The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-29

The question is, what will make an edu-
Gated, thoughtful, self-respecting, self
controlling man and woman worthy ol
the powers ana qualities with which
they are endowed?
With that view before me I place my
self in the center. of Chfistendom. and ]
see this state Of things. In England, and
in this country, too, the statistics ofcrime
and the statistics Of death that is, the
number of crimes committed in ninety
days, on an average, and the number Of
deaths in Thousand, on an average. al
ways bear an exact proportion to the
price of bread. l Ilectured on 'Chartismn
thirty years ago, in this city, and had
them by hear, and could repeat them to
you tonight for fifteen or twenty min
utes, the statistics which would show you
that, Cor the last hundred years, the three
thermometers that hung side BY side,
and always rose and fell together, we're
crime, mortality and the price of wheat.
Wheat go up-mofe crime, more deaths
/ wheat go down-more marriages, more
births, fewer deaths, less crime. Zap
plause.] yta. 4 a., =.
| Itseems very simple statement; but
the Italian poet, the Dante of all history,
who drew picture of hell until men
stood aghast, never painted in his i'm
mortal epic fact so terrible in its sig
nifeance as this simple statement. In
terpreted, it shows that the mass of men
stand just on the edge of starvation,
Raise the price of bushel of wheat a
little, and down goes,a life Lift it a
little on the other side, and down goes
virtue
The vast mass of Christian civilization
stands just on the dividing, invisible line.
As Mahomet said, you get into Heaven
by crossing over a bottomless pit, on a
line 80 fine as hardly to be hundredth
part of spiders web in thickness, and
if you tread to the right or left you fall"
No poetry, no pathos in this; hard, cold,
leaden figures, written upon the wall of
the history of nations. 1t shows you
that the whole human race standsso near
the very verge of starvation that a shil-
lings difference in the price of a quarter
of wheat sends a thousond men over
into iails. This is Christian civilization !!
claim that no man has right to be
millionaire in Christian civilization
while there is a Five Points starving
within two miles of his residence. Loud
applause .
approach this question from those
two points. maintain that it is posi-
BILE to plan civilization where the mass
of the human race shall not stand in
danger of crime and starvation; shall not
stand in danger of death, or in danger of
| pollution, if bread goes up cent.
claim that it is possible so to arrange
the relations of labor to capital that you
can have your millions of voters intelli-
gent men, educated men and my idea
of this movements IS just the completion
of these two plans. That is my goal
when l look at this thing.
That is what 1 mean by Ell ght hours
am not up IN the clouds. 1 will give
you single illustration. Drops of water
make the ocean, IRow fashionable
milliner in this city who has in her en-
ploy from thirty to fifty girls, and pays
as high wages, perhaps higher than any
other store in the city. More thana year
ago she said to her girls: II shall only
ask eight hours day of you. Give me
eight hours of willing work, with the
same wages" [Applause.] After trying
the experiment for more than year
perhaps year and half-paying the
highest, and asking but eight hours a
day, she says to me: Il am perfectly
satisfied with the experiment; ! can af
ford eight hours better than ten but l
am, trying an experiment of justice, and
it has brought profit" The girl goes to
her with heart she goes to her with a
fresh body and willing mind. Zap
plause.] I believe the same result
would follow in every similar expert
ment. l believe that wherever you
probe an instance You will find it con-
firms the principle and every man, of
you should mass up the instances. Here
is my friend. Mclean. He tells us Of
the plasterers, and contends that their
voluntary adoption Of the rule has re-
suited, morally and pecuniarily, well.
Why do 1 mention these2 Because this
is the very literature you want to form.
As for our legislature, it is not obsti-
nate it does not dare to be obstinate.
1t dares not look in your face and say
eve won't" They know that two and
two make four; and they know that
whenever capital pits itself against la
labor, it is like one man pitting himself
against million. Nothing is counted
up there in the state house except num-
bers. The vote of any one of you is just
as good as Beebe's, exactly, in this coun-
try. There is no obstinacy up in the
legislature mott a bit of it. They are too
selfshly wise to be obstinate. They
know which side their political butter is
laid on too well to be obstinate. There
is degree of Indifference and degree
of ignorance, both. The indifference
| comes because you never show your