The Labor enquirer., 1885-02-21
- yilss s.a4ll.

1nQuakNAk or economic system R0es W1tn'
ont questioning With I'll adyanced n
formers And that this change may be
brought about By peaceful means mus,
likewise be the desire Of all right-mindsd
people, But that the obstructions In the
way can be removed by peaceful methods
is q question. All reformers claim It to
be not only . possibility, but fact, that
all reforms which are needed, In this
country at least, can be had by the judi
cious use Of the ballot. And this is q
fact. ifthe ballot was in the hands Of free
men.
The international Working Peoples
Association is the only dissenting voice
to the above assertion, and this is not q
refDrmatory organisation, but q Revolu
tionary body. It's motto is change we
must have, peaceably if we can, but forci-
bly, if we must"
So we may say all reformers believe in
the efficacy of the ballot, State Socialists
included. And this is correct theory
if the ballot was welded by free voters,
and not BY dependent wage-slaves, as is
now the case. John Swinton's Paper has
this to say under the, caption Of "The
Dynamite Terror" @As for the Ameri-
can people, the thlno to bear in mind is
that here the ballot can be SO welded
that that there shall be no need Of re-
sorting to force for the cure ofany public
cyl. however deep-rooted." But the
same paper carries the refutation of it's
own statement. For in the same column
from which / take the above, Il find,
under the heading Of Making War On
this Paper" the following There are
American workers, descended from
Revolutionary sires,T who dare not take
this paper for fear of their employers.
From factory towns. especially, where
the shriveled hands are easily watched
and bulldozed.a The paper 'is taken
by several men under names borrowed
for the occasion. Several think it is
safer to get the paper in roundabout
ways, or at postofices distant from their
homes. Pretty rough tales truly; and
we could tell others more like echoes
of the czardom than facts from democ-
racy.n
Pray where does the democracy come
in? Any American wage-slaye who is
.deluded into thinking he is free citizen3
a sovereign Voter with big W, please
read. just about all the articles in the
issue from which we are copying, and
especially the one entitled "a Cast Iron
Yankee Town.
But to the subject. John Ruskin says:
who owns the bread Of "a country con-
trolls the people of that country" )" an
assertion not difficult to understand,
after perusal of the above extracts.
Now, how can an individual, who is
afraid to let his boss know what kind of
literature it pleases him to read, and has
to obtain the same under cover of false
names, or ain ways that are dark pre-
vent his master imposing the same or
worse restrictions upon him in regard to
the blessed ballotf
And when this is the case, where is the
free voter? Free men lndeedl Why, a
man who has to obtain his paper in this
way is only a cringing slave. The chattel
slave mother who pressed her trembling
babe to her breast and struck for free
dom over snow capped mountains, with
blood hounds at her heels, had more
nerve, and was just about as free. Her
master drove her to toll by the lash, The
master to-day drives his slaves to toll by
hunger. Slaves have no ballot, and
free men need nonel
The writer happened to be in South
Bend, Indiana, year or, SO since, on
election dav, andit was my good fortune
to witness the beauties of the ballot in
the hands of the sovereign voter. Said
sovereign was huddled into great trucks
and hauled to the polls where the fore-
men of the factories placed the ballot
into the soyereign's hands, who depos-
tied the same in the box; were then
! = IT, .. ~
dumped into the wagons, in company
with as many other soverelgns as could
be crammed in, and carried back to
work, and another load was carried and
voted the same way. This went on the
livelong day. 1t seemed to make no diff
ference whether the shop was owned by
a democrat or a republican czar ; the free
voter was voted just the same. Pullman
is little czardom near Chicago; perhaps
some of your readers have beard of the
place. Well, atthe first election. held q
year or SO ago, there we're ], 700 votes cast
the same way fhs Car Pullmans Was,
and three to the sonrrafY This needs
nOCOmment.
n
What nerve those three sovereigns
must have possessed! 1t is notorious
that the house of Spragues voted every
factory serf in Rhode Island as they
wished. Who can guess the amount of
intimidation practiced in the late cleo
ton, by the possessing class, to influence
votes for one or. the other of the candl-
dates of the democratic or republican
parties, to say nothing of the frauds and
deceptions practiced upon the unwary