The Labor enquirer., 1883-10-13
LIGHT and HOPE.
What Labor Organization Has
Already Accomplished,
Promises Foreshadowed in the
Future--.The Enemy
Yielding.
So Mote It Be Everywhere--God
Speed Along the Good
Work.

The air is full of hope and promise for
the cause of labor. There never was a
time in the history of this country, when
so widespread and deep an interest was
excited in the cause of industrial equity
as now. From one end of the land to
the other one cannot take up newspa-
per but that one of its leading editorials
is devoted to the conflict of labor and
capital. Judging from the frequency
with which the popular preachers dis
course on the matter from their pulpits
we shall soon have a labor reform de-
partment m the theological seminarles as
a necessary adjunct to sound theolog-
icaI education. The reports of the SIT
tings of the committee on education and
labor appointed by the last congress are
eagerly read throughout the land and
even cabled to Europe 1t is only the
question of very short time when con-
gress will be compelled to establish per-
manent national bureau of labor sta
tistics.
These things are, indeed, astounding
when we reflect that only few years
ago there was hardly labor reform pa
per in the country, while an article on
the labor question in one Of the regular
newspapers was never seen. Moreover,
forty years ago a minister who should
have dared to preach on the labor ques
ton from his pulpit would have been Sc
verely disciplined or expelled for 50
shocking a secular DEPRESSION on the pur-
itan Sabbath. As IN the realm of science
the genius of modern life calls for APP
piled knowledge as well as theoretical,
so in the realm of creedS the great masses
whose pennies support the churches are
calling louder and louder for applied as
we'll as theoretical Christianity, and the
clergy of all denominations will sooner
or later find themselves irresistably
drawn into these great questions of land
and labor, even in spite Of themselves.
As Wendell Phillips once said ola prom
inent New England divine who refused
to entertain the slavery question in his
pulpit
"Who is this theological shingle on the
e ,uin fYn
over p"
What is it that has brought about this
great social interest in the labor question
among all classes What is it that has
so quickened the consciences of editors,
clergymen, authors, politicians, and even
many of the Industrial oppressors them
selves? 1t is simply the fact that within
the last fifteen years labor has organized.
After the great war of the rebellion had
disposed of thequestion of chattel sla
very, the attention Of thinkers and re-
formers was turned to the question of in
dustriaI slavery William Lloyd Garri-
son, in his last days, while speaking to
me of his great esteem of the Irish
World and his deep interest in the labor
question, exclaimed: II only wish l had
my life to live over in this far grander
struggle for liberty. God bless the
young men who are alive and active in
these movements"
give the greenback labor movement
a large share of the credit in inspiring
organization among the working classes.
Following upon this grand movement
was the great land league agitation,
which, in the nature of the case, was
closely allied to the labor question-in
fact was, strictly speaking, only an appli-
cation of it, from the basis of property
in land. These great providential move
ments, added to the pressure of the
panic of '73, contributed an enormous
impulse to labor organization in this
country. 1t has all eliminated in the
splendid spectacle which we see to-day
of consolidated labor organizations,
numbering tens of thousands, all over
the land, in every department of in
dustry.
The fruits of this grand work are al
ready gloriously apparent. While Pres
ident Jarrett, of the Amalgamated Steel
and Iron workers, was on the stand be-
fore the congressional committee, the
whole world was astonished at
the herculean proportions of the organi-
zation behind him,as evidenced by the
report of the strength and numbers of
th6consolidated unions. 1t was power
behind the throne which startled thou
sands and set them to thinking. In the
face of this organized army of workers
the imperious John Roach dared not
question the right or benefcence of
trades unions, and paid his compliments
to Irish laborers by scoring telling re-
buke upon the landlord thieves of Ire,
land. have been told that John Roach
the greatest iron worker and shlpbuild-
er in America, is an Irishman, and that
his stinging rebuke of Irish land thieves
before the congressional committee was
wrune from keen remembrance of the
Impressions upon his parents. If so, it
affords a notable example of the old
Latin poets saying. that "the curse of
evil deeds dieth never till the aveuging