The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-02-14
New Work Worhingmsn's Assembly.
We clip the following from the Brook
Ign Times. 1t explains itself

This evenings session of the Judiciary
acter. They had appointed to receive in
the Assembly Chamber delegation from
the Workingmen's Assembly, now convened
in this hive of deliberative bodies. The
courteous Mr.. Prince presided an usual,
and the workingmen and their cause were
briefly introduced by the President Of the
organization, Mr.. Connolly, Of New York.
At the close of his brief introduction, this
gentleman, as the spokesman Of their
cause, the Hon. Theodore Tomlinson, a
member one year from New York, and a
lawyerof large practice, and in good sooth
it may be said that rarely had cause a
more brilliant advocate, and rarely have
the walls of Albany re echoed to such
FASCINATING oRAToRY.
The speaker was q low-slzed, debilitated
looking man, Of ordinary visage and ma
ture in years, and yet there were times
during the delivery Of his address when he
seemed to spring up great and vigorous
and star-hke, as the living incarnation Of a
sacred cause. His language was of the
most chaste and poetic beauty, and
throughout most of his speech there was a
PLEADING, PASSIONATE EARNEsTNEss
that was absolutely thrilling. Nor did he
conhne himself to entirely to a mere APP
peal, as from the anguish Of the oppressed
to the forbearance and charity Of the OPP
pressor, but rising at intervals to the dig
nifty of his nilsson, he hurled at the elected
Legislators Of the people the responsibility Of
their Office, the sancity of their oath, and
ha do of ha ~,
had deputed them to the holy and imper-
alive task of framing laws for the general
veal. Even had the space at command,
it would be utterly impossible to do justice
to this
RARE 0RAToRICAL DISPLAY
The silence Of clolster winch reigned
in the crowded chamber bore testimony t.
its effect, and illogical as it might seem, one
found himself thinking tia. the truest puI.
pose Of republican legislation is the one Of
all others which is least attended to BY our
representative bodies-that the body 81
our laws is a body OF blunders.
The topics which were embraced in the
speech of Mr.. Tomlinson, as the demands
OF his clients, were various and striking
They constitute the platform Of the Work
ingmen's Assembly, and what is now sketch
ed forth as the creed Of a new labor party
A law for the protection of workingmen 5
lives, in the safety Of scaffolding and other
instruments a revised system Of appren-
ticeship, tending to the improvement oil
craftsmanship sweeping away Of the
miseries of tenement houses, as now over
crowded; facility for western emigration
for the surplus toilers bureau of the sta
tistics of labor, for the benefit of its dis
ciples an election by the people Of all
heads of departments all issue of the
public debts in low priced bonds of TWEEN
ty dollars. accessible to the workingman
A GOOD, RAPID TRANSIT AND FERRY SYSTEM
in New York and other large cities and
above all, legislation for the sovereign PEG
pie, az distinct and superior to wealthy
monopolies. Mr.. Tomlinson in two or three
places made mention of ferries as an insti
tuition which monopolists should not be per
mitted to control for their own benefit. Nj
did he forget 10 insist that the people car
fabricate their own illuminating gas better
than the corporations which at present sup
ply it, while throughout he malntaine,
that the right as well as the power wa
theirs, and theirs divinely
The peroration of his speech was o
matchless beauty the ring Of a hopeful
poesy was in every period, and the orato
Swallowed forth a national millennium
bright, within the ken Of our people, AND
rich with the bounties Of the land which
they inherit, which even the absence Of
wiser legislation can only postpone, fo
come 1t must
There was little disposition in the audi
ence assembled to listen to ally addresse
from less mastery speakers. A few hare
facts, however, we're stated by Presiden
Connolly, which tended to give backbon
to the rhetoric of the advocate. He statet
that sixty thousand persons In New Yorl
were on the verge of starvation through
panic in whose advent the workingmel
were blameless and that at the presen
moment there are sixteen thousand me
chalics who are wandering workles
through the streets of that city. Othe
such stern truths he also revealed, ant
closed by appealing to the committee L
prepare such legislation as
BEFIrTED THE WANTS OF THE PEOPLE o.
THE STATE.
He denounced with homely bitterness, a
the preceding speaker had done mos
scatheingly, the temporixing delay of tn
Legislature in passing Mr.. Days bill lead
ing to employment on New York parks
while hungry workmen were waiting TO
its operation. At the conclusion Of his re
marks, the committee adjourned.
The following is the platform adopted b!
| the Assembly:
WHEREAS, Through the departure from tn,
primary principles Of our government, As pro
mulgated by its founders, and through tn,
Imprudent exercise Of that highest preroga
tive Of the freemen. the right Of suffrage. We
the industrial masses Of these United States
have through our past action, acquiesced II
a system Of class legislation, which make
the great majority slavishly subservient TO
small minority and,
WHEREAS, This condition is clearly tracea
bic to the fostering protection which has beer
accorded by our legislative bodies, both stat,
and National, to the financial, mercantile
manufacturing and transporting interests
enabling them 10 accumulate an undue pro
portion Of the national wealth, and encour
aging them in the exercise Of the corruptinl
lobby influences which have become insepAra
BILE from ourslegiAlative system therefore,
Resolved, That the record OF old political
parties OF this country IA such As to forfeit the
confidence and respect Of the people. and that
we are, therefore. absolved from all allegiance
to them and should act no longer with them
Resolved, That the preservation Of our ma
tionAl life imperativeiy demands that ever,
citizen shall attend with care all primary nom
nations and elections, 30 ~ to insure the cleo.
ton OF competent and honest men to all Offices
in the gift Of the people.
Resolved, That we believe that all officials
should be elected by direct vote of the PEG.
pie, and that we do not recognize any neces-
sity that public officers should receive extrav.
Agant salaries, to the end that they may
conform to the demands of expensive and
fashionable tastes which, in their very nature
are antagonistic to Republican principles, and
corrupting in their tendencies, and We pledge
ourselves to = reduction of all extravagant
official salaries.
RESOLVED, That we pledge ourselves to the
=