The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-08-07
Workingmen.

VI 1lO1 ttilO DUCCl w OlAClos 4h4s ObA PSAA-
ter has always been Democrat, and his
address was toa number of labor organiza-
lions, most of whom have been voting the
Democratic ticket. The reasons he as
signs for opposing Cleveland-reasons
based on tangible official facts referred to,
are applicable to all sections of the country
where there is sympathy with the labor
interest 1t is the evidence, too, that there
is an awakening among the workingmen OF
the country not only to their true interest,
but to their manhood. 1t has been the
habit of the Democratic bosses to claim
the labor element. and especially the Irish
American strength, as their property
Without argument or reason, they have as
sumed that all this class OF our citizens were
unalterably Democrats, and that all that
was necessary was for the machine to NOM
mate candidates, furnish ballots and point
to the place where they must be deposited
for the entire voting strength OF work
ingmen to be given to the Democratic
cause.
1t is a cheerful sign of the times that
this condition of things is about to be
changed-that the workingmen, whether
of American or Irish or German descent,
are beginning to think for themselves. and
study their interests as they may be af-
fected by legislation and the policy OF the
government There is not one of them
who does not know that the protective
policy which finds it's organized support
only in the Republican party, is that which
builds up American industries, and gives
employment and encouragement to Amer
lean labor, whatever its character. If, I'M
der this policy, a furnace is established at
any locality in the South, every intel
ligent man knows that the benefits
growing out of it, are not confined
to those directly engaged at the fur
mace. The ore must be mined, the lime
stone prepared for use, the coal dug out
and the coke burned and that those ell
gagged in these avenues, must be fed and
clothed. The merchant, the truckman,
the farmer, all share in the benefits flowing
from the investments of the capitalists and
the community is thus made prosperous,
productions stimulated, money circulated
and the means furnished for purchase of
the results of mechanical labor, as WE'LL
Comfortable homes are built up, school
houses and churches erected, where be-
fore were barren waste and unutilized
wealth.
These considerations have put the work.
ingmen to thinking. They are lookingfor
the cause which brings these results
They cannot find 1T in the Democratic pol
icy of free trade, which would build up
the manufactures of Europe at the ex-
pense of those of this country-which
would give to the labor of the old country
employment and competency, while that of
America would be idle and starving. But
they do find it in the protective policy of
the Republican party, which fayors tar
if on all the products of Europe, for the
purpose of protecting the labor of Amer
lea from the low-wage labor of Europe,
and enables our capitalists to invest in man.
ufacturing enterprises, that American la
Dor may find remunerative employment.
We have in Staunton Cleveland Club
of Mechanics and Workingmen. There is
not an intelligent member of that club
who does not know that there is a
logical contradiction in the name of this
organization. Cleveland represents free
TRACE Democracy and Workingmen and
Mechanics certainly can have no sympathy
with that policy, for all their interests lie
in .the success of diversified industries,
which can only be effected through the pro-
tective policy. If they will but reason
among themselves and each with himself
they will speedily understand that there is
nothing in common between their material
interests and the Democratic party. The
prosperity they and the country now have
is the result Of Republican administra-
tion and the policy it maintains and en-
forces, affecting the industrial interests of
America. They have taken one wise step,
and that is, forming separate organiza-
tion. leaving the little bosses and dudes to
flock to themselves. Now let them cut
loose from the political machine which
they have so implicitly obeyed heretofore,
and assert their own manhood, their own
right to think for themselves, to act for
themselves and to be the judges of the pol
icy that is best calculated to advance the
interests of the mechanic and working
man. All over the country this is being
done. Why not in Staunton? There is
more good hard sense in the head of one
master mechanic than there is in the
craniums of half-dozen dudes and bosses of
the Democratic party of Virginia. There
is not as much brass and impudence-not
as much effrontery and presumption
which have done the work of the Demo-
cratic party here for 10 these many years.
But there is more true manhood, more
common sense, and more that goes to
build up community, and consc iousness
of this ought to be encouraged and the
freedom of the man from boss and ring
despotism asserted.
We know the insidious methods, the pro-
scriptive enginery, to which the bosses
and dudes resort when there is hint that
a mechanic or workingman is thinking for
himself and is questioning the wisdom of
Democratic policy. He is assailed and
threatened from all sides-is told that he
will lose his work-will not be employed
by the bosses and dudes, and this kind of
talk comes in such methodical order, re-
peated to him from every corner, by ar
rangement, that he becomes frightened,
and loses that sense of true manhood,
which we know dwells within. Commu-
nifty is a compact of mutual dependencies,
and the one class can no more do without
the other than machinery can be run
without the several parts belonging to it.
The mechanic and workingman are GER
tainly as essential to the well-being and
success of business in all it's phases as is
the political boss or dude, whose brow is
never moistened by the sweat of earnest
labor, or sleep refreshed by the conscious
ness of genuine toll. They run the ma
chine-they issue their mandates-they order