The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-08-17
SUGGESTION TO SLATE MAKERS.

, politics in which the wol kingmen will be re-
, us to say that the MINER has never stopped
to the cheap demagogism of figuring in the
role of the "workinsman'S friend,'' etc.
Gentlemen who have never in their" lives per-
formed so much as one days hard labor for
wages, or who possess a talent for rotating
themselves into one office after another have
somehow a fancy for appearing in that char
acter, and to them We leave it. We do not
mean to say that such persons are always
frauds or charlatans although an unfortun-
ately large percentage of their number can
not be listed in any other category. Having
no practical experience With the real life of
the ~workingman they are ignorant of the
class they aspire to represent; and being
densely ignorant of other subjects. the infu-
ence of a protective tariff for instance, or the
policy Of granting heavy subsidies to rail-
roads, etc, by which the labor market is
seriously affected, it is not to be wondered at
that they blunder most ridiculously when
they undertake to preach doctrines of which
they have no clearly formed conception them
selves. Their ignorance of the workingman's
real life is the only excuse for laundering
that would otherwise be charlatanism; but
for us no such excuse exists. Without pre-
tending to any tcclnica knowledge of the
Intricate relations subsisting between capital
and labor, we have at least had a sufficient
acquaintance of the workineman's life, as
viewed from within, not from without, to ell
able us to rely upon our W personal obser-
Walton and experience in any opinion we
may entertain. Looking back We remember
that "we' have dragged the surveyors chain
in the Hudson Bay country; chopped cord
wood in Canada; tied reef knots off Cane
Horn; followed the reaper the season through
in the harvest fields of California; worked
month after month in the lower levels of the
Comstock, and year after year in the heavy
p'acers of Montana; and for wages. be it re-
membered. Such an experience surely forms
"a sufficient basis for an independent Judgment;
and ours we have already on more than one
occasion expressed. We do not believe that
as a class the wOrkingmcn have any
"rights" or any "wrongs'' which mark
them of as distinct from from the rest
of the community, and which are to be
reached by the law. They enjoy prosperity
or suffer adversely in common with other
classes of the community, aud like those 9TH
er classes all they can reasonably expect of
the law is that it protect Them in the enjoy
ment of the proceeds Of their labor; that it
interfere with them as little as possible and
that it impose no burden Oh them for the
benefit Of any other class. The last named
condition should induce all workingmen to
stand as IA unit against such inil,!itles as pro-
teclive tariffs, subsidies, etc, which, however
smooth may be the sophistry employed by
their defenders, are really schemes of legal
lied plumber by which the consuming classes
are robbed for the benefit Of the wealthy
manufacturers or the railroad millionaires.
The brunt of all such burdens falls ultimate
ly on labor.
But if there is no legal or political subdi-
vision OF the community into classes each
having class privileges Of its own to protect.
or special objects to strive for, there are very
strongly marked social divisions, and to no
one is the existence of such social divisions
apt to be 50 Extensively evident as to the
workingman. Too often he is made to feel
that the merit of working hard TO earn an
honest living is viewed as a disgrace instead
of honor, and that if lie could only stoop to
callings in which his sclf-respect will not
permit him to embark, he would be more
highly thought of by the public, provided
only he WnIJ1u wear a poD1 pt.t M lie l,opl-
However, it is not of ordinary social life, or
ordinary social divisions, we wish to speak.
We mention them only as introductory of our
statement that such divisions run into poll
tics, where they are perhaps as plainly TO he
observed as elsewhere, and we need not stop
to argue the point, or TO cite proofs to sustain
our assertion when we ny that the democratic
party of Deer Lodge county has afforded in
the immediate past a striking instance of this
very fact. And it has not been unobscrved
by those who have reason to consider them
selves sighted by such an arrangement. Two
years ago, when "A democratic workingman OF
Butte was reproa he'd for his desertion of the
old party, his answer was as follows:-"Th The
democratic party, in this county, is always
The workingman's friend just before election,
1t is 'Hurral, boys! Vote for the democratic
party, the party of the people, but when il
comes toa division of the offices we find them
!. divided up among a little crowd Of professions
f al politicians who never think Of honoring a
nottingham with all office, and who forget
+, all about their love for the laboring classes
r the moment they are elected" The feeling
! expressed in those words still exists, and il
r would be well for or party managers to take
- IL into rnnSiIprafion Assumiur a mama il