The Labor enquirer., 1884-06-14
THE BAIT.

adopted platform full of sweet para
graphs for the workingman, "the back
bone of our country" They repeated
platitudes about what he should have
and what must be done for him; the old
stereotypes. The workingman is great
fellow with the writers of platforms, but
the makers and executors of laws know
him only to rob and trample upon him.
This same republican party has been
in power in these United States for
upwards of twenty years, and all the
time the condition of the producers has
grown from bad to worse. They have
been asked to do something for him and
his starving family, They have been
begged to lessen his drudgery and to do
something to make his life more worth
living, but beyond the sentimental slush
of platforms hisn,isery has been ignored.
Under, the administration of this
same republican party there have grown
up aIOuuu u5 In0 lOos OuoioSSONo
systems and combinations for the spoila-
ton of the producers, and these party
leaders" who make platforms have
ruthlessly stolen the products of our
labors-have snatched the bread from
our children's mouths and the clothes
from their backs.
Each four years they have baited their
hooks with the same stuff they have
hung on them this year, and you, the
workingmen, the suckers, have swal-
lowed bait, hook and all, Will you do it
again? Will you keep biting and being
caught until they have pulled every gill
out of your lacerated mouths?
The party conventions will "protee"
you and "free trade you to death, in
their platforms; but all the same they
will keep your nose and the noses of
your posterity to the grindstone. They
will hire fiery, eloquent mouthers-with
the money they have stolen from YOU
to sing your praises and tickle you under
the ribs during the campaign, but as
soon as the ballot box closes you may go
to the devil for all they care-that is if
there are enough of your kind left to
toll for their luxurious pleasure.
Do not get the idea into your heads
that am only opposed to those politi-
clans who hushwhsck under the repub-
lican flag; those are my sentiments with
regard to the liars and thieves in all
political parties. And you know what
say to you about broken promises and
cold-blooded thievery is as true as life,
and want you to stop and think a
moment just this once. If you must
vote again this fall, do not allow your
selves to again be led astray by sugar
coated platforms or soft-toned campaign
speeches, but 60 to the polls and cast
your vote for the men whom you know
to be honest, regardless of whether they
haye been nominated by convention of
pap-sucking thieves or not; and if you
don't know any such candidates, stay at
home on election day and see if you
can figure out how much better you are
off than was the negro before the passage
of the fifteenth amendment.
1t may be little early for this advice,
but you had better coma to some con-
clusion before the wiley political seducer
gets agroad in the land; and you are
already several years behind in the
matter of fguringo on the condition of
your slavery.
The first thing for you to decide is
whether you have reason to thank
political parties for anything and
whether their promising platforms in
spire you with confidence This settled
properly, everything else will follow in
due course of time and thought.