The Labor enquirer., 1883-02-10
LABOR PAPERS.

y
United States a newspaper devoted to
the cause and published exclusively in
the interest of the wageworker. To-day
there are over four-score of such. The
question of labor and its rights has been
agitated to such an extent in the past
three or four years that. necessity has
been created for mediums of thought on
this great question, and we are happy to
say that in almost every locality where
the cry has been heard there have been
brave and willing men found to answer
it. Some of these journals have been
started by individuals; others on the
cooperative plan, and it is cheering to
hear that nearly all are reasonably sup
ported. They are little four-page sheets
and magnificent forty-eight-eolumn
journals, and all are teeming with valua-
Bile information and good cheer for the
weary toiler. Yet we feel that the
workingmen of the land do not fully
realize the duty devolving upon them
with regard to their papers. Scarcely
any of them have the support they
should have, and many are kept down to
the two-penny dimensions because their
conductors are very poor, and the men
who should aid these brave, sacrificing
souls in spreading the light more exten,
sively, are lukewarm, thoughtless and
"penny-wise pound-foolish."
We have heard men say, "Such paper
is no good. It's only a little snipe of
fly sheet" Others have said to us,
"Why don't you set your paper in smaller
type, and get in more natter" The
reason is, we are not backed up by big
railroad or other corporation, or by
syndicate of bonanza politicians. We
have to obtain the funds necessary to
the expense by the voluntary subscrip-
tions Of workingmen. If they don't
help us we must 60 under. Corporations
or capitalists are not going to aid us-on
the contrary, they will do all in their
power to break up the enterprise.
We do not wish anyone for moment
to think we are complaining of the sup
port accorded THF ENQUIRER. On the
contrary, we have reason to congratu
late ourselves and the wageworkers of
Colorado on the magnitude Of the sub
scription list their state organ already
has. But we can't help indulging a
thought of this character occasionally,
when we see the way some honest work
ers allow themselves to be swindled and
fooled into supporting subsidized press
to the detriment of their friends. In
fact, we intended only to write few
preparatory words to the following ex-
tract from sensible article in the Jour
nal of United Labor. However, we
have no apologies to offer The follow
ing expresses us very fully:
"How many are there, we wonder, to
be found in labor organizations who 60
to the associated capital press for all the
news they possess, to the exclusion of
the papers that exist only to champion
their own condition, while they live, and
leave as legacy to their children a
healthy public sentiment that will free
them of many of the ills their fathers
groaned so long, loud and bitterly under
To do this it is necessary for every work
ingman to subscribe for at least one of
the many labor papers that so eloquently
| plead the cause of labor from week to
week. We do not seek to make a new
lnroad upon your scanty incomes, but
desire on the other hand to assist you in
wisely and judiciousF outstanding your
resources. There are but few men in
this country who do not take one or
more newspapers, all of which may be
papers edited by men who never cease
to ring into your ears that they are not
the advocates of labor. If they fail to
mention this fact outright in their edi-
torial columns, they will give you from
ten to fifty instances in each issue
through other portions of the paper
that, to them, labor has no rights they
feel called to spend printers ink upon.
They make this I-don't-eare-for-labor so
manifest in the snappy, tortured, per-
verted way they deal with those matters
that are of interest to you and the
cause, that a "way-taring man, though a
fool" need not mistake this most promi-
nent feature. y,
| We propose that you cease taking at
least one of these unfriendly papers, and
| in its stead try for one wear a labor paper.