The San Antonio light. (San Antonio, Tex.) 1883-1886, 1883-04-06
THE LABOR REFORM SIDE.

The laboring classes the world over are
dissatisfied and ready for any action which
may better their condi ion. One claim they
set forth worthy Of consideration is that the
foundation Of the present industrial system Of
the world is vast proletarat wage class, not
far removed from slaves, and that the system
in working constantly occasions enormous in
crease to the class. They, who compose it,
they claim, own neither house, nor land, nor
estate, nor can they if they would. A meagre
living only is theirs. Their interest in society
diminishes as the wants they cannot satisfy
increase. They can vote, but that is all.
The question presents itself, can the Re.
public endure vast prolstariat class and
industrial kings? The labor reform advocates
say it cannot and urge the destruction Of both
classes together. This can be effected by
furnishing the proletariat with a sure
and permanent possession in the material
wealth which is the source of their
living and by making their former masters re
sponsible to them. This transformation is as
strongly urged by the proletariats as it is frantic
ally opposed by the industrial kings, and it is
i'm, ossible to determine which is the stronger,
the former in their numbers or the latter in
their pecuniary resources.
1.-The Republic" says Jesse Jones, pro-
life magazine writer on such subjects, lean
live only as it is composed OF independent
citizens" Continuing he says:
Citizens can be Independent only as they hold
their living and the mtans of getting that living
in their own power. Not riches, but freedom
is the life of the Republic. A nation can live
in cabins and be free and mighty Republic
A nation of slaves can live In palac S. Rome
did, but IL could not sustain Republic; and a
nation, the chief part OF whose citizeEs hold
their living at the mercy of u few, is Il nation
of slaves. To-day the managing classes are
driving the American nation down that awful
descent along which Rome plunged into the
midnight of the Dark Ages; they are changing
the America people into Il nation of slaves:
for they are working system with all their
energy, aud maintaining that system by every
device, which iscontinually putting the living
Of more and more of the people AZ the mercy
of an IRRESPONSIBLE few. Thus ii ia that the
managing classes are working TO kill the Re-
public.
After all this comes the most critical aues-
ton of the day. Must the thrones of the in
dustrial kings be destroyed to give life to the
Republic ? The laboring classes assert in
the affirmative. "From this" says ZONES,
"there is no escape" Granting it let US con.
slider: When the managing classes see be-
fore them the dread alternative of submitting
to the destruction of their thrones to save the
Republic, or the destruction OF the Republic
to save their thrones, what will they do The
reply must necessarily be an opinion predica-
TED on historical events. Let Us see The
alternative was presented in the South once
before, when civil strife was brewing, and the
managing classes there rose to man to prop
their thrones though by so doing they would
have to raze the Republic Will the cotton
mill kings be more patriotic than the cotton
field kings VIII they be willing to sacrifice
their own interests for the general welfare :?
viii the railroad monarchs and the hundreds
of other plutocratic representatives of the
managing classes consent TO yield some Of
their power to retard national disintegra,ion ?
Never before has a class of men peacefully
so yielded and the labor ref rmers declare
this class will yield but to fire and the sword.
THE philanthropists who howled dismally
that poor Lo was being swept from the face OF
the earth will be gratihed with the knowledge
that he is increasing rapidly and obeying the
scriptural injunction regarding multiplication
and replenishment But even philan;hropists,
if they lived on the border, would gaze less
lovingly and apprehensively at their scalp
locks il they were aware that only olyilz
INDIANS remained to rmind ]. FenimC re
coope-'s consntu -ncy Of the characters upon
which he drew Tor his romancss.