The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-05-09
FROM MICHIGAN.
PONTIAC, Mich, May 8, 1874.

PONTIAC, Mich, May ., 1913.
To the Editor a the WokKSssASs ADVOCATE
All labor reformers have regarded the
proceedings Of the Industrial Congress
with much interest. II was success or a
failure, according to the ends desired. As
a representative Of the general trades
union sentiment of the country it was a
success but at the same time it did not
give explicit utterance to the necessities 81
the times. II proclaimed the desirableness
Of universal union, but set forth no great
principle o. idea calculated to arouse the
millions ~ action. While it's declaration
of principles il in advance Of its constitu-
ton, IL is more Of an epitome II our needs
as an army than a banner under which la
Dor can advance to a final crusade. II
read the proceedings rightly, the Congress
is even recommended to become temper
ance society.
President Schilling, in his able address,
states that over three hundred delegates
would have attended, instead Of the small
number that came, had it not been for the
financial panic and the consequent depres-
sion Of trade, and poverty among the
masses. This admission ought alone to
have stirred the convention as the blast If
trumpet. Had the convention been one
of bankers, bOndholders, manufacturers,
ia .V.w. g.. I'LL
would have found ample funds to attend /;
but the toilng and impoverished workman
was chained down by his necessities too
poor to even utter public protest against
a social system that enslaved him And
the Convention itself was dumb upon this
point. II tacItly admitted the existing
serf status Of labor. Representative bodies
of wOrkingmen, instead 81 telling hostile
congresses and Legislatures what o,sght t.
be done, should call upon labor to arise in
its might and do it.
There is in all religious, political and So
cial movements some vital idea which,
through its own applicability and force, IT.
resistably compels men to receive and
act upon it. Such was the right Of private
Judgment at the reformation, and the right
to self goverument at our revolution.
While some men at that time would have
confined themselves to telling Parliament
what it ought to do, others saw at once
that independence and self-government in
cluded everything The timid would have
left us, like Canada, in colonial vassalsge
to this day.
And now, with the walls Of oppressed
and impoverished labor coming up from
the mine, factory and workshop, poured
out in the ADVOCATE week after week.
from correspondents all over the Union,
our representative men and leaders prefer
to stave off the memorable movement
which must come. They do not compre-
bend, or are afraid to utter, the grand idea
Of the right Of labor to independence and
self government rights which once estab-
lished, include all other reforms, and gives
society at large control of its hours Of la
Dor, its wages, its accumulations, its social
status, its indefinite progress in temper.
ance and morality.
If our Industrial Congress cannot DC
this, it will disappear from view, and its
more active and progressive elements Goa
Lessee again under other names, with broad
er views and policies, until the robbed
millions stand fairly and squarely on the
independence of labor from serfdom t.
capital The Congress admitted an unsat
isfactory progress and growth. With it,
present policies it is liable to become the
prey Of politicians and demagogues. With
the banner of free labor and social reOr
yanization, it draws a broad line Of dis
tInctiOn, and offers no foothold for enemies
Every man must take sides then with la
Dor or capital, with liberty or slavery, witt
social and political right OF wrong. Tn,
1 age needs bold utterances. J. +. BKAG.