New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-05-09
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| There are some Objectionable features IN
such a gathering as the one recently held in
this city under the guise of a Convention OF
! the " American Labor Reform League" These
people, who believe the world is going all
wrong, and that all kinds of red-handed
tyranny and red-headed injustice, and hOary
wrongs and fy-blown superstitiOns, and the
rest of that programme are rampant in the
! land, and who are anxious to switch the uni
| verse off on TO q side track for few min
utes, while they put in some new machinery,
! and make O fair division Of property, and
abolish the distinction of sex, and make every
body rich and happy, and have an end
forever of the primal curse of per-
! spiratIOn-these people, we say, have an
undOubted right to assemble and swap
curses of the existing condition of
things, and expectorate lurid elOquenCe on the
exasperatingly cheap and inefficient way in
which the universe is run, and in brief make
| Rome or Thirteenth Street howl. 1t is rather
good thing indeed that all these people
who are opposed to the fundamental ideas
| which govern society and the State should get
! together as often as once a year and ''cuss
into a common hopper And still there a:e
Objectionable features in such conventions. The
the torrent of their. own enthusiasm as to
! forget what the less advanced thinkers,
! the pitiful slaves of cOnventionality and
custom, call propriety and decency; and
the result is that the timid and fastidiOus,
who would like to take hold and set things
! right are driven away by the feculent and
! turbd discourse of the sturdier refOrmcrs.
| 1t is not without great hesitation and diff
dence that we venture this criticism of the
noble band OF reformers who lately vituper-
atcd in Thirtcenth-st. For we are aware that
! their confidence in the nfallibiity of their
opinions and the invincibilty OF their positions
| is so profound that they admit no differences
! and tolerate no criticism. To venture lncon-
! sidcrately within range of the sulphurous and
| phosphorcsccnt vOcabularies which lately
lighted up Thrtecnth-st. would be the height
| of raShness.
Very mildly then, and with no intention of
giving offence we make a suggestion or two.
When Mr. Maddox, for instance, remarked in
his calm, logical way that in this country
5000, 600 of people have their feet on the
necks Of 10000, 900, everybody knew by the
way he skipped around and clcnched his fists
and grated his teeth, that he was simply stat
I
servation, and that he knew his statistics by
actual count. 1t was not strange. perhaps,
that Maddox, who foregoes work himself in
order to extend unprcjudiced and unselfish
sympathy to the down-trodden and oppressed
workingman. should say, i'll little burst of
emotion, that he chopped to God justice would
"be done to these 100000 ID scOun-
"drcIsu Maddox is just that sort OF man.
4 l., hot
degree that he would just as soon
call 100000 men in the abstract I'D
scoundrels" as one man in the concrete.
Sooner, in fact, if the concrete man was able
bodied and near by. When, however, Maddox
added that he was "ready to be ID, yes,
"to 90 to hi, if need be, for the TRUTH" it
occurs to us--now, mind, we don't mean to be
captlous-ndced, we are not strenuous about
it at all-but we merely suggest that this lam
guagc is not scientific. Besides, it was too
liberal an offer. Maddox's sentiments were as
noble as his statistics were exact, but he seems
to It's to have got the wrong idea as to the direc-
ton and distance he would have to travel for the
truth. Then there was Mrs. MiddlebrOOk, who
took the ground that under existing marriage
laws women are the slaves of men, and that
the way to end this shocking state of things
is to give woman the ballot and abolish mar
riage. Women should not work for their hus-
bands, she said, unless they were paid for it,
THIS is exceedingly beautiful and sweet. OF
course we have no criticism for Mrs. Middle
brook. Only when she says in the frank, fear
less manner of the modern female refOrmer
that ga mistress can command what pay she
"likes, but few words mumbled by Il min
lister deprlves woman of that right" we
suspect she is carrying her argument a trihe
further than what women not engaged III the
noble work of reform call decent. Then there
was talk of blood" denunciatioD of usury, rent
and property, defence of the Molly Maguires,
advocacy of freedom of thought so broad as
20 do away with churches and with laws
against obscene publications, and much more
in the same vein of reform.
Some people may object to the whole per-
formance One individual indeed went so far
as to address the gifted leader who issued the
call a reply thereto, saying, in the vernacular
of reform, that it was "all Id nonsense"
and the gifted person, in a grievcd way, read
it to the rest of the birds as an illustration of
the obstacles in the way of true reform.
But why isn't it a good thing for these
white-sO men and women who see
everything going to the bow-wOws, to
huddle together and "cuss about once
a year They illustrate the tendencies of a
great variety Of social and political theories
and ideas, and show us by inexorable logic
what must be their results. 1t is well to get
all these people together, even though they
talk all ut once, and are prOlane and filthy, and
agree on nothing except that the existing con-
dition il had and calls for 0uack remedies.
Here they are all fully deyeloped-woman