St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-13

lives and would not venture, after life
time of study, to speak with half the assur-
ance OF this youthful divine. who thin Ks,
with three or four months study" he has
solved the greatest question of this or any
other age. When he has studied the
question as many years as there are weeks
III three or four months" he will know
something about it, He said: 1.-The ignO-
rant demagOgues who cannot grasp the
difficult problems of political economy in all
their fullness impute the inequalities of con-
ditlons between the rich and poor to the
tyranny of capital, and work upon the
prejudices of laboring men, breeding hatred
and discomfort" No, no, Mr.. Scudder; it
is not the Ignorant demagogue' who
laborers. 1t is the system under which
we live that generates the ''hatred
and discomfort" you speak of. The in
tluence of the demagogue over unor-
ganized workers is a thing of the past.
The worker who has been inside the wells
of labor organization such as the X. OF L..
six months can readily detect the dema-
gogue and thwart his designs. The dema
gOgue has HE'D himself to other fields; he
can now be found at the bar, in the legisla-
| ture in the Sanctum and not seldom in the
pulpit. After three or four months study
| this youthful devine has learned and dog
maticaly asserts that ''intemperance, i'm
providence, incompetence and Incidence are
| the four great impedimentS the labOring
classes must remove before they can expect
to better their condition. Intemperance is
but an effect Close confinement and APP
plication, filthy workshops, long hours and
laboriouS work cause men and women to
crave for stimulants.
Improvidence! Great God! How can
men be improvident when they have moth
ing to spend? How can the men who are
paid from So cents to S1.25 per day become
intelligent, competent workmen? 1t re-
quires time to study and money to buy
| books and papers. Where will the wage
slave get either? l wonder if the reverend
gentleman was ever tired-if so, did he
have any inclination then to study?
Incidence! 1t cannot be that this college
| bred gentleman, this follower of the gentle
Nazarene, means to say that the hundreds
of thousands of abe-bodied men who have
been displaced by labor-saving machinery
AND PAUPER LABOR
are indolent. No! No! he does not mean
that; he could not; it would be blasphemy.
Again, he said, wages are high enough in
America to provide the laborer com
Portable living, and by economy ~ caa ac-
quire competence" At the average wages
paid to unskilled laborers, Cinnamon who live
on rats and rice, and sleep twenty in room
| (Sx10). could not save enough in ten years
to bUr one lot of Mr.. Scudder at the price
he = them for. The Hooking Valley
coa Indicate intend introducing machinery
intu fheir mines which will take the place
| a bo y IoCn l. For
tory in Chicago introduced moulding ma
chine by which the work now done by
twenty men will be done by five men.
A number of newspaper men have formed
syndicate with a capital of $1,000, 900 to
manufacture the lately invented type-setting
machine which, it is said, will throw 25, 900
men in the United States alone
into enforced idleness. Of what avail, Mr..
Scudder, will temperance, economy, COM
potency and industry be to this vast army
of men thrown out of employment? 1t will
not do to say, let them go on the land, for
they are not fitted for it. and have not the
capital necessary. If, once in a while, one
of the laboring class becomes rich, it is not
by their own labor, but from opportunities
they have to speculate upon and absorb the
labor product of others.
| With the accumulation of individual
wealth. the greed and power of the proper
tied class grows. They use all means fol
competing among themselves for the rob-
berry of the people.
The depletion of working forces from the
overproductive process of machinery annu-
ally increases the percentage of the wage
working population, which becomes pau
perized and is driven to crime vagabond-
age, prostitution, suicide, starvation and
death This is the unjust, insane and MUIR
derous competitive system from which his
reverence says we cannot get away.
There are other points in the reverend
gentleman's discourse on which l would
like to touch, but have already occupied
too much Of your valuable space.
Minneapolis, Dec. II. Il. W. B.