The Labor enquirer., 1885-03-14
dressed, perhaps unshod and 80 growing
up without self-respecti

up WAShous beil-fe0p8Cb
Iappeal to the workers in iron, tin,
and brass. With their smudged faces and
brawhy arms Have you, one and all,
the best and most convenient cooking
stoves in your Kitchens and all the va
rious articles of household use in plenty Z
And the dyers and carpet-weavers, on
returning at dusk from your factories.
have you. my friend, the comfort of
walking on neat, durable carpet For Is
your wife forced to cut your worn-out
woolen shirts into strips out Of which
she constructs what is truly called q nag
carpet? Does the weaver of blankets
and his family sleep under the soft,
warm ones he has helped to make, or is
his wife obliged to content herself with
poor patchwork quilts?
And the vast assemblage of mlners
who delve under ground, deprived of the
light Of the sum i it pour ofinioni that'
those collections of coal, of silver and sof
gold-bearing quartz, were specially
created by Divine power for those who
claim to own them? and that this Su-
preme power, at the proper time, created
you to develop the treasures therein con-
tanned at from 81 to $3.50 day?
Now is the time to make these inqui-
ries-to take counsel with one another
in order to ameliorate, if not to radically
change, the unjust conditions we labor
under. As said, with US there is no
talk of dynamite, Where speech is free
it is worse than useless. Are we afraid
of those who sit in their counting houses
devising means for mulcting us of the
values we have created-for exploiting
our labor for the coming year? Do we
tremble before the hordes OF. lawyers
who would not hesitate to drink our
hearts blood? We are stronger than
they, if only we can see it. Do we hesi-
tate, and say that there is no precedent
for radical movement in behalf of the
rights oflabor? Then let us make one.
There was very little precedent for the
emancipation of 100000 chattel slaves,
The great body Of the people, both north
and south, looked on that proposition as
too wild, too far removed from probable
Ity to give them moments Hneasi ness.
Yet it was accomplished, and it could
have been done without such a fearful
expenditure of blood and treasure, as we
now see. But history shows that those
concerned in general wrong refuse to
see the danger they are in until it is
right upon them. They insist on smiling
in easy security till the torrent sweeps
over them. To the extent that we can,
let us do away with labor slavery by firm
and humane measures. In doing this
we shall benefit all classes and injure
none. Even our mhfffiohafres would 30
better off in mind and body if they were
forced by circumstance to engage in use
fnl labora few hours Of every day. They
would be better off also if they could be
relieved of that glut of wealth which, in
a true, though not a legal sense, was SO
dishonesty accumulated. The lawyers
and the large surplus of doctors as well
as the advocates of an Irrational and
childish may say a savage-theology
would be glad to learn that they would
be sure of comfortable living by allying
themselves with the industrious classes.
When each person is assured of all he
creates (minus the wear and tear of tbs
machinery and the original materially or
its equivalent, then crime will cease,
jails, prisons, alms-houses, yes, and in
sane asylums, will soon cease to be nee
essary; then we can afford to. love our
neIghbor as ourselves, which we cannot
safely do now. N-s72. "
So, Cal, March 8.