
we buy. The difference between the re-
| turns which the monopoly and money lords
| OF the country get on their investments,
and the returns labor gets is too great, and
this revolt did not come any too soon.
| The labor interests of this country have
struck for better pay, for more equal and
talr divide, They must win or be slaves
to the monopoly interests. There must
be something wrong in country which
pretends to equality of rights and works
out such results There must be some
thing wrong in a boasted land of equal
rights when colossal fortunes can
be boarded by hundreds OF
millions while thousands of our people
famish with hunger and shiver in the
cold. The burdens of the toilers must be
! lightened: taxes must come eff the neces-
saries and comforts of life; government
must be honestly and frugally administered
or else the people have not the courage
to assert their rights. The encr0achments
of capital upon labor are steady, insidu
Gus, but sure,-and are daily widening anC
separating the people into classes as mark.
ed as in the old world 1t will be the fault
of the people if they fail to remedy the
evil by more just and equal laws.
We regret that our limited space pre-
vents us from following Mr.. Smith in q
more detailed report of his exceedingly
able, and interesting speech. 1t was brim
full Of pointed illustrations, OF wit, Of Sar-
caSm, and solid argument
Let everybody who can, come to tht
court house on the 18th aud hear him.
A hearty vote of thanks was, tendered Mr.
Smith at the close of his speech, and the
meeting adjourned with high spirits fol
the future progress Of the Peoples Cause