The Labor enquirer., 1884-06-14


menace to liberty. A universal move
ment for its abolition should be inaugu-
rated and prosecuted.
There is no intelligent man who reads
this article but that can recall some
wholesome legislative movement in
behalf of labor in his state which has
been defeated in the very hour of its
fruition by that little aristocratic clique
known as the upper house." or senate.
In my own state, during the past winter,
ten-hour law passed the house of rep
resentatiyes by an almost unanimous
majority. Even the cunning politician
in the slower house," whose sympathies
we're with capital, was not afraid to vote
for the bill there. He thereby kept on
the right side of the workingmen voters,
while he winked inwardly to himself,
knowing well that the upper house"
would take care of the bill when it got
there. Sure enough, when the bill got
into the senate the republican house OF
lords made short work of it, and many
a poor, sweaty toiler who had been re-
joicing that his lot was certain to soon
be made easier was doomed to bitter
disappointment. Of course, during all
this time, the manufacturers had known
where their pot was, Had the senate
been at all doubtful they would have
fixed" it, quietly but surely. In what
ever state of the Union the reader may
be l know that he will recognize the
character of legislation in my little state
exactly what he has seen at home many
time. But is this republicanism, or is
1T simply the British parliament mas
querading under the name of popular
government in America?
In our national legislation we have be-
fore us to-day very sad and shameful
example of senatorial despotism in the
fate which has befallen the benefcent
bill for the establishment of national
bureau of labor statistics. l doubt if
more promising bill in behalf Of labor
was ever before congress, and certainly
in point of detail, elaborateness, and fair
ness it was a monument of thought, la
Dor, and far-reaching wisdom. You saw,
reader, how splendidly this bill passed
the house of representatives and how its
benefcent purpose was heralded in un-
stinted praise even by the capitalistic
organs. But were you foolish enough to
believe that the great corporate and
privileged bosses who run this govern
ment would ever permit so much dam
aging light as was promised by this bill
to get before the people? Oh, no, not if
they knew themselves. They simply
lay back and smiled till the bill should
come before the senate for death SEN
tence. There one of thevery committee
who framed the bill IA sly and scheming
capitalist), straightway proceeded Ito
knock it's head off while his confederates
pitched into it and mutilated it till
finally, knocked out of all semblance Of
its original SELF it was turned over to the
hackneYed old department of the inte-
rior for burial.
Now, what are anti-capitalistic move
ments going to amount to in future poll
tics with this American house of lords
confronting the common people? Take,
for instance, the state of New York ard
note the number Of times that the poor
people of the metropolis have gone to
Albany to ask the legislature to fix the
fare on the elevated roads at cents.
Every time that bill comes up there
the lower house of assembly pass it
unanimously and the politicians whom
the workingmen's votes have elected are
safe. But the Fields and Goulds and
Vanderbilts care as little about this as
they would about the squeaking of a
mouse. So barefaced are the methods
by which the senate is duly fixed" that
their henchmen in the lobby openly
make their brags over the cheap rubbish
inside which they have come up to doc
tor, and their cool sarcasm has repeat
edly been reported in the New York pa
pers wherein they aver that as matter
of economy it is far simpler and cheaper
to buy up the senate direct than to bam-
boozle legislation in the lower house.
A government of the people, by the
people, and for the people is
simply a farce to tickle fools
with this aristocratic appendage known
as the senate, numbering and prostituting
the legislation of an avowed free people.
A house of lords does not belong to the
American people, and our senate is SIM
ply serviIe aping of the trumpery of
English aristocracy, which ought long
ago to have been castawaY. l remem-
Der we'll how the late Charles o'Connor
execrated, detested, and indicted with
his unequaled knowledge Of govern
mental science this bastard of true de-
mocracy called the senate. sitting on the
necks of the sovereign people. And the
day is yet coming when no words of
wisdom ever uttered on this continent
will stand forth as grand and prophetic
as his on these topics.
l call upon every true friend of the
people to set his protest upon this unre-
Dublican dictatorship of senates, both