The Labor enquirer., 1884-09-20
AN ADDRESS
By the workingmen's Butler and
wsat clubof Washing
ton, D. 9.

- U6 aoA y Jul CV-VpOh otAVbs @Au eChuO
you ours, in the present political contes,
in an effort to obtain such remedial legis
lation as will secure just relation
between labor and capital, place pro
ductiye and commercial industry on
sound and enduring basis, and make ou
theory Of legal equality reality.
THE SITUATION.
Every joint in our industrial body il
dislocated. Millions are upon the verg'
of starvation. yet the food producers Q
the west are ruined by the very abun
dance Of their unsalable crops. Millions
are almost naked, yet the storehouses 0
the east are bursting with goods. Pos
sessing every essential condition Of pro
dnctlon natural resources of which We
have yet scarcely scratched the surface
manufacturing machinery and capital sc
abundant that the employment of one
half of it creates glut of products
transporting facilities in excess of the
demand, and money at nominal rates.
hundreds of thousands of laborers are
unemployed. Railroads are languishing
yet at their termini vast stores of freight
are found awaiting chance for profit
able exchange, Mines, mills, and facto
ries are continually shutting down, sus
pending, and locking out, while stalwar,
labor stands helplessly by, and women
and children are employed in the inter
walls of activity. To further supplement
the labor of women and children, cheap
seryile labor is imported from Europe
Banks are full of money and interest is
low, but spectators cannot obtain loans
and conservative men dare not use their
credit. Strik IS by laborers, lock. outs by
employers, failures of merchants and
manufacturers, bankruptcy of railroads,
defalcations of bankers and trustees, and
suicides of despairing men and women
afford ample news for the press and are
the daily incidents of our disjointed
industry. Thus with men, money,
machinery, mines, railroads, land-every
natural and every artificial condition
essential to great and uninterrupted
prosperity-we haye state Of industrial
paralysis which gives no promise Of
future betterment.
THE MISCHIEF AND THE REMEDY.
We believe that the disordered indus
try here described and the unequal and
unjust distribution of the products of
labor are due to the existence of mo,
nopolies created and maintained by law
and social custom. We do not pretend
to know all the measures that win eradi-
cate our national evils, yet we affirm
that great Improvement will be apparent
when the public land is torn from the
grasp Of SPECTATORS and corporations
and given to actual settlers in moderate
quantities; when railroads are brought
under legislative control, compelling
honest construction and management,
impartiality between persons and places,
moderate dividends, protection to- en-
ployes, and uniform, permanent, and
reasonable rates. when the currency is
removed from the influences of mining
accidents, trade balances, and corporate
interests and made uniform in volume,
value, and debt-paying power; when
mines and manufactures are placed upon
a natural basis and so adjusted to the
demand as to have permanent and
prosperous activity; when taxes are
equitably assessed and honestly col
lected; when public expenditures are
applied nationally to purely public pnr-
poses; when statistics of industry are
freely gathered and the conclusions
drawn therefrom are embodied in legis-
lation; when the enormous wealth in
the treasury is cast into productive chan
nels, and when the administration OF
Justice gives the poor an equal chance
with the rich in courts.
REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE
BILdTY.
These evils have grown up during the
last twenty-five years. Many were di.
rectly produced by law, and Others BY
natural forces in the absence of legal
restraint. We charge the republican
party with criminal indifference or q
criminal incompetence. It has had
twenty.four years of power, and either
it would not or it could not enact meas
ures of relief. No matter whether the
power or the will was lacking, the evil
results are the same. The democratic
party has never, in all the time of its
opposition, united in words, purposes, OF
deeds to remedy these evils. Possessing
power in the several states equally with
the republican party, it has surrendered
to the same vicious influences. Corporate
greed and irresponsible wealth rule labor
and enterprise everywhere-in republi
can Massachusetts,, Rhode Island, ane
Pennsylvania; in democratic New Jersey
Maryland, and West Virginia, and ir
the alternate states, New York, Connec
ticut, Ohio, and Indiana. Prison con
tract labor disgraces Minnesota anc
Georgia alike. In Ohio republican
legislature sends the bank monopolitt
Sherman, to the senate, and demo
cratic legislature sends the standard-oi
monopolist, Payne. In New York !
! republican legislature murders all but
few of the peoples bills, passing few t.