The Labor enquirer., 1882-12-23


thing we must do is to learn to admit
that the ideas now taught and practiced
are false, and that we are the victims.
As the Irish World says, correct ideas
must proceed successful action. We must
study the ways in which labor is robbed.
Nor can we engage our time in the study
of any object so important. Why is it
that the man who plows and soWs should
fear the Aant Of bread? Why is it that
the man who works ten or twelve hours
day in the cotton or wooden mill, or
in the shoe factory, cannot atfOrt to wear,
plenty of good clothes and shoes? Why
is it that the men who toll al their lives
in the erection Of dwellings-the men
who build both the palace and the cot
tage-for men to live in. hardly ever own
one? or, if they do, it is a p'"r one com
pared with the houses occupied by those
who labor none
These are questions that | think We
have reason to ask; and to these que@-
tons it is to our interest to find correct
answer say bad laws are the cause Of
all of this. We will not see or admit all
these unjust laws at once. If We did,
we would wipe them all out at once.
The history Of the world shows that it
is only necessary for the people to know,
in order to act We read Of the Pilgrims
landing at Plymouth; we find the causes
that compelled them to leave the land
Of their birth, the land where lived all
those who We're near and dear to them,
and to embark for wild, uninhabited
land trusting in the mercy of IrOVl
denre and the wild Atlantic, to be unjust
| laws which prosecuted them. The laws
of their nation prescribed in what way
| they sh Guild pray to the Supreme Being.
| They disputed the right of any king to
say how they should address the Uni
versaI God: because they knew he had
no such right But they admitted the
right of that deSpotir power to rule over
Itheir worldly destinitS. It remained
for their more enlightened descendants
to rise up in their manhood and deny
| the right of any king to rule over any
people. Why did the descendants of
/ these pilgrims declare mans indepen-
! deMce and his right to life and liberty
and the pursuit Of happiness: Why did
! they declare that all men were created
free and equal? Because they kne" the
rights Of men better than their fathers
! did. Yes they shocked the civilized
world by declaring that all men were
/ created free and e4ual-that the king
/ was no better Than the peasant The
men of Iearnin- smiled sarcasticaIly al
! the idea Of . people living without the
paternal care of kim. But they dld
and to-day the signs of the times 90 to
show that the days Of kings in the world
are numbered Yes, the colonies de-
cIured that all men were created free
and equal. But to show the impressions
that false ideas make, the colonies up
heId slavery they did not give the col
orcd man his liberty. Why? Because
the slave system was maintained by the
government under which they had lived
as divine institution. They did not see
the true LIGHT Had they known better
they would have done 50. When they
were drafting that grand document the
constitution, in which they left therhaInS
Of the colored man unAr"ken, could
they have looked into the future, il theV
cuuII have Viewed the battles OF HU.!
F1n, Cj,tty>our- and .he Wilderness, if
they could have seen their descendants
Wipngout slavery with the blood Of Hmi-
lion men, 10 you think they would have
allowed that .mm ortaI document }Ieayr
their hands without adding that fifteenth
amendment, which was afterwards writ
ten in 50 much blood 1t is not thirty
years since men OF intellect and edura-
ton adyo"uted slavery through the press
and preached it in the pulpit. They at
the same time boaated in the declaration
: that all men had the right to-Iife, lib
erty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The child of to-day looks back with
scorn and contempt npon the ideas Of
those learned men. 50 will the child of
thirty Years hence look on the ideas Of
the so-caIIed learned men Of to-day.
For to-day laws are believed in and up
held which are as unjust and oppressive
as were the slave laws; and to abolish