The Labor enquirer., 1884-04-05


but the approach to it is New England
town of some two thousand inhabitants
with no rich man and no poor man in 1t
all mingling in the same society, ever,
child at the same school, no poor-house
no beggar, opportunities equal, nobod,
too proud to stand aloof. nobody tor
humble to be shut out. That's New
England as it was fifty years ago. The
horrible creature that the Daily Adver
tiser fears. [Applause.l That's whal
birmingham proposes to bring about
But why amt Framingham contented
Because the civilization that fingers
beautifully on the hillsides of New En-
gland nestles sweetly in the valleys oi
Vermont, the moment it approaches q
crowd like Boston, or million of men
gathered in one place, like New York, il
rots. 1t cannot force the crowd. 1t can.
not stand the great centers of modern
civilization. Our civilization cannot
stand the city: One Season is, it has got
some hidden disease. Another reason
is, the moment it, flows out into the
broad, deep activity of the, nineteenth
century, it betrays its weakness and
copies Europe. The moment this sweet
scented, dew-smelling Vermont flows
down into the slums of New York ii
becomes like London. The moment the
north gathers its forces and goes down
the Mississippi valley into New Orleans
social science stands aghast. Modern
civilization shrnks back at the terrible
evil which she can neither fathom nor
cure, Just as she does in Europe.
HUNGER, DRUDGE2Y AND BULLDoZING.
What is your cause? It is this. There
are 350,0U00O0 of human beings in what
you call Christendom, and 200,000,000 of
them don't have enough to eat from Jan
uary to December l won't ask for cul-
ture, for opportunities, for education, for
travel, for society. But 20O,00O,0OO of
men gathered under Christendom don't
have even enough to eat hundred
thousand men in the city of New York
live in dwellings that rich man would
not let his horses stay in a. day
But that isn't anything. You should
60 up to beautiful Berkshire with me,
into the factories there. 1t shall be the
day after presidential election. l will
go with you into counting-room-400
employees The partners are sitting
down the day after a presidential elec-
ton. They take the list of workmen and
sift them out; and every man that has
not voted the ticket they wanted is
thrown out to starve, just'as if he were
cattle. That's Christian civilization.
That's Massachusetts don't like that
significant fact. l leap from that town
into large mill with 800 employees, and
say to the master How about the
dwellings of your operatives? How
many hours do they have at home ?'
"Well, I hope they don't have any. The
best ventilated place they are ever in is
my mill. They had better stay here six
teen hours ont of the twenty-four; it
keeps them out of mischief better than
any other place. AS long as they work
~ !
tend to their houses" l say to him: 1T
seems to me you do the same for your
OK" That's another significant fact of
our civilization. 60 to Lowell, and |
say to a young girl wandering in the
streets "How is this ?" "Well, l worked
here seven years, and | thought l would
leave that mill and 90 to another and
the corporation won't give Inc my ticket.
| have sued them in the supreme court,
and cannot get it, and here am, pen
niIess in eastern Massachusetts" That's
Christian civilization. | am picking up,
not individual facts, but significant rules,
that were made for labor.
You say: What does labor need in
New England? 1t needs justice. Mr..
Stewart, in New York, has bought a
whole town, and he is going to build
model houses, and house there all the
labor he can get to 60. Yet the civiliza-
ton which alone can look the New Tes-
lament in the face, is a civilization where
one man does not depend on the pity of
another mau's building him a model
clearinghouse. Applause. The civil
izatiOn which alone can look the New
Testament in the face is a civilization
where one man could not build and an
other man would not need that sort of
refuge.
No, gentlemen, what We mean Is this:
The labor of Yesterday, your capital, is
protected sacredIy. Net so The labor of
to-day. The labor of yesterday gets
twice the protection and twice the pay
that the labor of to-day gives. Capital
gets twice the protection and twice the
pay.
Now, we mean radical change and
in the few minutes that are left me
want to indicate our object.
- THERE'S A MISTAKE SOMEWHERE.
We mean certain great radical changes
l am not quite of the opinion of Mr.
Secretary Boutwell,, when he said here
the other night, that fifty years hence
the idea that man could own land and
leave it to his children would be ridicu
lous. l have not quite come to that
But then YOU know there is reason fol