The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-02-07
FROM MICHIGAN.
PoNTIAc, Jan. %, 1874.

IONIlA's Jan. -os iot7.
To the Editor u the woRkNoN,S's ADVOCATE:
Thurlow Weed is well known a. one of
the old, live, scheming politician" and
party managers. In the New York Tri-
buae, Of Dec 81, he gives his views on
public affairs. He strongly urges a return
to specie payments, said specie pay
ments" meaning return to the old system
Of issuing three to four times as much pa
per as there Is gold To redeem. We never
had, and never can have specie payments,
but our banking system is now, and always
has been, a mere hgcus pocus to rob IN. IN
dustrial classes.
But Mr.. Weed does not like the late meet
ing Of workmen at the Cooper Institute. He
says: There is no element among US 50
pregnant with mischief and evil as the
doctrines taught BY Internationals or Com
munists. That spirit crops ont in the pro
ceedings Of those who call themselves
''Workingmen" "a class that labor most
diligently and insidiously t. obtain the
largest amount Of money for the smallest
pretense Of work. UnhaPpily, the Legs
lature was induced to pass an eight-hOur
law, which not only lends the sanction Of
authority t. idlers, but affords them
abundant leisure 10 extend theiI pernicious
organizations. II earnestly hops, there
fore, that there will be wisdom and firm
ness enough III the next Legislature To re-
peal the Eight Hour Law"
These are the views of representative
man among the politicians" and party
hucksters. 1t may be said that ninety out
Of hundred Of the same stripe in both
parties agree with him. He has helped to
shape the political dcstinies Of New York
for half a century, and Just such men are
to be met with everywhere to-day.
What can working men possibly gain by
following the leadership Of such poll
ticians r. They are hostile to labor in
every particular. They would reduce it to
utter serfdom, squeezing out If it rs many
hours work for as little wages as possible.
He, like others, speaks of the evil doc
trines Of the Internationals and Commun-
lists. What are these horrible doctrines
that are 50 denounced Have any of your
readers met with them Why does not
Weed cause TO be published throughout
the Union, In every subsidized party press,
jitSt ,rhdt these doctrines ere, so that the
working class may he enlightened, and flee
from the danger The fact is, every idea
that tends to elevate labor and give it a
Just share Of it's earnings Is held to be
''oommunistic" If the word had been in
use among US few years since, every anti
slavery man would have been denounced
as Communist so much odium has
been heaped upon the word that we ought
all to understand Just whai it means, but
we inadvertently, when discussing the
wrongs Of labor at our public meetings,
should offend our Supporters" by uttering
''Communistic" doctrines
Mr.. Weed is not exactly suited with the
aspect of affairs. In the present emergency
he calls upon the rich to help the poor.
ct is not a question merely az dutJ, Of
sympathy, or Of interest, nut one Of
safety" There's Ithe rub. Hundreds Of
thousands Of men, notwithstanding their
Christian education, may refuse to starve
to death quietly there may be riots, and
worst Of all there may be revolution, and
the supremacy Of the moneyed aristocracy
abolished 1t is becoming question Of
safety, even among the thickskulled poll
ticians.
Mr.. Weed and others who have no
sympathy with the rights Of labor, will
ultimately learn that crisis such as has
came upon us, wholly and solely through
the moneyed classes, has done more to
intensity class antagOnism to excite
thought among the masses, to compel the
industrial classes to see that our existing
social divisions into capitalists and laborers
offers no safety whatever to labor Of any
kind, and that reconstruction has come to
be an absolute necessIty-than the speeches
Of all the Internationals ard Communists
among us could have accomplished in ten
wears. j. r. BRAY.