The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1883-03-17
LABOR LORE.

nwaA
a.,rh,s Of Utopia Li'ile Ne''e ''-I'''',,
- and Wise Agitation Accomplish
-, vopL Logic Could Never Attain-rhe
-. of the Educated and Enlightened
To,ler of To-Day.
~. knights Of Labor in the United
.s.;s the somewhat fantastic title OF the
,ss-;c., internationals. Il has recently
.nl.,sJ its aspirations in the shape Of a
,,,d that a national law should be
- nrohibiting gambling by speculation
me necessaries OF life, particularly in
t.,5,tufs. and that national eight-hour
,msbopld be applied to all workmen not
,ovsrpment employ. The demand for a
,.,rtory limitation of the duration of the
'..,rr dav TO the period named in what
W. Sstlyle was won't TO call the British
Mii..tmnn's Psgah song is the vision OF
,Sarars who. unlike their brothers in Eng
iSn5 have not yet won for themselves the
.'t;ns.hours day. 1t is interesting tonote that
as aspiration of the Knights OF Labor is
ss-vnressed with equal deflniteness in the
o.asrsmme Of the French collectivists,
lrbieb AT present is attracting some little
49, I'M. Jules Guesde for the twentieth
..s..o o His election address is
ant an important incident in contempory
Trsnch history, but il is an interesting eX-
n-ss,on OF kind of thought which is
losvinr more aud more the lower strata OF
sor;ety. but only occasionally receives
sdeouate attention from practical poll
ucians.
There is. as we have said, nothing new in
,ba main drift of this document, which is
the nroduct Of successive workmens con
,rs.,es from that Of MarseilleS in the au-
fnmn of 1879 to that of Roanne, which at
tracted some notice last September. The
nrocramme, for anything original that il
contains, might have emanated from the
congresses of Eisenach or Of Client.
Neither ought we to regard it as expressing
the conclusions OF representatives of any
large Organized body Of workmen, as the
Trades UuiOn congress does in England.
But as rejecting the latest form of the eter-
nal aspirations OF the great majority OF
Wage-larners, at any rate on the Continent,
this manifesto will 90 as well as another
The old ideas reappear in it, but not wholly
unmodiiied by experience and the progress
Of events
Pending the appropriation of the capital
ist class, which is "the great unseen event
towards which the whole industrial reyolu.
ton moves, the programme lays down q
number OF immediate objects, which are
divided, according to the venerable practice
Of all socialist maniiestos, into two heads,
one political and one economic. The
political section is short and sweet. 1t is
the usual French radical manifesto plus d
demand for tie repeal of the law agaisnt
the International association of labor5rs
The list Of economic objects places IN the
front the limitation of the hours of labor To
six days week and eight hours day fol
adults and six for young persons--tht
labor Of children under fourteen being for.
hidden, Then come the following items: A
minimum wage fixed by law, and equality
Of wage for men and women, where the
work is equal; complete education for all
children at the expense Of the state; state
provision for labOrers IN old age, or when
worn out by work; liability of employer!
in case of accident guaranteed by deposit
in the benefit clubs Of the employed; tn,
annulment OF all contracts alternating p1b
lie property (such as banks, railways
mines and abolition of all indirect
taxes; the revenue being maintained
by progressive income tax on al
incomes exceeding 5000 francs, and the lin
itatOn OF inheritance to direct heirs and to
@QDf for each heir. The whole of this
programme, ii will be seen, assumes not
only the continuance of the ''capitalistic"
system OF roductlon-whiCh, Of course the
great BODY OF socialists not only accept but
use IS an argument in their own favor-bu
the separation of employers and workmen
The reforms 1t advocates are all directed Il
giving the Workmen better share in thu
division Of the produce between the two ex.
listing classes; yet if all these proposals
were realized, the wider ideal, the extinc-
ton Of the hated capitalist class would soor
follow, for who would not prefer
TO be workman upor
these terms? But, OF course, i
does not do to take the particular proposals
Of such manitestos au grand serieux. Tn,
workman ask Tor everything, because they
are determined to have sometime. some
thing more than they now enjoy. And the
Two great material ideas which are AWAY,
before them are steady livelihood at m
amount OF work not incompatible with
health aud culture, and security asains
accidents, against disability and old age. 1t
hot no use telling them that no law car
OBTAIN these things for them. Somehow
or other. they insist, they must bt
gov Ana in one respect there is al
advance IN programmes like this of the
parl ouVrier upon previous manifestos O
the same type. There is no longer the ole
uemand Tor an impossible and unius
eQualIy oil earnings, nor even for that
Jusler put more practical ideal, the exac
Spportlonment of earnings to service
Mhat Inc patti ouvrier asks for is the main
ehance OF certain standard of comfort
snu culture below which no citizen shall
ueauoWed to fall-a legal minimum OF re
miniIelatloh' minimum of education,
minimum Of rest.
ne more any man can acquire for him
sell beyond this the better but TINS muoI
even the meanest of us shall haye.n Sucl
the iaoorer's dream in the Old World an,
the New And, dream though il is, il mus
mol De forgotten that legislation in yariou
countries, most of oil perhaps in non-social
stlc England, has already done a great dea
nuDte towards realizing it than some peopl
dgluiemoer. We have legal minimum o
EDUCATION sSon already, and that minimum
SLOWS ,h decided tendency to rise. We hav
one hilnlmum OF rest in certain industries
LLuiiinaily only for women and children
W 0fS'ptactlcally In many cases for all workers
al Whatever sex and age. And here
asSln, the tendency is for flrthe
progress on old lines. TIL
enforcement ola "normal day of labor
I,y seem to some people to present bu
n mO more difficulty than that of tn
n Mveily day OF rest, concerning which every
que rs agreed III this country, and whic
SIoSnt 10 be universally enforced Bu
c"t lar legislation, or custom, c
,SSanolnatlon may ultimately carry us l
ITvSe directions, there is one thing certain
vol Sn l. bbesref we approach that minimum {
raised by education are certain TO deman
and to struggle for, the further the dal
SeI vi the maximum with which revolution
NY socialism threatens us will be removed
was not Louise Michel herself half di
armed ny the sight even of our inadeuuat
pn"anthropy2-[Pall Mall Gazette.
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