The Labor enquirer., 1886-06-26
The Suffering, Crime and HUI
man Depravity 1t
Entails.
Ostracism of Phillips For AdyO-
eating a Cause GlOrified
al AppOmattOx.
The "IrOn Law Of Wages" Which
Gives the Worker a Bare
Subsistence.

son, THE Capitalist System" delivered
by J. J. Callahan, before the Social
League, last Sunday:
The capitalist system. What world
of meaning lies in those words
What human suffering do they not
represent!
In the whole category of crime what
idea of human depravity is there that is
not rooted in this system-this barbar-
GUS system tfat makes merchandise of
human beings, whose blood and muscles
are laid on the altar Of Mammon as
sacrifice to the god of greed.
This capitalist system destroys the
best qualities and feelings of which the
human being is possessed. This system
develops the baser qualities of the hu'
man being at the expense of the better
part. This system fills mems minds
with swinish desire to possess and own
the earth, no matter how many are sac
rificed in order that one may be eX
halted to the throne of the moneY-wor-
shipper.
This system allows one man to con-
troll the means of life for thousands. 1t
allows one man to gobble up all the nat
uraI resources and means upon which
human beings subsist
1t allows one man who is shrewd,
sharp and cunning to so manipulate the
result of mems labor. who know nothing
but. honest toll, and are unlearned in
the arts of deception and shrew dness,
that he may reap the benefit of their
labor, while thew are to be satisfied " ith
fractional part of that which by right
was theirs entire.
Under this monstrous system the weak
are crushed out by the strong. Human
beings, brutalized by this system, be-
come and are but drove of swine
where the strongest get possession of the
trough and gorge themselves, while the
weaker are obliged to take as their
share Just what those in possession see
fit to gr Mt them.
"By their fruits shall ye know them"
The fruits of this tree Of capitalism is
seen on every hand. The sun&en-eyed
woman who sews away her life paking
shirts at 25 cents per day, the women
who work in the coke furnaces of Penn
sylvania the little children who work
twelve hours per daY in the factories. the
increase of suicides, prostitution, mur-
der and crime IN general these, all of
them and many more, are the true ma u
raj fruits of this system of capitalism.
We aretold, however, thatitls not right
to abolish this system. The church says
this capitalist system shall not be abol-
ished. We must remember, however,
that the church condemned the aboli-
ton of human slavery; we must remem-
Der that there was time when William
Llovd Garrison could not procure a
Christian church in which to preach and
advocate the liberation of the black man
from the chains which this same capi-
talist system placed upon his limbs.
We must remember t}Iat Wendell
Phillips was socially ostracised bv the
very select of society from whose glitter
ing palaces he turned to become an ad-
uooo4o &c ,bo r;rbto Of man Tho ohurch n
and society condemned him until he
and his co laborers had worked public
opinion to such change that the church
and "societv" fell into line-the front
line-and claimed the credit of the vic
torv that was acknowledged under the
tree at Appomattox twentY-one years
ago.
In the lesson this evening there are
many good points made, and among the
best is the answer to the question what
is it that regulates the amount paid to
the Iaborer?" "The amount necessary
to keep him and his family alive"
We as workingmen all know that this
is the absolute truth We know thai
even with steady employment 1t is
nearly Impossible to save money and
live like human beings.
Who is there that has not heard thu
employer give as reason for reducing
wages, that bread or meat had fallen in
price and therefore wages would have tt
follow? And, furthermore, the scal'
upon which the worklngman consents t
} live will determine the rate of wages he
will receive. The Hungarian and POLE
are satisfied with black bread and cheap
coffee, and the capitalist pays them OF
the black bread and cheap coffee esti
. mate.
The Chinaman lives principally OF
rice and tea. The capitalist figures on
the cost, of tea and rice and paws the poo
heather on that basis. The capitaIis
says the American workingman lives
too high. He does not refer to the
seven-story human packing house com
monty called a tenement, but to the
quality of the food the workingman de
mands.
The defenders of this capitalist sys
TEN are continuously giving accounts O.
somo discovery made by some of theil
number in Europe in regard to how