The Evening critic., 1882-03-28
TRADES UNIONS UNITING.
Address 20 the workingmcn calling
for an Organization Against

Capital.
At the meeting Sunday last OF the Central
Union uf tho Trades and Labor Organizations
Of New York and neighborhood, the union, by
a large majority, decided to adopt resolutions
previously reported. They demand that the
State should supply tho necessary machinery
for prison Industries and work the convicts;
that products should be sold for notless than
similar products OF free labor; that large
proportion Of convicts should be employed in
raising agricultural produce for their own
subsistence and In making clothing for their
own exclusive use; that not more than flve
per cent of tho inmates of an Institution
should he employed at any one manufacturing
industry, ana that the time of labor should
not exceed eight hours per day, and for por-
sons under 10 not over Ave hours. The follow
ing appeal was adopted:
"Ftilop Workers The situation OF labor is
critical. Let us calmly consider IL. For years
past our work of organizing the trades has
been In a measure futile. II this were not so
we would not be to-day at the mercy OF those
who do not labor, but possess not only the soil,
but all the means OF life. The mon who mis-
represent us in the Legislature OF Now York
have, instead of protecting our interests, spent
more than three months In deadlock over
the struggle for the spoils OF Office, while the
Governor calls out soldiers and sherlns to
compel hard-working farmers to pay the bonds
Of n thieving railroad monopoly. Walton,
street-cleanlng contractor In this city, leads n
squad OF police against thirty-flve men, who
refuse to starve at $1.37 day. In Glen Cove
factory EristOcrat has the nudacity to send for
the sherin because a few emaclated wage
slaves ask for pittance over 81 n day TO pay
the back rent Of the land thieves. In Mary
land the miners are threatened with diet OF
lead for asserting that they have a right to eat
enough. In Nebraska the railroad labOrers
and In Minnesota the spinncrs are told that
they and their families must not ask for more
than one-third OF what loungers and drones,
who never work, live on, and IL they dare to
say otherwise they are shot down like dogs.
We must expect to meet the same answer II
we declare that we can no longer pay tribute
to the ever-greedy landlord, the usurer and the
wall-street gambler, that unholy trinity whose
powers are concentrated In this great
metropolis, which, with all Its palaces,
wealth, luxury and comforts was
created by our fathers hands. 1t Is
high time that the power of using the peo-
pies property, the machinery of State and
municipality should be wrested from the grasp
of our enemies and returned to their rlghtful
owners, the workingmen and the workngwo-
mon. Therefore, let us be united; cast aside
all prejudices of the past and rally around
the standard Of united labor. Organize, or
gani2e, organize. Our work must go on until all
wage-workers OF New York and Vicinity are
gathered into one solid body OF determined
men and women. who Will in an Irresistible
phalanx assert their rights and exterminate
the abominabie system Of spoliation and rob-
berry which has made the majority the abject
slaves of a ridiculously small minority"