The Labor enquirer., 1884-05-03
The Brain Workers and Hand
Workers Should be
Brothers.
They are Robbed Alike by the
Worthless and Unscrupu-
lOus Idlers.
The Only Remedy is for the Toilers
to do Their Own Solid
Thinking.
Editor Labor Enquirer.

Il
porters and the supported; the honest
and the dishonest. Every being, every
man, every beast is dishonest who slives
upon the sunremunerated labor of the
other, no matter whether he be hind or
king, steer or fox. Laborers should be
alike, brothers, and equal before the law,
no matter whether it be the laborer who
tolls with his hands and feet, or the one
toiling with his brain. We must labor
or we must idle. And this broth
erhood can only be OF prosperity when
brain and muscle unites into one grand
union of purpose. Idlers never unite.
They cannot, for they are the beasts of
prey, and live upon one another merely.
The ancient Russian carpenter had but
a "carpurrer" IA hand-ax) with which he
shaped Everything from building vessel
to making a rosary. Who ever heard of
an aboriginal Indian being richer than
his fellow-savage until the white mans
civilization taught him to idle and steal
What then is the result of the toll of the
laborer? Every brace and bit you use
to-day, every ratchet brace improving
the older brace, every Diston saw, every
improved plane, every improved drill,
every plow as it comes from the Ameri-
can workshops of to-day, every reaper
and mower, every gang-plow, horse hay
rake, harrow, shovel, spade, pick and
drill, sewing machine and engine, and
so on, is but the result of toll weari-
some, endless toll of brain and muscle
combined
In olden times, when kings and en-
perors, princes and mobiles we're superstl-
tiously believed to have received their
governing power from God, out of the
clouds ''by the grace of God," the laborer
of muscle and the labor of brain were
far apart and two distinct beings; the
first simple slave, the other a slavish
simpleton. Both tolled for the idlers
who ruled them. Both were kent apart
by superstition, called religion. Both
were used and abused. Both were held
in unpaid or underpaid bondage. They
were nothing but servants, and inces
sanity taught to "obey their masters"
No results were obtained for themselves
~ to;l
and paid them with kicks, tortures and
death The workers were but machines.
They had no power, only obedience.
The fruits of their labor were wrested
from them to create power for the al
ready powerful. Spasmodically the
toilers would obtain mere glimpse of
their privileges, and rebel. But short
would be their rebellion Death and tor
lures were easily and relentlessly meted
out to them, and their woe and slavery
become only more deep and constant.
Thus centuries passed; centuries of blind
and superstitious slavery for the toilers
and sublime power for the idlers. Idlers
who were utterly ignorant, even in royal
robes in gold and in satin. Toilers whose
brain and muscle products went into the
strong boxes of the idlers, into the
vaults and covers of the devotees Of su-
perstition, sweled the army of idlers and
idoIaters and made the producer more
animal and less man. Then another up
heaval of the wrath of the working peo.
pie happened Years of terrible slavery
and abuse had brnlled and singed
burned and devoured, until brain
effected union with muscle and broke
the terrible chains of moral and phYsica
slavery. The French revolution of the
eighteenth century became an event fol
them. Yet it died under the clutches O.
the idlers and never became an epoch
The epoch in the lives of the toiler
came from the western hemisphere
where liberty is spontaneously born II
the very air of the land. 1t was RENTED
to those who produced and executed th'
Declaration of Independence" to de
clare the solemn truth, that all power tt
govern, to enjoy the fruits of untram
meled toll, comes from the toiler himself
This was denial, the first courageousl'
expressed denial of the working class
to that infamous dogma, that God con
fers the right upon one man to govern
others. 1t was the first declaration, tina
the laborer shall and must enjoy untram
meled the fruits of his labor. 1t wa
the first grand assertion of the great dig
nity of the human race. 1t declared tn
! heretofore governed as the source
power, and in plain facts, denied the al
thority of any and all gods. The oil
idea of the old superstitious world wa
rent to pieces. The toilers had throw
r off the ancient yoke of the idlers. Th
, idea that all political power came fror
, the clouds, from God, was broken. Tn
idlers Il mean the little-fry-the MOBILES
3 priests and officials) lived upon the labc
of the people; these had no rights
privileges whatever. The mobiles, prizes
and officers stole the peoples substanc
They divided with the kings and princ'
(the bigger idlers who had alread.
I