The Labor enquirer., 1883-11-24
DYNAMITE is strong to-day at 46c,
REVOLUTION.

HEtOLUTlON.
1 have noticed in some of my ex-
changes lately reference to the subject
represented in the above heading which
caused in me various feelings sad, ludi-
crous, compassionate, contemplate, etc.
and have wondered how it was pos
sible there could be so many different
emotions aroused in the treatment of
one subject by men who all claim to aim
at the same thing-the emancipation of
the laberer.
/ have before me while Iwrite the last
issue of the Baltimore Free Press,
champion of the workingmen's rights
that have never had the slightest occa-
sion to doubt the honesty OF, and which
feel assured now is the uncompro-
missing friend and warrior of the toiler.
But in this issue 1 find an article which
is an attempt to show that the few jour-
nails in this country that are telling the
people to prepare for revolution are abb
surd in their doctrines and are express
ing sentiments with which the Ameri-
can workingman cannot possibly have
any sympathy.
Let us see if the Free Press is correct
in its ideas and will benefit the laboring
classes more by advocating ballot agita-
ton than will its contemporaries which
tell them TO prepare for revolution.
For over dozen years the people have
been loudly proclaiming their wrongs
and asking legislative redress. They
have been particularly loud in their cries
about the time for making national plat
forms, and the political parties haye
soothed and baited them by putting some
ameliorative catch-plank in their plat
forms. Have these planks ever gone to
building more just governmental sn-
perstructure No; they have been
strutted to splinters during campaign
and cast aside after the election.
Again, are the working people them
selves united as to what are the proper
methods of detailed legislation to &C
complish their benefits? Are they not
divided on the different measures-the
tariff, the money question, etc.-and is it
possible to make them all think alike ?:
1t is not possible. Some of the ablest
thinkers in the ranks of the lsborers
tell US if we can only have free trade our
perfect success is assured while others
fully as intelligent, say if we can have
a high protective tariff our troubles will
be at an end. And all the time the men
we send to make laws for US and run the
machine manage to fix these little affairs
to suit themselves, and the moneyed in
terests they represent, and keep the
"voting cattle" divided.
There is only one thing it is possible to
make al the workingmen agree upon !;
and that is that their condition is very
hard, and not at all in conformity with
their ideas of justice. They all unite on
that idea, and large majority of them
know their unhappy condition is due to
the injustice of our governmental sys-
TENS. He is certainly short-sighted who
thinks the change of Administrations
new thieves and masters-without the
change Of systems, would remedy the
evil. Human nature is prone to selfish-
ness and to do the best for its particular
self, let suffer who will, and SO long as
our institutions are run upon the foppor-
tunity" plan, so long will the crop of
willing advantage-takers be more than
equal to the necessities. Therefore, the
system must be revolutionized.
How will this be done2 That is the
question. Does it, in the face of prece-
dent, appear that this can ever be eff
fected by picking out one little link in
exhaustless chain of iniquitous bondage
and hammering away at it for years,
while the masters are forging new and
stronger ones to add? What permanent
good would be accomplished if an entire
new outfit were elected to the Offices in
lSs4P The grasping and selfish would
still get in; the deceitful and traitorous
would be there; the weak and vascil-
ating would be numerous, and the honest
few would be showed under, as in the
past.
No, complete turning upside down of
the present loose systems is necessary to
compass permanent good. 1t is not bad
that the people should agitate the minor
questions and cry out for the particular
reforms that seem necessary to them,
but that they should be mislead by the
teaching that their perfect emancipation
can be accomplished by such means is
to teach them that human nature will
undergo complete change and all men
become honest and brotherly.
The Free Press says the nnsolved prob
- Mn ia the near future play an Inn