The Labor enquirer., 1884-01-26

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corporation that employs : number Of
!, workers virtually owns and controls
their persons and functions; hence their
votes To vote rightly means to vote
against the interest Of the employer; re-
suit, starvation to the man who has the
bravery to do right.
i Third Corruption, the result Of poy-
erty and exploitation. A man sells his
vote because he needs the price Of it i
he got the full result Of his labor. he
would not be under the necessity of sell
ing his liberty to buy bread. Thus the
system produces poverty, and poverty
reproduces and perpetuates the system ;
but eventually in Sociology, as in animal
procreation, breeding in and in will pro-
duce degeneracy, decay and death, and
! tyranny and poverty will go out together
forever.
Fourth -Demagogy, party politics, re-
|ligion, nationality and side Issues are
used to divide labor and prevent them
voting and acting in their own interest.
4 Fifth-Law. The entire government
which is engaged in making, expounding
and executing laws for the spoliation of
labor and the aggrandisementa and protec-
ton of the bourgeoise is capitalistic in
every country and if, by accident, labor
for awhile should be united and have
passed benefcent laws, the judges would
declare every one of them unconstitu-
tional, and inoperatiye. So long as cap
ital owns the judges, the soldiers, the
police, the prisons and forts, labor may
vote as long and as often as it pleases,
and no good will result; hence we do
not believe in or advocate political &C
tion under the present system.
How, then, do you propose to effect
the desired change?
By educational methods only, until
larger majority are convinced that the
present system should be destroyed and
better substituted. Being thus pre-
pared to make the change through force
of numbers and intelligence, if opposed
seriously by capital and those whom it
could hire to do its fighting, We would
adopt Revolution to the extent of the
utter extermination of idlers, robbers
and and tyrants.
AGITATION EDUCATION! ORGANIZATION
With these three weapons we propose
making both defensive and aggressive
warfare on all forms of social iniquity.
These words, and the things they signify,
shall be our arms and armor -our shib-
boleth, our sword and shield.
| Agitation means stirring up, shaking
lit might be called the friction of fluids.
We propose to stir men up, to shake
them out of the lethargy of despair, tie
sleep of ignorance and intellectual death.
We propose friction and chatting of
mems minds until healthy action is
produced.
We propose to make men dissatisfied
with their lot, discontented with their
conditions, asswe know well for the dis
satisfied only is there hope of highest
achievement, and discomfort is ever the
prophet of progress e-'.-,.. .
But for the continual agitation and mu-
tation of the physical world, death and
chaos would be the immediate result
Content and quietude are Incompatible
with life and progress.
But for the winds and waves and tides
and currents of the ocean, it would be-
come stagnant pool of filth and slime,
disease and death, resulting in
the speedy extinction of all
animal and vegetable life on the planet.
Similarly, but for the continual agitation
| in the intellectual and social life of man,
he would long since have become ex-
tinct as a rational and progressive being.
Frail barks sometimes 60 down at sea,
and mighty ships are wrecked by
mightier winds, and well-built cities
swept by tidal waves, and in the bark,
the ship, the town, some good and pure
may meet untimely death; but for every
victim nature blindly bleeds, ten thou
sand better lives are blest.
The wind that wrecked the ship may
carry freight of golden showers to bless
a continent with bloom and fruit. and in
its rapid flights to further seas that self
same wind may be the the scavenger of
eastern plaques, and bear the pestilence
4 from torrid climes to frigid shores; 50,
too, the social agitation may wreck frail
institutions, and bury bonded wrongs,
4 having no respect or mercy for those
who choose to perish for their prejudices,
traditions and superstions; but the real,
solid and material good conferred on
man will infinitely outweigh the appar-
ent evil and temporary disturbance Of
4 social conditions. Remember this, the
whole is greater than any of its parts,
and fortiori the well-being of the whole
race paramount to the well-being of its
smallest and most vicious complement.
The whole race must be enfranchised,
purified and elevated to the highest at
tainable ultimate, regardless of suffering
to individuals or disaster to cherished
iniquities.
| We do not believe that state OF
things in which Jay Gould gets SIS, ,000,.