New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1877-08-17
IrOPTU RFUElrRERING.

The press ana puDliC WHO HdNc p'OH O"'
ragged by the recent strikes, and now follow
up their Indignation at them by denounclng
the "Workingmen's Conventions" should re-
member one or two facts.
|. T. at incendiary meetings, while they are
generally set on foot by foreign Communists,
do attract and compromise large bodies OF
workingmen.
.. That these wOrkingmen are, as a rule, hon
est, shrewd and intelligent, but not enlIght-
ened. Their education is partial They know
their own trade or business, and the doghas
Of one political party; but they are unaccuS-
TONED to take broad or elevated views OF po-
litIcal or commercial economy They ana
their families have borne for two years the
stress and sharp daily hardships of business
depression, whose causes they do not compre-
bend. They are irrtated, in precisely that IN
hammable state which makes them ready con-
verts to the arguments of any demagogue VINO
nromises them relief. Thousands and tens OF
thousands of them, on half pay and half IA
tions. will fall victims to the vicious rant oil
Schwob and his congeners, which if they were
at work and well fed they would laugh to
scorn. The mob who burned the depot at
Pittsblrg and tried to roast the troops in the
IOunu-nOuSc, WERE iiOt IdiliP' vi A"''''''''
the majority were decent wOrkmen, insane for
the moment.
3. That the means of keeping these men sane
is not ridicule or contempt, and still less mus
kets. Muskets and Gatling guns served their
turn the other day, and will have Their part
To play again if another crisis arises. But III
the meantime let us have quiet, plain COM
nonsense between the parties These men
are as amonable to reason as to lncendlary
demagogism. Let it be tried. Work has
made them usually practical and quiclI-sshttd.
They are not a boodthirsty Jacquerie, but
they are in the hands which made the JAG
ouere. The educated class in France laughed
nj jacques. or Judged him by his leaders, until
if WAS too late 1t would have been better 20
meet him as human being, to hear what he
had to say, and to lead him to Il different con-
clusiOn.
There are two or three points, also, which the
workingmen would do well to look into before
Joining in the futile attempt to erect Work
ineman's party. While ii is easy in the aristo-
cratic governments of Europe to separate the
political interests of the employer and
the employed, here it is an impossible
absurdity Hodge in England, as rule,
remains Hodge forever. He is Il miner
or laborer at the beginning, and mines
and digs TO the end In America, his aim is
TO become boss-to own his house, TO hire
men to work for him. In IA trice, labor has
become capital and the interests arc identical.
| 1t would be wise too, for the wOrlingmen
who are just now vehemently urging that the
| Government should take control of the great
trunk railroads of the country, and should
grade the scale and amount of wages, to look
little closer into the condition OF the work
iugman in countries where this has been done,
and compare his wages with those which they
here declare mean starvation. They Will then
see the danger of exchanging a King Log,
under whose heavy weight they can and do
live for King Stork. Human nature is the
same in the United States as in France, and
| if the same power is put into the hands OF "A
government, there is no reason why it should
not produce the same result.