The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-08
UNCERTAINTY.


Friends, l do not want to worry and
annoy you any more than I am abso-
lutely compelled to, and I shall not but
if fail to speak plainly to you now, and
keep you informed of the situation and
progress of The ENQUIRER / am CON
yinced j shall fall far short of my duty
to the cause we all have at heart.
You have Justly and considerably rec.
ognized the unpleasantness of the duty 1
felt called upon to perform in asking
you to contribute money to the support
of the paper, and hope YOU are deep
enough in your understanding and firm
enough in your convictions to still ap-
preciate my position and rely upon my
utterances. After having once stepped
over the line of personal feeling I shall
not go back. 1 have discarded individ-
uality, have stepped out of myself and
appealed to you to aid me to guide the
lamp of light, and have divided my bur-
den with you. You have not appeared
unwilling to help carry the load, and now
l desire to spur up the thoug btless, reas-
sure the down-heartedan d encourage the
hopeful. 1 have no wish to throw the
whole responsibility of the continuance
of the paper upon other shoulders than
my own, but want those who are en-
listed in the cause to realize their posi-
ton and mine, and then assume what
their good judgment and fairness tells
them is their share.
The first thing to be done, in my iudg-
ment, is for the friends of the paper to
bring themselves to realize that there is
no scare in my statements regarding the
uncertainty of the continuance of THE
ENQUIRER; they must make up their
minds that if anything can be done, it
must be done at once; that a few days
delay may prove disastrous. If assist
ance month hence would suffice, 1
would have waited until then to ask for
it. This probably is not the proper way
to do, but, as have said before, l hoped
until the last moment that there would
be no necessity TO call on you.
The responses already made to the
call have been liberal and encouraging
but they must not stop now. You must
remember that l was fiat broke when l
called on you, and the amount already
received has been only sufficient to
straighten me out, keep up the paper
during the past three weeks and leave
me enough to conduct it one or two
weeks more. If the receipts keep up to
the average of the last three weeks for
about four weeks more, / am confident
there will be smooth sailing for the next
several months. I have no reason to
doubt but that they will do so, but there
is uncertainty, and while realize this
I feel should fall short in the perform
ance of my obligation, to you if1 did not
keep the matter before you, and let you
understand plainly and fully the
situation.
have received letters from several
friends proposing plans for raising
monev, and will call your attention to
one or two of them, which l think per-
fectly practicable, and leave the matter
in your hands.
Several friends have suggested that
''take the road" that is, go out through
this state and New Mexico, organizing
and soliciting subscriptions to the paper.
The majority of the letters containing
this suggestion have come from friends
in the small towns and camps in Colo
RADIO and New Mexico. Now, this plan
is a good one, and believe would result
in incalculable advantage to the paper
and the cause; but before l can leave
this Office for twenty four hours l must
be assured that everything will run all
right during my absence ; to give me this
assurance l must have funds enough on
hand to pay the necessary expenses dur
ring my proposed absence. If can get
enough ahead to run the Office for two or
three weeks, 1 will leave it in good
hands and get right to work on the
outside.
Others have written me proposing that
la IS list be opened; but the trouble with
this plan lies in the provisions which ac-
company 1t. Various numbers are sug-
gested to fill the list, and the money is
not to be paid until the list is full. This
would be slow work, and, as the figures,
both as to the amount and membership,
are rather high for poor men, 1 fear the
paper would be dead and buried before
l would have the authority Ia completed
list to collect the money, and you can
readily see that list of promises might
have bad effect upon those who are SO
hard-up themselves that they cannot
| give anything unles they feel that it is