The Labor enquirer., 1884-03-22
!. FACE TO FACE.
Joe Murray Says Such is the Posi-
ton Of the Great Industrial
Struggle.

more your desperate efforts in the pres,
ent struggle that I continue silent.
Poverty-cursedp poverty-is the cause
of it all. Scores of times have l at,
tempted to write you word of cheer
but then 1 thought and said, "of what
use is nv empty letter 2"
The terrible fact is at last patent to me
that we are at length at the mercy OF
our masters.
Idleness rules all around us; or if we
do toll we get but very little in return
But / have no desire to scold the bosses,
thieves and plunderers at all-it is the
toilers themselves-ourselv lves-that l
find fault with. Let me voice my con-
victions openly and above board and say
that we are as class too Ignorant lazy,
stupid and eowardly to stand up together
in defense of our Natural Rights.
Let no man misunderstood me. have
now but words of praise for the few tried
and true men who, in spite of such fear
full odds, keep the flag on the ramparts. /"
But am out of patience with that enor-
msas majority of workers who seem so
content in their chains.
Here is a large class who refuse to
listen to the walls of those whose turn
has come first to taste the bitter cup OF
poverty and to drink the cup of despair
to the dregs. Another class is too care
less to act after having gained the knowl-
edge of the true status of the abonlina-
BILE system that is at present destroying
our country. And, worst of al, an al
most innumerable. mass of men who
content themselves, on the day of cleo
ton, by accepting for their votes 81 and
aglass of beer.
Idleness, strikes, lockouts, low wages
or no wages-these are some of the cries
that are carried to us by the four winds
of heaven. Can it be possible that we
are natural born fools after all If not,
then how comes it that people blessed
with good government and country
unsurpassed for fertility, are of our own
free will and act giving up to few high
waymen, without struggle or blow
or hardly word-what cost our grand
fathers so much time, trouble, blood and
treasure to gain for US?
What has become of the palladium of
our liberties, the ballot? useless" l
hear some one answer Why useless,
inquire? Because corruption has de-
stroyed its influence for good. Admitted.
But is that good reason why we should
cease struggling? Remember, brothers,
it always takes two to make a corrupt
contract. We workingmen are one of
these two parties. If we keep ourselves
pure and above reproach all will be well
for dishonest man will not then ap-
proach us. But so long as we 60 about
our reform movement in half-hearted
way-waiting for, and receiving over
lures from those upon whom we know we
should look as enemies, we never will
nor do we deserve to-win anything but
the contempt of all honest men.
Look at the farmers of Colorado, with
land the fertility of which has not been
surpassed on earth; with every facility
to produce crops, the very bestin quality
and most abundant in quantity, and yet
our farmers are becoming poorer and
poorerand more respondent every year.
Denied the advantages of good education
or the time for mental improvement of
any kind, he becomes the type of the
serf of whom we read in history of Rus
sia, during the time of Peter the Great.
Work, hard and dreary, gathers inienor-
nous crops, and then three millers in
Denver decree what price shall be paid
those farmers for their produce. From
that decree there is no appeal. The av-
erage farmer has seemingly come to the
conclusion that it is folly to try toremedy
existing evils; and he returns to his
cabin in despair and in troubled SLEEP
in which police, sheriffs, wrlts, duns
notes, bonds, water rights and trust deed:
are bountifully blended, he reads the
doom that awaits himself and his wife
and children on the road to the pool
house.
The strangest part of the whole scene
is when you see that sort of man in thai
condition and at the same time listen tC
how eloquently he can curse tramp
l have yet to meet the first one of tina
class who have ever realized there WA
anything wrong in our present system
And one might as we'll talk Sanscrit t.
such man as to try to reason him int
right understanding with regard to tn
private ownership of land, or the dis
tribution of wealth. But after all W
have few farmers who are wide awak
and honest.
Iuse the word "honest" in the sens
that they are honest enough to deman'
their full natural rights-or failing to b
heard to prepare to make themselve
felt. JOE MURRAY.
ROYAL FRAUD.
concluded from First Page.l
are at this moment empty and unlet