The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-03-20
wUAT NOES LABOR DEMANDe

scientists. 1t has been well said that labor
creates everything 1t was labor that built
the world; labor has embellished it, labor
redeemed it. and labor Is still going forward
in its work of adornment. Money capital
is tool. labor yields it; capital is. inert,
labor yitalizes it; capital Is cold as an ice
berg, labor warns it into life. Capital is
like a rough marble block which labor
takes, and under its skilled chisel
fashions il into statuary commanding the
admiration of all beholders. Capital stands
still; labor compels it TO move. The mOnu-
ments of mans labor divide with omnipo-
tence the admiration of the world. Niagara
is scarcely more an object of wonder than
the pyramid OF Cheops, and Cleopatra's
needle, in a London square, will challenge
the admiration of travellers as certainly as
Mont Blanc. The monuments of labor are
evidences OF the worlds progress The
bridge that spans river or mountain gorge,
the locomotive that draws the train around
the dizzy heights of the mountain, the
steamship that defies adverse winds and
tides and moves like a thing of life along
the trackless paths of the ocean, the canals
that connect inland seas with ocean tides,
making water highways for the products
of labor, the wealth of forest, field, farm
and mine, receive the admiration of the
world, and stamp labor with (. dignity that
can not be effaced. The subject invites to
indefinite elaboration, but if what we have
said is true then the demands of labor upon
those who shape the legislation of country
should be met by policy liberal instead of
oppressive, just instead of inequitable. 1t
should lift labor to high plane and recog-
nize its claims upon the country. Unfortu-
nately, under radical rule, just the opposite
policy has been practiced until its oppres-
siveness has become so intolerable that
further endurance is meeting with a
protest which, rightly interpreted, is the
premonition of widespread revolution.
Laboring people have learned that the radi-
cal party has 10 sympathy whatever with
labor. For years past its measures have
tended directly to destroy their independ-
euce; to subject them to the despotism of
money, to reduce them to beggary, and to
treat them as serfs. Grant, the patron of
thieves, filed the land with corruption.
Stealing became the rule, honesty the ex
ception. Brides were offered regardless OF
exposure and accepted in broad daylight.
Contracts were annulled to conciliate Shy
locks with a nonchalance indicative of a
stolid perfidy unparalleled in the history of
any civilized country under heaven. From
Washington there flowed out through
the country streams of corrupung
influences that told IN due time with terri
BILE effect upon the material interests of the
country. Every act of legislation bearing
directly or remotely upon business affairs
was in favor of money capital and against
the interests of labor, and in due time the
crop of bitter fruits was ready for the har-
vest. Panics set in. Great concerns that
had been intimately associated with radical
thieves in Washington tumbled to pieces,
and were found to have. been gilded lies
whited sepulchres. Then followed failure
upon failure in rapid succession. Industries
stood still; labor was paralyzed and idleness
multiplied. The situation has been growing
worse instead of better for years, and
still we find the most distinguished
to strike at labor aud further Cypress and
degrade it, But labor has at last resolved to
resist this cursed radical policy, and is or
ganiziDg for the contest. The subject is one
of unquestioned gravity, and is attracting
attention. There are now at least five mil.
lions OF forced idlers in the country. They
want to work, but the radical party by its
cursed legislation has forced them into idle
ness, and is pressing them towards starva-
ton. Forces hitherto latent are coming to
the front Labor is being instructed with
regard to its power in moulding the policy
OF the government. The New York Graphic
in commenting upon forces in politics re-
marks that ''the national debt is only small
part of a much larger problem. The forces
that can be enlisted on either side
Gin struggle about it are very small
compared with those which struggle be-
tween capital and labor could muster. And,
indeed, the question of the national debt
has received much of its recent importance
because of the assumed bearings of its solu-
ton in any given way on the larger ques-
tion which was conceived to be behind it.
Now, we should all remember that univer-
sal suffrage is in this country our final ar
bitter. and what universal suffrage will do
aboutcapital and labar no one yet knows
universal suffrage has not made upits mind.
The passions to be evoked by such a strug-
gle as seems at times imminent, owing to
the prostratIon OF industry and the enforced
idleness of the Iaboring classes, are matters
deserving Of thought at this time, when
observing men see that the elements of
parties and opinions are beginning to take
some kind of shape"
The allusion by the Graphic to universal
suffrage is opportune. The ballot in due
time will correct existingeyils The govern
ment will be rescued from the grasp of Shy
locks. New avenues to labor will be opened,
thieves will not be permitted to grow rich of