The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1877-07-28
ARE POPULAR EDUCATION AND
THE BALLOT A FAILURE?

The present suspense Of business, the
unemployment Of labor, the commercial
depression, which, beginning four years
ago, continues deepening and extending in
its effects, have the one good result
ing all their consequent miseries, suffer.
ings and calamities, viz that they force
thou ghtful men to search out their causes,
and to make the defects Of our boasted
civilization apparent.
We boast of our common schools, and
the general diffusion of knowledge wb|H
results from them, and which is. S~pposed
to qualify the people to s~>eftain what
their interests are. 6-d we boast that af-
ter thus qualifyip<fhe people to know what
their rieht-Gfe, we have put the ballot in
TO tho nai DIS Of every man, without regard
- race, previous condition or place of
birth and yet, our people, thus educated
and thus endowed with absolute control
over their government, more favOrably
situated than any other have ever been,
with lands as fertile as any under the sun,
to be had for their occupancy and improve
ment, have become greatly Impoverished
within the last four years, and the process
continues with frightful rapidity. Mer-
chants, manufacturers, railroad companies
are all swept into bankruptcy savings
banks close their doors, and the deposits
! therein are lost to the men thrown out Of
employment, intensIfying their sutferings,
and dependency broods over the whole
1 people, as demoralizing morally as CONNER
cially. Now, if the causes Of these dis
asters were not apparent, the failure to re-
move them and correct their results, would
be excuseable. 1t would only prove
that the popular education OF which We
! boast, is a failure. But when these causes
the possession Of this knowledge. will use
the ballot to support the policies which op,
press them, and will allow themselves t.
| be ruined rather than not vote for the Po-
litical party with which they have acted
aud voted in previous years, and whose
aims and principles they are fully convnrceS
are destructive Of their property, Of tht
value Of their labor, and their happiness
We are made painfully aware that the bal
lot is useless agent IN the hands Of the
people to right their wrongs. This is a
humiliating confession to be forced t.
make. Philanthropy has, in all past
time, made generous effort 10 improve the
condition of the people. 1t has endeavored
to modify the rigor Of desPctism, and in
its heart cherishing all the While the hope
that in some future time the people would
be able to wrest the government from the
hands Of tyrants, and to be governed by
rules Of their own choosing. In the pro-
gress Of the ages these hopes and dreams
Of philanthropy have been realized. The
/ people have taken the throne IN the place
Of crushed despOts, and have come in ouI
own country, at least, to govern them
selves. They have made generous provi.
sion for popular education, and if they
have secured the right Of suffrage, unfet-
tered b any limitations, let us ask to " hat
avail to their happiness is this genera
education, or how do they use the power
Of governing and choosing their own rulers
for their own happiness The present
condition OF the cnnut,r- ~
4 thousands of idle men, the Widespread
suffering attest that general education
and the ballot are not sufficient to remedy
the evils of bad government. The people
are not ignorant that forcible return to
what is falsely called specie payments sent
into bankruptcy three-fourths Of the bust
moss mer Of England, and entailed I'M
counted misery when that country adopted
that policy after the Napoleonc wars
They are not ignorant that in proportion
as You reduce the amount of what is lega
tender, in that proportion you increase
the burdens Of debt, and reduce the price
Of labor. They cannot be ignorant that
their suffering must 90 on increasing under
the present scheme Of what they call re
turn to specie payments in 1879, and tha
it is idle to expect a return Of trade anC
employment under such law. They ar,
not ignorant that in first declaring the ma
tional debts could only be paid in coin in
stssal Of greenbacks and secondly, in de
claring they Cab n-sly be paid in gold in
stead Of gold and silver, the Congress o.
the United States has impoverished them
and subordinated all their rights and in
} terests for the benefit Of foeign and hom,
: capitalists. These things tn, people gen
orally know-and yet with thu knowledg,
they 90 to elections, and vote fol the part
and the men who are pledged to he very
policies which destroy labor Surely W,
have right to say that, in the minds .
all this suffering, from want of employ
ment, when government has been chose
which will put such q man As John Sher
man at the head Of the Treasury Depart
ment to carry out his hard money schemes
such a people. have not been much bene
fitted by common schools, and surely sho,
themselves unworthy the deposit Of tn
ballot.
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