The Labor enquirer., 1883-12-29
~ i.

Misrepresentation Of the peoples true
interests, and the pulpit BY preaching
resignation to the infamous system Of
injustice BY which the people are de-
stroyed,
Resignation! What word! More
potent than forged fetters; more potent
than prison walls which confne the bod
les but not the thoughts Of men; more
potent than the hangman's rope whereby
souls loyal to truth have been liberated
to their inspiring march down the CEN
turles more potent than allexternal ap-
pliances that one word, the tool of SUI.
perstition, the grave of hope, and the
open portal of despair and death.
If there is word in the language I
have right to hold in detestation and
abhorrence it is resignation" 1t has
doomed the workers Of the world to
1000 years of abject seryitude, while it
DETECTED their honest earnings into the
pockets of robber class called amas-
ters.n Servants, be obedient unto your
masters, for this is the law of the Lord
II has doomed the women Of the world
to even a longer period of enslayement
than this; for while it begins to relax
the grasp upon mankind through the an
tagonism Of fast-coming thought, it still
holds my own sex in the direst enthrall-
ment, and will continue to do it, until
public opinion is 50 shaken by agitators
that the dross of accumulated rubbish is
sifted out of it, and only the pure gold
of truth remains.
Glory to the men and women who be-
gin to poor the floods of long.garnered
wrath against this word
Glory to the pen and tongue of hui
morist and satirist who are pnncturing
with, keen rapiers this wind-bag word
that has deadened the race SO long!
The great tidal wave of thought now
swaying the souls of men, leaping the
oceans at "a bound, waking the continents
as with the breath of fame, means
emancipation from the bondage of this
dastardly resignation = means
tie awakening of the race to recogni-
-tion of individual rights; means free
dom. - h
! know nothing Of the differences of
opinion now holding progressive people
apart, and drawing hair=splitting distinc-
tons between them when there should
be compact and indissoluble union for
common purpose. But do know that
the aim of every effort of up-struggling
humanity and the goal of every holy as
piration is freedom. And l know that
in freedom alone can come the proper
adjustment of those differences which SO
vex and divide us to-day. For, when
we have climbed to realization of free
dom we shall have climbed from animal
hood to manhood, where our brains will
be so clarified that we will see what we
need and how to get it. Ihold my opin-
ion of what Is to be in allegiance until
this time comes, and as it can only come
through the dissolution of illegitimate
authority, that authority which lacks
the sanction of the peoples consent, l
therefore hail the iconoclast as the man
of the period. "
An image smasher by divine right, it
is the iconoclast who breaks up old con
ditions, who DESTROYS the power of ira
dition, who turns from the past as from
a putrid corpse, who demands the raw
material now wasted in our Infamous po-
litical superstructure in order that it may
be used in building anew after the model
now being fashioned in the brain of the
people.
The iconoclast is the liberator of the
age. His method is agitation,
Restless, defiant, scornful of wrong, he
possesses the divine impatience of the
gods and will not brook the shadow of
an insult.
Ostracised, insulted, outraged, hunted
from shore to shore, imprisoned and mar
tyred, he remains forever a natural born
protest against iniquity in every form.
1t was he who charged the bombshell
for the assassination of the Russian czar
whose tyranny was booming to servility
and death thousands of men and women
whom he loved better than his own life.
1t is be who is striking day and night
the villainous government of England
through Ireland's Defiance.
1t is he who is preparing writs of ban
ishment for every king and queen in all
the world.
1t is he who is forging manacles for
Americas great commercial robbers, and
who, before decade, will see them riv-
eted securely.
1t is he who is broadening out fair fields
of thought ht-forerunners of fair fields of
action-for the enslaved laborers of the
world.
1t is he who is LAYING the foundation
wide and grand of that stairway by
which woman shall walk up to her true
position in the political world.
And when at last reorganization and
regeneration shall have built the world
anew, when equal chances for all shall
have been secured. when justice shall
have taken the place of injustice, self
hood of selfshness, love and order Of
l..