The examiner., 1882-01-28
Our Trades U niOns.

J 1So cry we behold to-day in the world p our answer would unhesitatingly be, S The arant of thought amongst the people"
 The majority of the people don't think, particularly the honest ones, and there fore they are prey to those who do.
 We know of nothing created but that somebody created it; yet we find the ere. ators of all good things around us not in possession of those things they created Why is thls? Because they who thi'ah have devised methods of acquiring them all by means which the minimizing are never believed capable of detecting. The mason, the carpenter, the plumber, all as- sist in building grand palaces but does the mason, the carpenter or the plumber ever occupy them?
 Oh no, they build such as these for him who has thought, or a descendant of one who has thought and taught method by which palaces might be obtained without labor on their part, from the men who had labored to build them.
 And that is not all. The very hovel even which the worker erects to shelter himself and family, he is deprived of by the very same process and best, or worst of all, to cap the climax, the poor dupe is educated into the belief that "its all right" and just as the Lord intended and anyone who would dare undertake to change it should be looked upon as dan gerous character, not fit to abide in a civ ilized community. Therefore, under those teachings it is not to be wondered at that so many are always found forging the very fetters that bind themselves, and fighting to the bitter end any and all eff forts for their disenthralment.
 The want of thought is also the base on which rests all our inconsistencies.
 We find men-multitudes of them who, though possessed of the instinct of self-preservation enough to impel them to combine together for mutual protection against their human oppressors, exhibit this want of thought to such a degree that they are continually pulling down with one hand what they are laboring so strenuously to build up with the other. This is particularly true of our organiza- -tions known as ''trades unions." It is true of nearly aU our societies that aim to
 
 fellows; but the trades unions present the most glaring inconsistency of them all.
 Here we have men who year after year had borne the exactions and perhaps in some cases the abuse of their employers, until patience ceased to be 8 virtue, rise up in the spirit of desperation and labor night and day for the perfection of an or ganization in which they might seek refuge from the further encroachments of capitalistic rapacity but no sooner is this accomplished than we find them marching up to the polls to vote for men and to sanction measures that are diamet- rically opposed to the very existence of their organizations. They organize to- day to wiring '' ten per cent" more out of their employer, and tomorrow they place him in position to wiring fifty out of them.
 They care for nothing and can see no advantage in any measure advocated for their benefit, only an addition to their daily wages.
 The land questionable very basis of all questions-has no charms for their re- fiective faculties. The finance question the very life blood of the body polite they pass with a sheer, little thinking that he'who has control of the finances of the nation has control of the purse strings ,ofithe people. The capitalistic question: the basic question of our industrial exist .ence-ah, that is too profound or too far of in the misty future for their present attention. They rise in the morning, swallow few mouthfuls of food, drudge away all day long, retire at night, rise again in the morning, a repetition of the same thing over and over again, day after day, month after month, and year after year, until they finally drop into their last resting place, in debt for the coffin that enshrouds them and the patch of mother earth that receives them. And where, you ask, is the result of all their ife's labors? Look yonGer at the big factory covering acres, and the big house on the hill with it's lawns and promenades, where gilded carriages are seen rolling to and fro, freighted with magnifc ent specimens of humanity who never even condescend to look after their own mag nificent persons. Their labor had done all this, is centered there, but somebody else is now the sowner"
 When will your trades union idea of a few cents more day affect this condition of affairs? When will it even secure you the ownership of one of the little tene- ment houses thrown together at the foot of the hill. The "boss" owns the great factory with all it's machinery, he owns the big house on the hill, he owns all the land adjoining, he owns the house that shelters you, finally, he owns yourself. You will spend weeks and months on a E' strike to assert your manhood or your right to combine, but utnever an hour to stop