The Labor enquirer., 1885-03-14
The SITUATION.
Viewed by One who Has
Grown Old in the battle
For Humanity.
Workers who Hayt, Been and Are
Starving on Insll Efficient and
Poor F,od.
The Time for Thinking and Acting Is
Upon US Whom DO We
Feara


Fear
Editor Labor Enquirer.
The following article is from an Interna-
tional whose life has beer one great struggle
for the right Asocialist With Emerson and
Thoreau atBrook farm, q, ,Revolutionist with
Brown and Garrison, thinker and writer
with PHILIPPE, the one who writes these words
to us Of the newer generation, writes them
voicing the messages Of the giants OF old to
the lusty warriors Of the new. They sanctify
our work in the past Letus hope they may
spur it to certain future victory
BuRNrTTE @, HASKELL.
Brethren and Sisters of the Various Labor
Fraternities Of the Western Slope, Greeting
On the sixteenth instant we are to
meet in convention in San Francisco to
discuss -
/. The means to unity and federate
for mutual aid and protection, the yari-
GUS societies.
2. To discuss the present hard times
the cause thereof and the remedy there
for, and in case remedy ii found, to
take steps toward putting it in operation.
1t may not be amiss to look steadily at
some phases of the situation before
hand. We know that warehouses are
glutted with grain. fol. Mhicf thousands
are pining. In the larger cities many of
the most capable worl;men and work
women are on the verge of starvation !;
in fact, for months they haye been slowly
starving on insufficient and poor food
They are too proud to beg. and the pale
faces of their wives and children almost
drive them to suicIde Did I say
"almostP" Do we not read every day in
the papers of one and another who in
despair ended what ought to have been
useful and happy life?
Now, we who are ar immense majority
in the body pol litic, can do something
towards mitiga ting this cruel state of
things, even if we cannot al once COM
pletely cure it. (We must never lose
sight of the fact that it is our business to
probe to The quiok, and cure, these
frightful ulcers Of civilization. What
man can conceive, hecan execute if he
will. Never was there a better opporru-
nifty for the discussion of the most vital
of all questions -the1abor question
than now and here. The laborer, the
artisan. ia robbed of two.thirds Of that
e which he creates. Let US talk this over
and see if is not within our power to
institute justice in Redistribution of the
proceeds of labor. We ought to have
the courage to speak out. No spies dog
our steps as in European countries. No
fortress of st. Peter and st. Paul, with
its underground dungeon, awaits the
utterance of our com plant. No hired
soldiers stand ready to shoot us down
when we claim what is our due. Hence
we are towards if, without any thought,
even of dynamite, we submit longer to-
this systematic plunderipg, this cool
appropriation by. idlevs and schemers Of
two-thirds of all we create. We must
look fearlessly into the labor problem,
not only for our own sakes and for those
who at the present time are struggling
against want, but for generations yet
unborn who will inhsrit the conditions
: we shall be enabled to make.
As things stand now you, friends,
have created, or assisted nature in pro-
duclng, all that is necessary to healthy,
refined and happy living. Why then
are you not in the full enjoyment of these
comforts and luxuries? You tillers, ef
the soil, who have raised therefrom far
more than is necessary for your own
subsistence, why has not the surplus
provided you, in exchange, with all
those things which make life desir-
ableP Do you reply that this food you
have been instrumental in producing
has been devoured, Or stored up by the
idler, the merchant gchemer, who con-
tributes nothing to the colnmonweal in
return? ask, is it not possible for the
brains Of 9 million sturdy thinkers to
devise methods for retaining that which
belongs to them
Let me address the greas body of car
penters, brlcklayers GLACIERS, plumbers
Is ii not true that you build houses
which you may not occupy, and that q
few rooms in them are offered you, for
lease, at so high price, that each year
you must perforce retreat to more beg
carly quartersP Iii the midst of Paris
splendors the respectable artisan, who is
needed there, finds he cannot, out OF his
miserable wage, pay the gum that the
landlords claim for rent, and tens OF
thousands are without shelter, and are
starving now. Ifthey object to this and
threaten riot, the American newspapers
who always toady to caDiial, call them
Agrarians, Communists, Socialists. Let
us glory at least in thelatter title!
And those of you who work in mills,
manufacturing the wooleil, cotton, silk,
that others of your number have pre-
pared elsewhere, and you men and
women who make these goods into gar
ments, the less substantial and beautiful
to be worn by yourselves, do you really
believe that this state Of things must
continue to all eternitY2 Are you con.