The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-03-14
THE INDUSTRIAL CONGRESS.

1t is sincerely to be hoped that the In
dustrial Congress which meets in Roches-
ter, \. Y, on the l4th Of April next, will
not be failure on account Of the general
distress prevailing everywhere, and the
consequent decentralization of a number Of
our trade and labor unions. Surely the
events of the past SIX months must have
taught labor that It has nothing to hope
from partizan legislation. Fraud, robbery
OF rascality seem rampant in all legislative
bodies, and notably SO in Congress and the
federal government. A social upheaval
to overthrow and amend all this is merely
question of time.
No man desires anarchy or civil war.
This is to be dreaded by all classes, and
to b. prevented if possible. Every class
and grade Of society has something to
lose by such catastrophe. Yet revolu-
tions and civil war will come, whether we
wish them or not and as the working
classes are generally the greatest sufferers,
1t Is imperative that the producing element
of all classes coslesce, and form body suffi
GENTLY powerful to resist all attempts to
enslaye labor and overthrow the republic.
An Industrial Congress is Just what is
needed at this juncture, to make known
the true position of labor, its necessities
and demands. No heed is taken Of the
action Of isolated unions, as they are only
supposed to represent the needs cr inter
ests of particular trades. But the Indus
trial Congress has a wider significance
II is not intended, as has been falsely
charged IN some quarters, to organize
strikes, but to lay down fundamental
principles and politics. 1t is the industrial
brother of the political Congress Of l776,
and ITS work consists in finishing what the
other left undone -
Among other matters Of interest to be
considered will be ''the ACCESSIBILITY of
furTing an organization of labor similar
IN its forms, intent and purposes to the
Patrons of Husbandry, the applicability Of
the Federative principles to Trades
etc. All these are means to accomplish
results Less labor, the more equal dis
tribution Of wealth, and the social advance
ment Of labor. But the experience of
past centuries proves concluslvely that
something more than this must be done.
We did not war against the treatment Of
slaves, but against the very principle Of
slavery. And the Industrial Congress will
not do its whole duty, nor leave its msrk
upon the world, unless it denounces the
serfdom Of labor to capital, and lay the
foundations for the Republic of Labor.
The emancipation of labor from the unhal-
lowed domination of capital is the next
phase of modern progress.
The despotism Of kings over subjects,
which as a nation we repudiated century
since, Is nothing in comparison to the des-
potism Of capital over labor Labor to-
day groans in hopeless bondage, alike in
the coal mine, the forge, the mill and the
workshop. 1t wastes existence III futile
effort to escape poverty and elevate itself
in the scale of being. So long as labor is
dependent on capital for employment and
bread, SO long will it be a helpless slave,
bound in the letters Of its necessities.
Z Our Industrial Congress like its proto-
type, must proclaim Declaration of INDIE
pendence for Labor, leaving the means for
that independence to be determined by
events 1t is useless to say that the I.asses
are not prepared for it. This Declaration
will prepare them, as like manifesto pre-
pared the colonists. J So long as they are
left to grovel in servitude to capital, they
become the tools Of political knaves and
impostors. They have not the spirit of
freemen, because they feel that they are
not free. But Declaration of Independ
ence gives utterance to a long pent up
idea, and expresses a univeral want. 1t
will carry conviction everywhere.
Once pcrmeate labor with the idea that
it can be and ought TO be freed from the
domination Of capital, and it viii soon de-
wise means to effect its deliverance.