The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1875-06-05
THE PENNSYLVANIA STRUGGLE.

The despera struggle now going on in
Pennsy lvania between the oppressed min
ers and the consolidated coal and railroad
companies, show that capital, like labor,
Is trying the effects Of combination. What
can consolidated labor accomplish against
consolidated capital Which will starve
first What effect have our various labor
platforms and remedies upon this condi-
ton Of things Can they remedy it or
even touch it 3
Labor is serfdom to capital. That is an
undisputable fact. All capital is but the
savings Of labor's earnings That is
another fact. Why should the earnings
of labor be made the instrument for its
robbery and oppression But 50 long as
capital and labor are two hostile interests.
the last deriving all its power from the
plumber Of the first, that plumber and op-
preston will continue growing worse and
worse, until crisis puts an end to this
strife.
Labor reformers should constantly ex-
ercise their ideas and platforms, and test
them by the great exigencics Of the times
Is 1t not becoming more and more appar-
ent that mere unions and strikes are in
adequate to touch social evils A victory
to-day is counterbalancsd by defeat to-
morrow. They struggle against desperate
odds, under every conceivable disadvan-
ta-e A capitalist class is a natural and
hereditary enemy Of labor class. We
must have a social reconstruction that Will
make the laborer independent Of the capi
talist, and prevent the absorption Of la
boris earnings by capital 50 long as our
social divisions are maintained which de-
liver labor" bound hand and foot to the
mercy Of capital, there can be no remedy
;or suffering and serfdom.
This great ultimate reform through social
reconstruction is rendering it's necessity
daily more apparent. We devise and ad-
vocate remedy for a particular condition
Of affairs, and before we can test it, another
condition arises worse than the first, and
We look around for another remedy for
the new outbreak
Men may be for a moment led off by the
sophistries Of the politicians, but what
effect have they upon this Pennsylvania
struggle, which is nothing but an attempt
Of consolidated capital to reduce to abject
slavery the thousands Of miners in Penn
sylvania, and ultimately throughout the
unloni Capital demands unconditional
submission through starvation Starvation
IS its most potent weapon, for starvation
must ultimately succeed loss a work.
Good resolutions, unions and manly cour-
age all go down under family ruin. And
the consolidated capital Of the world can,
at any moment crush and utterly vanquish
the consolidated labor Of the world, unless
the latter essume the offensive instead
of the defensive. All that labor has to-
day is extorted from the fears, and moth
ing from the justice of capital. These
petty struggles only weaken and democrat
ize labor by exhausting its scanty means.
A triumph to-day settles nothing for to-
morrow.
Labor must meet capital with a new
declaration Of rights. The naked issues
involved may as well be brought into view
first as last Shall liberty or serfdom be
the perpetual heritage of labor Shall it
enjoy its own earnings or be plundered
by other classes Labor does not yet
the grandeur Of the conflict in
which it is involved, nor does it perceive
the vast wealth that will flow from indie
pendence and self government. 1t must
look upon this as it's ultiniatum, its gospel,
its earthly salvation