New-York tribune., 1874-01-14

| the government for assistance. The laws OF
political economy are not so clearly under
stood by the great and the wise OF the earth
| that we should wonder that laboring people
| do not thoroughly understand them. 1t is very
easy for a deep thinker to formulate an un-
answerable argument in regard to the rela-
tions of supply and demand, but deep thinkers
are rare among hod-carrieTs, and all these alge-
brac statements of the relations of supply and
demand are as idle wind to a workman who thinks
that if the public works were carried on he
could get employment and food, and that if
they are not, he and his children must go
half-fed 1t is when his mind is in this state
that it is most open to attack from those
poisonous rOgues who make sort OF living
and enjoy the positive delight of shOrt-lived
nOtOriety and influence by stirring up the un-
employed labOrers to violence and illegality.
Every popular cause in the world is infested
by them 1t was they who smeared the name
of the Commune in Paris with infamy. There
were few better men in France than Delescluze
and Flourens, but they go down to an evil
fame in company with the few miscreants who
murdered the Archbishop. The great weak
ness of most workngmens movements"
sO-called, is that they are not conducted by
wOrkingmen. For the last few days the
city has been full of the dOings of
two or three idle and talkative fellows who
are no more entitled to the name of working
men than any other paupers or beggars. There
is not a millionaire on Manhattan Island who
does not do more honest work in a day than
these Barrkses and Maguires in week.
They subsist by ranting over matters
they do not understand and Dersuading
honest mechanics that they can Obtain
for them redress for the wrongs under which
they suffer. The first thing the labOrng men
ought to do is to lead these spurious leaders
out by the ear. We do not counsel putting
them under the pump, for that would be
breach of the peace. Two days ago one OF
these rOwdies, who has been putting himself
forward as a champion of the labor movement
in Jersey City, assaulted a journalist and nearly
killed him. because he would not publish the
trash the "reformer" wrote to him every day.
His head had been completely turned by the
attention and applause he had received in
public meetings from thougbtless working
men.
The disturbance yesterday in Tompkins-
square arose from q mutual misunderstanding
and lack of consideration between the author
iaes and the crowd. 1t was foolish and i'll
advised thing to attempt to hold the meet
ing. The more sensible portion OF the men
out of employment had given 1t up. They
had conferred with the proper municipal ofll-
GERS and had ascertained that the relief they
had sought from the city could not legally be
rendered There was nothing more to be said
upon that subject. American workingmen, in
cold blood, never ask public officers to do un-
lawful acts The people who filed TOmpkns-
square yesterday morning were of every
kind. The most came from curl
osity; few, thinking strong measures
were necessary against the city authorities !;
and a sufficient number of insane and cnthu-
siastic foreigners to make a somewhat tough
center of resistance to the police. Still, it is
difficult for lis to see that any serious harm
would have resulted from the gathering if a
calmer and more polite course had been
adopted. The police behaved themselves with
such energy and promptness that the COM
munity will be apt to cOndOne any excess in
that direction. But from the facts at present
in our possession, it certainly appears as If
the Clubbing began before other means OF
putting an end to the demonstration had been
exhausted.
The occasion, in short, is one which calls
for the exercise of all the wisdom and judg
ment at the disposal of the authorities and Of
the workngmen. The latter will certainly gain
nothing by trying to overawe the City Gov
ernment or violate the law in any way and
the former would do well to remember that,
of all the resources of the law, the locust club
is the one which is to he used with the great
est discretion.