The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1874-01-30
Does Government owe Unemployed Working
men Livings


To the Editor OF the N. Y. Tribune:
SIR:-This question, unfortunately tor
our country, is very different suggestion
now from what it was twenty years ago.
In the DAYS of honest ofice-holders, when
our municipal authorities made approprla-
tons for fuel in severe Winters for the
poor, it was surprising to humane dlstrlb-
utors to be addressed with almost threat
ening language by able-bodied men from
the Old World, who claimed bounty as a
right and not as charity. 1t is explained
by a study of the poor laws of England;
which are but necessary part OF their
land system and feudal tenures, and OF
high rentals and low wages. IT all the
lands are held by few families, whose an
cestors won military distinction some CEN
turtles ago, and whose idle and vagabond
descendants are now quartered on all the
tillable lands; if the poor are made and
kept dependent by Government in order to
keep up INDECENT landlords then, when
superannuated or thrown out of employ
ment, the master must feed his servants
as he would his unworked horses. The
Government does in Great Britain owe a
livelihood to laborers thrown out OF en-
ployment 1t was different thing in our
country when the Government made no
extortionate exactions from the poor.
When, however, all public works are farm
ed out to favorites for personal service, and
those favorites are known to prey on the
public treasury; when the high prices
more than counterbalance high wages, and
the laborers can scarcely live when employ
ed when all the dem:gogues' plunderlng
falls not on merchants or men of wealth
but on the poor working people-then, II
r. Low non h11p
to crush the laboring people, the question
is different one whether Government
owes anything to the laboring people. The
men that really owe the laboring men are
those who by injustice and fraud have &C
cumulated the peoples property. The
logic which has led to confscation of the
property Of corrupt officials in old govern
ments may be near at hand. Certainly II
would be equity, if it is not now
law, that the accumulations Of fraud
ulent Office holders should be
seized and sold, and the proceeds be given
to feed the needy laborers. There is as
yet no such law, though the people may
demand one. The necessity is a present
and an imminent one. Our cities have 8
redundant laboring population many
must be unable to obtain private employ
ment, and have no resource except to ap
ply to the public They are doing it by
argument, and have suggested two means
of relief, and their arguments and suggus-
tons must be met.
1t is not wise nor right to dismiss the
workingmen as unreasonable in their de
mands and unreasOning in their argument
If the public has not only allowed the 9th
cial corruption which has brought calaml
ty on the laboriug classes but has even ap
proved it, by keeping public plunderers il
power, than the public, which makes thu
Governments in debt to the laboring PEG
pie Some of the laborers have no expec
tation of seeking relief outside of our city
where they landed as penniless immi
grants. If any public work can be furnish
ed it should be, as Napoleon, when En-
peror as well as when Consul, learned q
Paris. Others are asking, unfOrtunate[,
through demagogues, for aid to get from
our seaport cities into independent home
steads Their appeal ought to be cOnsid
cred by true statesmen, and not by patch
work political hucksters. There is solu
ton, of course, for the most intricate ques
tons in social science, No superficial sug
gestion will meet it, though temporary ex
pedients must be at once devised and pu
in operation. The laborers of New Y orr
and of other cities must be furnished a.
honest livelihood this winter, lest they b
compelled to gain it by force. There is
however, permanent solution for the mo
dern and worldwide demands of the labor
ing classes. In theory it has been fount
in the worlds past wisdom in practice
has availed till the perversion of Govern
ment defeated it; but it may be revived
perhaps may be perpetuated, @. WE.
Ne,c York Jan. It, 1874.