The Labor enquirer., 1885-03-07

tzsA MaAes |. fisA - Ifhszsy,
Eq.allty, Erss.rnisy.
FELLOW WoRKMEN:
All you who work for wages, whether in the
factory or at the desk, In the mine or be-
hind the counter.
We, the international Workmen's
Association, an association organized in
North and South Ameslca, in Europe
and in every English colony, number
ing at the lowest computation 100000,
and having for its sole object the rescue
of the working classes from their posi-
ton of machine slaves and disinherited
dependents, send you this. We ask you
to, at least, give it a perusal as the joint
production Of those who deem them
selves your brother slaves, and who for
years past have studied with aching
heads and hearts, what the rich ironi-
cally call our civilization, but which is
in reality state of absolute barbariSm,
in which a favored few roll in riches,
and the masses are daily sunk more
deeply in the slough Of a hopeless pow
erty. That, as is the case IN every
country under our presentsocial system,
each new invention and labor saving
DEVICE should but render our lot more
uncomfortable and our very existence
more precarious, appears to us an abb
surdity which will exist SO long. and
only SO long, as the working classes re-
fuse to look the matter squarely IN the
face. and TO go fearlessly to the bottom
of the whole question. If We, the i'm
mense majority, allow ourselves to be
frightened from a courageous examine
tion of the whole question by the cries
of Communism" and Socialism" raised
by the rich (who are, and must be under
the present system, our enemies, since
their Interests iseSsl "a aag a1s{ ia q
ours), we shall renAin I0F6v6s slaves
and shall deserve to SO remain. We
proceed to lay the following points be-
fore you for consideration
~ { Z 5t- = ~ !
/ We belieye in Liberty, Equality and
Fraternity, as the laws of nature, but we
believe in realizing them as actual facts
and not as mere names for millionaires
to conjure with. We say, moreover, that
until we succeed in securing perfect
economic liberty, absolute economic
equality, and the aceeptation Of frater-
nifty as the rule of all production and
distribution, instead of the cut-throat
method of open competition now in
vogue, there will be no happiness for
mankind at large, no hope of relief for
the disinherited poor. We say further
that every inyention and improvement
will, under our present system, bring
the toiling masses, the producers, nearer
and nearer to starvation's door, and we
here remind you that the tendency of
all labor-saying machinery is to force
the masses into cities where, when
times are bad and factories and work
shops closed, they can be, and are
starved like rats in trap. Do you sup
pose that we advocate the destruction of
machinery, and a recurrence to the old
fashioned methods of production? We
should indeed be the idiots which the
capitalists, on the platform and in the
columns of their press, would fain make
you believe us, if we attempted to set
back the hand of time in such afashion.
On the contrary as a party we fully
recognize that man is distinguished from
the rest If the animal creation by his
inventive faculty, and that if all known
inventions were to morrow swept from
the face of the earth, he would immedi-
ately proceed to reproduce them. We
90 further !; we desire here to state dis
tinctly our hxed conviction that the con-
stantly repeated doctrine that manual
labor is in itself blessing and pleas
ure is direct lie. forged BY the well-to-
do classes, who desire that we should do
all the work that they themselves may,
while living in idleness, roll in luxury.
We believe that it is mans mission, as
he advances in intellect and civilization,
to gain so vast command over the
forces of nature, sucli as steam, electric
ity and the. like, that all heavy, manual
labor will be unnecessary and therefore
abolished. That is the situation which
we are every day approaching, and it is
only the cheapness of labor which re
tards the further development Of the
adoption of machinery; and this, as an
actual fact, we desire particularly to I'M
press upon your minds.
This country, for instance, now heads
the world in the use of labor-saving ma
chinery, simply because labor here ex-
tracts higher wage for it's services than
in the older countries; machinery in
China on the other hand is little used
because labor can be had for q ridicu-
lously small sum. Here, then, is to be
seen the first grave result springine from
the fatal mistake Of entrusting to few
what nature meant for Ill of giving the
key of all wealth. manklnds only work