Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1882-10-05


laboring population would starve.
Knowing this. we dare not, It seems TO
me, permit this unlimited emigration
TO this country at this time and thus
trample upon and override and drive
out our own latoring masses and the
laboring masses that come TO us from
all the European countries. There
came seven hundred thousand emf
grants to this country last year and
this year it viii probably exceed a
million. They, with the growth of our
country, intermingle with US and here
sits before me the result of that inter-
mingling Of European races; one a
compound of Irish and Scotch, anoth-
er of German and Irish; and so we are,
with this multitude of fifty millions,
rapidly running up to hundred mil
lions. AS your fellow citizen and
Representative / could not consent to
allow that question to be complicated
with our delicate and all.absorbing
labor difficulty OF the present hour.
[applausel
Now, my friends, this leads me to
say word in regard to
THE LABOR QUESTION.
We are having ever this country 70.
day, and have had for months past,
strikes, as they are called, of our 10.
boring men unexampled in the history
of this country. Those men are not
lawless men, not law breakers, but
bread, clothing and shelter are the
elements that lie as the motive power
behind these strikes. 1t is no war, as
l will show you, upon capital, for cap
ital is but the right arm of the labor
ing man. But when bread and cloth
ing and shelter cost little more this
year than they did last and when q
man tolls from early morning until
late at night and goes home to his
family and counts up that it has taken
it all Cor his bread. anxiety for the
future moves him to look out for his
own welfare and we have as result
these deplorable-because they are so
strikes all over our country. Ten
thousand laboring men in single pro-
cession at Pittsburgh! The man that
would dare, as your representative,
overlook that interest, disregard that
movement, would stand in your beau
tiful town and see a fire break out in
an outer corner that might, in an hour
spread and wipe away all the wealth
and the glory of your little town. You
must face it. 1t must be met. How? l
naturally have, l ought to have, l
must be forgiven because l have, a
deep-seated, warm, earnest, never dy.
ing sympathy with man who tolls
for his bread. Applause. 1t seems
to me if had not been born poor but
had not been born with a golden spoon
in my mouth and the cashier of bank
[laughterl that as a mere matter of
policy in our government, would
feel in the same way; because we all
ought to look out here upon our streets
and remember that our history is full
of illustrations of men who have come
up from the ragged boy upon the
street to sit in our legislative halls, in
our state and national councils. on the
bench and even guided the destlnies
of our republic in the presidential
chair. Our history is full of such
cases; and 1 want the country so pre-.
served, that the man who is too poor
to-day to come here and spend an
hour at our meeting, but must work
for his bread--I want the country so
preserved that this ragged boy upon
the street may stand UP some day in
D convention and hope for nomina-
ton and hope for an election against
all the wealth that can be piled up,
even to the amount that Vanderbilt
has got [applause]
Now, my friend, would not leave
his question right there without
word of explanation. I said to you
hat capital and labor should be har-
monized. They are. They should be.
If they are in conflict it is like my
land trying to pull out me eye. What
$ capital? What is labor? Capital
ouys your machinery; it builds up
7our farms, your stores, your work
hops and your places of business. Il
8 the means by which all of these are
,ut together in running, order. That
s capital. What are you going to do |
With it? Is the millionairs or the man
With his thousands. who has rented |
lis shops for the employment of a kun-
lred or two hundred men, going to |
un it himself? No. He looks about
or skilled mechanics. He looks
round in your community for labor
ng men. What are the laboring men
ooking for? They are looking for
he same thing. They turn their faces
oward capital; are reaching out their
ands toward capital, and productive
apital comes up reaching out her
and toward labor and says: ''Wel-
ONE to employment" and then when
hey are together applause], SO that
hese interests are united, labor is
he brain and the muscle, whether
,orking in a printing Office or any
here, working on the one hand the
and the power, that is
lrnished by capital on the other; and
is thus run by the capitalist and by
ne laborer for the benefit .of the la.