The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-05-16
FROM MlCHl6Ah.
PoNTIAC, Mich, May II, |

TONllAC, MlCH-, WAY II, 1919
To the Editor q the woRKSsxAxs Advocate:
While all labor reformers see the neces-
sity for and advocate general consolida-
ton of the working classes into one body,
it has hitherto been impossible to accom-
plish this end. Why The reason seems
to be that we don't lay our foundation
broad enough. Our Industrial Congress
mainly consists of representatives of
Trades Unions. We need an organlza-
ton that will embrace the whole wages
class of the UniOn-men and women,-
skilled and unskilled In a word, all who
suffer through the tyrannies and exactiOns
of capital And to draw all these together
we must have an aim and end 50 broad as
to attract the popular sympathies. Every
working man and woman, when reading its
platform, must be able to feel and say,
. That touches my case, and sets me
free -
As yet, we have no such cosmopolitan
organization. We reject and repel too
many who would willingly assist in the
good work Of labor emancipation, but are
outlawed by our exclusive rules. Cannot
we take a lesson from the Patrons of Hus-
bandry They accepted all men and wo-
men engaged in agriculture. Let us take
all who work for wages, as well as such
small employers that feel the insecurity Of
their position, and are willing to AID in
the good work of social reorganization.
AS all the evils which labor suffers from
are clearly the result of the present social
organization, and the division Of society
into capitalists and laborers, the last being
utterly at the mercy of the first, 1t follows
that social reorganization of some kind is
an absolute necessity. The declaration of
principles of the Industrial Congress, while
declaring what labor needs, do not show
how to obtain it. Thousands of working
men and women read platform after plat
form, and turn away III despair, because
they see no way to reach the promised
land.
Every trades unionist and labor reformer
should aDalyse his own thoughts, and find
out what he really means and wants. If
he is content that labor should be always
in serfdom to capitol, taking good and bad
times as they come, Flooding patiently for
fifty years, and ending life as broken down
men and women in the workhouse, then an
ordinary Trades Union platform is suffi-
Gent. A man resolved to live and die
slave is deaf to the allurements Of liberty.
L . - s.f - ~
upon him or her, they need and will have
more than this. In the words of the In
dustrial platform they demand I" an equal
share of the wealth which they help to ere
ate; more leisure; more society advantages;
more Of the benefits, privileges and eholu-
ments of the world"
Az the present constitution Of society
outlaws the masses from these things, and
dooms them to poverty or helpless servi-
tude, it is PLAIN to see Just where we are
now, and what we must do if we would
change all this. A broad platform, based
on social reconstruction, and the independ-
ence of labor, necessarily gives labor bel
ligerant rights. At present labor is re-
garded as an unruly rebel, destitute Of all
social rights, to be cOerced at any cost by
laws, bayonets or clubs. Let labor declare
its Independence, and its reasons for the
movement. 1t has potent and -bloodless
remedy in the ballot box.
The conflict between capital and labor
can only be settled in one of two ways.
Labor must become it, own capitalist and
employer, keeping to itself its whole earn
ings, and remodeling the whole fabric of
society, or it will be put down by force,
and kept down by bayonets, a. it Is in Eu-
rope. The condition at present is one of
war, and it is sheer folly on the part of
labor reformers to attempt to conciliAte
capital, by protesting that labor IN a docile
and respectable" animal, having no Atm