Mexico weekly ledger., 1882-07-27

and public, and the establishment of
cooperative institutions productive
and distributive. Other reforms
are sought that are sufficiently known
without particular mention"
We make these copious extracts
from the North Amertcda Reriesc, that
the readers Of the LEDGER may be
posted in what is transpiring. From
them guardedly written as they un-
doubtedly are, it is evident that as the
''The Trade Union' has been the So
cial so ''The Knights of Labor" is the
political representative of the COM
bined skilled workmen of this country
and constitutes the leading and con-
trolling element of what is known as
'"The National Greenback Labor Par
ty," partisan faction operating in
the interest of the work shop and
seeking to increase its power by all
sorts of alliances.
1t is the undoubted right of all
classes to form combinations for the
furtheranee of their peculiar interests;
but it requires great skill and great
disinterestedness to conduct formi-
dable secret political organization for
that purpose to success. 1t has been
said above that f0orreihle strikes have
been the bane of ",The Trade Union; V.
and it can be truly asserted, that
alliance with Communism and other
Transendeltalisms will be, if it is not
already, the discontinue of "The
Knights of Labor" Its mixture with
the native and imported rag-tag and
I.bob-tail of American politics is as
suredly working its disintegration.
The old Trade Union by its strikes set
in motion the panics that have recent
ly prostrated commerce and agricult-
ure. By demanding increased wages
when prices were low and our limited
market depressed, it impoverished
both working men and employers by
useless and effectual cessation of pro-
duction, and now "The Knights of
Labor" are going from bad to worse
by encouraging and supporting, and
in many cases yielding to sentiments
and expressions aimed at the founda-
ton of society. AS the stoppage of
factories has often unnecessarially in
jured many members of the union, so
Legislative arbitration, if it conld be
obtained, world destroy the indus
tries to which it might be applied.
How long would capitalists risk their
time and means in factories, when the
party in power by vote in congress
appointed committees to fix the wages
of its partisans, and how long would
agriculture flourish under the enforced
theory of free air, free land, and free
water? 1t is an impossible thing too,
that any of the industrial classes can
derive any benefit from connection
with fiatists or demented financieers.
What labor wants most, and in its
heart desires most, is an honest dollar.
The better portion of workmen are
either democrats or republicans. Ii
is only the erack-brained that run after
ldemagogues, and even these will soon
discover the use the designing are
making of them.
| Of this, all may be satisfied, the
ideal lahor-organization, if indeed il
is capable of being created, will never
be reached through political entangle-
ments. At best the honest of ''The
knights of Labor" are but reaching
out blindly for the limitations of state
and national constitutions. If the
skilled workmen of this country have
been imposed upon, and no one is dis.
posed to deny they have suffered from
what is complained of by nearly al
classes of society, the enforcement Of
organic law is their best remedy
Nearly all, if not the whole of the OBJ
noxious legislation objected to ha:
been the work of the Republican par
ty. If monopolists, banks and cap
italists have been favored it has beer
through its instrumentality. If th'
public domain has been squandered
it has been through its votes. Iftax
alton is excessive and oppressive, thu
responsibility rests with it. Green
backs, if they form the most desirable
part of the currency, have been KEEP
: in circulation by the democracy. Th'
matters complained of and the thing
desired cannot be obtained through
!. republican cooperation; nevertheless
the representatives Of the workmen as
sist that party to oust democratic con
gressmen, and thus deliver themselves
and the rest of society into the hand
of those they most justly denounce
Such Inconsistency is unfatl.omabl
and unpardonable, and leaves tn
public in doubt whether with all thei
vaporing they really desire what the
insist on. .*
A man out west bought a bed
: stead, the wood of which was s
: green that one warm spring day
broke out all over with buds and in
week was covered all over with littl
p groves of waving branches. In tn
+ autumn the children picked the chest
: nuts from the side pieces and mex
q spring tapped the head board for ms
f pie syrup.
n A handful of Greenbackers, 27 j