Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1883-02-01
Gureka Daily Sentinel.
FEBRUARY /. 1888
THE COMING STRUGGLE.

a GllSGltE IStbSi iSNSANSo
yesterday by the Secretary of the Typo
graphical Union of this district is very
significant paper. 1t comes from the
Federation of Organized Trades and
Labor Unions of the United States and
Canada, and is dated Cincinnati, Ohio,
the residence Of the Secretary, W. ii.
Foster. 1t is addressed to all organiza-
tions whose object is to protect labor
AGAINST the Entertainments of the cold
blooded money power. The circular
afirms that the Federation is now a
fixed fact. Its second annual session,
held in Cincinnati Nov. 81, 1882, has
demonstrated that in a few years it will
command the attention of all law-making
bodies all over this continent. The Fed
Grafton, though in its infancy, has
already accomplished something by or
ganizing to fight its battles. The third
annual session of the Federation will
convene in New York City Aug. 2l,
1883. The object of the organization is
to secure legislation favorable to the in
dustrial classes.
The platform makes the following de-
mands: Enforcement OF the national
Eight-hour law: incorporation of Trades
Unions; compulsory education of chill
dren; the unemployment of children;
uniform apprentice laws; adjustment OF
prison labor contracts; adjustment OF
the truck" system; a workingman's
lien law; repeal Of conspiracy laws; a
National Bureau of Labor Statistics;
prevention of the importation Of foreign
laborers under contract; adjustment OF
Government contracts; an Employers
Liability Act, and labor representation
in law-making bodies.
This platform gives strong voice to the
labor sentiment of the United States. 1t
is not the puny, bewildered cry OF the
oppressed laborers Of one community; it
is the grand organ note Of a vast multi
tude OF united, organized toilers. 1t
means a war, within the law, for the
present, of those who get their bread by
the sweat Of the brow against those
moneyed autocrats to whom the poor
laboring man is not of kin with them
selves; to whom no honor or dignity is
consistent with manual toll: to whom
their property in ''hewers Of wood and
drawers Of water" is purchased for the
least price in money and no more; to
whom the pains OF accidental poverty
make no warm appeal; who hire men as
so many ''hands" and use them ruth
lessly for pay, as they do hired horses in
their diversion. or for a tiresome drive;
who are Sc parated in their arrogant and
purse-proud aristocracy by a wider and
deeper chasm from the ''o'erlabored
wight" begging at their doors for the
poor privilege Of work than the En-
peror of Germany is from his most
abject subjects.
The men in this country who have ac-
quired great fortunes by lucky schemes.
the ''recent rich" are among the most
disagreeable and heartless specimens OF
humanity. Yet these very men rule the
country. They have no hereditary coat
OF arms, truly, but they are nabobs in
the hardest sense OF the term. They
have no ambition possible to crafty
but to become fabulously rich. They
dream of the notorie.y thus to be OBJ
tanned which may veil from the world
the lack in them OF that which makes
the veritable Observation-Disclosures oul.
ture, intellect.
1t is these ugly but powerful men Of
a day combined in all money getting
enterprises, manufacturing, railroad
building and mining that the people who
own this free country Of ours, the great
l~aboring masses, must struggle with.
To succeed they must battle with them
by opposing them in one compact, disci-
plined organization in every part Of the
United States simultaneously. The nee
essary preparations for the struggle have
been undertaken. The war OF defense IS
to be waged within the law. 1t is going
to be more, however, than a war Of de-
tense. Offensive operations will have to
be adopted. The aggregated enemies Of
labor own fortresses that must be assaulted
by the masses, not as a mob, but as
rulers at the ballot box. The throne Of
their enemies in our courts and Legisla-
lures must be demolished. The war is
going to be long and the issue uncertain.
But it is only reasserting an accepted
truism among those who are watching
the course OF events in this country,
that the overshadowing issue in the
United States is that between labor and
capital, and that upon its determination
rest the future peace and prosperity Of
the people.