Workmen's advocate., 1886-12-05
THE GRAND RALLY.
HENRY GEORGE SPEAKS FOR
 THE LABOR PARTY.
Carlls Opera House Crowded Peter Lynch, the Labor Candidate for Mayor, introduced Elect
 Him if You Can.
 Do Your Best.

1 Last Mondays Labor rally at Carll's Opera House was d grand affair. The house was crowded with between three or four thousand interested people from all the walks in life. Among the occupants of seats upon the platform were six or seven clergymen, and Superintend- ent of Public Schools, Henry C. 1 Dutton.
 The chairman of the town com mittee, Charles Stodel, called the meeting to order and introduced Peter Lynch, candidate for Mayor, as chairman of the meeting, who was received with prolonged cheers. Thanking the audience for their kind reception, and the Labor Party for nominating him, he continued: | an humble individual taken from your ranks of labor, who have earned my bread for B years by the sweat of my brow, to stand before you as a candidate for office. But is more as an advocate of the principles of the new party than as as candidate that speak to you to- night. l am firmly and honestly of opin- ion that strikes and boycotts cannot right the wrongs of the laboring man. The ballot is our best means"
 The Harugari Liedertafel then sang glee, and were rewarded with enthusiastic applause, after which 'iIcnry C. Baldwin made short and eloquent speech, and, after another song by the Liedertafel, the secre- tary read the Platform of the Labor Party, which was printed in the WoRKMEN's ADVOCATE last week, and also the following Declaration:
 We hold, with Thomas Jefferson, that the earth belongs in usufruct to the liv- ing, and that one generation cannot grant away the equal rights of succeeding gen erations to it's use. We hold that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights to the equal use of natural elements, and that the system which disinherits the masses and compels human beings to buy with their sweat the privilege of living and working on this earth to be funda- mental wrong, which is the fruitful pa- rent of social evils, bringing about an unnatural competition which tends to | reduce wages to starvation rates and to make the wealth-producer the industrial | slave of the idler who grows rich by hiStoi.
 We hold that all that is produced by labor whether of hand or head belongs to the producer and should be secured to him. We hold that the value which at taches to the the the surface of the earth by reason of the growth of population belongs to society at large, and we pro- pose, therefore, to abolish all taxation upon buildings, improvements and all other things of human production, and | by taxation on the value of land alone to provide for purposes of common necessi- ty and benefit. In this way we propose to make it unprotitable for monopolizers to hold lands, mines, forests or city lots which they are not putting to use, and thus throw open to citizens who wish to make themselves homes, or employ their labor in producing wealth, the abundant opportunities which our common Father has provided for all his children.
 We hold, moreover that the advan- tage accruing to society by reason of the growth of knowledge and the perfection of invention belong, after the due reward of individual exertion, to society at large; and we declare war on that system which hands over public works to corporate control, and permits such beneficent agencies as the railroad and the telegraph to be made the means of robbing the producer and of enabling railroad kings and stock gamblers to throttle business and dictate laws.
 We hold, in short. in the language of the Organized Workingsnen of New York, that "the true purpose of government is i the maintenance of that sacred right of property which gives to every one op- portunity to employ his labor and secu- rity that he shall enJ joy its fruits; to pre- vent the strong from expressing the weak and the interruptions from robbing the 1 honest, and to do, for the equal benefit of all, such things as can be better done by organized society than by individuals; and we aim at the abolition of all laws which give to any c.ass of citizens ad- vantages either judicial, financial, indus trial or political, that are not equally shared by all others.