Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-08-04
sober second Thoughts.
Courier-Journal.

men deserves to be encouraged. /,
can have the serious opposition O.
nobody. All of us, more or less
are, or have been, workingmen and
no reasonable public policy could
or does, desire the Workingman tC
sit, like bump ON log. making
no progress. But what kind OF
movement? There's the rub. Hith.
erto such movement as the laborine
classes have had has been mainly
useless to themselves, because it has
been violent and misled, leaving
them in the end, Like Ramsey's calf,
"to suck the hind tit" There isn't
any sense or wit or good in that.
The truth is, there is great deal
of confusion in classifying the popu-
lation in a city like this. Who are.
in reality, the laboring men? Is
not a Main-street clerk, who gets
five hundred dollars year for ten
or twelve hours close application, a
laboring man? What is the differ
ence between the night editor of the
COurier-J ournal, the foreman there
of, and any one of our steady typos
Each is working man, and each
makes just about enough to keep
body and soul together. Suppose
they struck for more wages than the
existing owners of the paper could
pay, and that these latter should be
unable to supply their places, what
would be the result? Why, other
owners would come in, the present
owners, impoverished, would be-
come as poor as the rest, and, during
much disturbance and confusion,
the business would go to pot. To
whose profit? Surely not to that of
the workingmen, each one of whom
as he is capable, energetic, indus
triOus and aspiring-hopeS to mend
his condition, become a property
owner himself, and end his days,
not as labOring man in the primi-
tive sense in which all of us are la
boring men, but as an employer,
who has earned what he has by the
force of his will and the sweat of his
brow. Workingmen should remem-
Der who it was that perpetrated the
wisdom of emitting the limb off be-
twixt himself and the tree. 1t was
Moses Cox.
In a country like this nothing can
be more absurd than to talk of the
sorrows and troubles of the work.
ingman distinct and apart from the
sorrows and troubles of society at
large. The laboring classes, man
for man, are part of that society.
Each one has his vote, each his
quantum of power according to his
capacity to use it. The fittest sur
vive and move forward in every
craft. One poor devil gets to be a
section boss; another poor devil gets
to be foreman another poor devil
rises to be q superintendent another
poor devil promotes himself into a
capitalist, and so on. Success in
life, advancement, is work, we'll
directed work, brain power Joined
to manly power. The man who
does not get on, high or low, college
bred or factOry-bred, may charge it
to himself. Nobody else is to blame.
The world is full of examples of the
humblest operatives-from George
Stephenson, the inventor of the To-
cOmOtive, who was an illiterate col
lier and rose to be an English gram
dee, to Henry Wilson, a poor shoe
maker, who rose to be Vice Presi-
dent of the United States-whO be-
gan on nothing, or worse than moth
ing, and rose to pre-eminence.
In this country all men start even
in the race. The fool who happens
to have inherited a fortune is as poor
off, aye, poorer off, than the man of
purpose and talent, who has none.
The one goes slowly down, the other
goes slowly up; the only way to
achieve fixed results. The one dis
sipates his patrimony; the other
educateS himself and makes a patri-
mony for his children. The blath-
erskites who drivel at public meet
ings about the wrongs of working
men are not themselves working
men. They are poor, lazy fellows
who have failed in life, and who
want to make cheap and easy sup
port as the poor mans friends. Just
like other demagOgues they are full
of sound and fury, signifying moth
ing. When it comes to working in
earnest or fighting in earnest, they
| Jump, skip out, leaving the dupes
they have inVeigled into a losing
game to hold the empty bag. The
motto for this set should be, in the
words of the rural poet
"I'm lucky Bill from Hominy Hill,
Does no work and never WILL"
for that is just their style, a no
account, idle, swindling lot, having
only little gift of CAB and plenty
of brass.
AS for ourselves, we hate all shams
wherever we see them. The world
is full of them. Every department
of life has them the State, the
Church, fashionable society and the
workshops. They appear as states
men, as preachers, as workingmen
and they are equally detestable in
each character. They spout and
strut and talk large. Yesterday il
was the politician to-day it is the
labOring man tomorrow it will be
somebody else, only always hypO.
crite and humbug, seeking to make
his tongue do what other mems
brains, arms and legs do; that is
exc out a living cheap and easy
with little peacock glory to spare
1t is vile, and most abominable
that such creatures can deceive theil
neighbors. Yet they do, and We
can not expect the working people
to be more proof against such scamp,
than society at large, which is eve
and anon running off after some
wretched hypOcrite, who happens tt
have a big voice and profusion o
cheek.
In all that we have said to thu
wOrkingman and about the work
ingman, throughout these presen
demonstrations, we have beer
guided by amOst disinterested spirit
We know him well in all his walk
and ways, and we know OurselVe;
to be his friend. All we want o
him is his respect, and, in the Ions
run, we have no fear of fOrfeitinl
that. He will find in the end tina
we have not flattered him to mis-
lead him, but have told him tn,
truth fearlessly and sincerely. W.
never have apprehended seriou
trouble in Louisville, though WI
could wish, in common with al
good men, that we might have beer
spared the vile effusion of Tuesda!
night. Quite sure are we that tina
, has the sanction of no true working
. man; certainly not of those braV
and honest fellows who, during tn
discussions of last year, made up tn
, most attentive and appreciatiVe Q
, the audiences that assembled to hea
, the state Of the country discussed
These at least must know Wher