The Labor enquirer., 1886-10-09
Have Rotted and Thrones De-
cayed Never Again to
Reappear.
Comrades in Prison Whose Mon
uments Will be Written in @
the Hearts of Men.
"These Men and Women Did Not Toll,
Did Not Suffer, Did Not Die
i'm Vain"

gates to the Trade Congress, IN response
to the toast, THE Prisoners for the
Cause in all Countries of the World :"
Fellow citizens, comrades and friends,
I am sure that our guests as Interna-
t:onal Socialists will forgive me for say
ing that consider the toast which has
been entrusted to me, "The Prisoners
for the Cause in All Countries" as not
second in importance to any which we
have on the programme this evening.
The Socialists of all lands are linked
together by many ties, by the bonds of
an enthusiasm and zeal of no common
order, and by that wide and far-reaching
brotherhood of humanity which knows
no creed, no sect, and no alien country,
but we are linked together in an especial
manner by the common suffering which
some are undergoing and which all are
ready to undergo for the common cause.
In all ages, for all opinions, mon and
torture and death have been the COM
mon lot of all who, in their own time,
have been touched with the spirit Of
the coming years, and who have striven
to lift their fellows to the higher and
nobler ideal which burne within their
own hearts and which gave to their
speech living and prophetic power.
The history of the struggle for freedom.
freedom of body and freedom of mind,
may be almost summed up In the words,
Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong
forever on the throne"
i Yet as each generation has won Its
way to fuller, freer life, the scaffolds
have rotted and the thrones decayed,
never again to reappear in their ancient
form. And 30 with US and the cause for
which we are daily spending and being
spent. Tonight we are met here, men
and women of all nations, as it Is right
we should meet. full of generous enthu-
nldou, w 1Noh oaGu OUuoI Ill Guo laCo, w
grasp each other by the hand, to give
each other a brotherlv and sisterly
greeting, because we honestly believe
that each one of US has caught some.
thing more than passing CLEAN of the
the radiance of the new social order,
that order which alone can ensure the
full glory and dignity of mankind.
But in the midst of our enthusiasm
we never forget for one single moment
that in all lands, from France to Russia,
from Denm ark to Austria, from Holland
to Spain, from England to Germany,
and from Europe to America, our com.
rades, men and women, are suffering
imprisonment at the hands of the CAPT.
talist class for the so!e Crime" that they
love humanity aud hate injustice, op-
preston and wrong.
From Pentonville to the fortress of
st. Peter aud St. Paul, from the wild
wastes af Siberia to the prison cells of
Chicago, IN almost every capital of Ed
rope, it is the same, either impri5 IN
ment, threatened Imprisonment, or
death, is the only answer which the DOS.
5es5lng classes ever z We to the denandI
of the toilers and the workers of all
Ian DIS for the restoration oil their rightful
and natural inheritance. In England,
John williamson America, Parsons
Spies and Fielden- and whatever we
may think of the wisdom of their speech
and tactics we shall all acknowledge
that their motives were pure, and that
they are now in danger. of the hangman's
rope through subornedI testimony and
false evidence-in Paris, Louise Michel
and soon, it may be, Gle5de. Susini and
Lafargue; in Belgium, Anseele in Ger
many, Bebel, Vollmar, Viereck; in Hol-
laud. Nieuwenhuls, Crol, Vanderveer
and Vanderstad; and in Russia, some Of
the noblest In en and women who have
ever given their lives to the service of
the people.
Add to these that which Mazzini
called the hell of exile" of which we
have evidence IN this room to. night, and
it all reminds us that the battle for hu-
man rights is not yet won-while it
nerves our hearts and arms for the fast
approaching struggle of the future. This,
if nothing else, the toast teaches US.
But should altogether fail In my
duty to you, t. our suffering comrades
aud to the cause, if did not point out
that it has deeper and wider signifi.
canoe than its mere words imply. "Stone
walls do not prison make nor iron bars
cage" is only partly true. The stone
walls behind which our comrades are
eating out their hearts, because they
are cut off from the work to which they
have consecrated their lives, are very
real. But they would be the first to de-
clare, as we declare, that the worst
prisons of all may be outside stone walls;
to declare that for three fourths of the
masses of the people in this and in
other countries our nineteenth century
so-called civilization is one huge prison
of poverty, misery, vice and disease.
CONTINUED on fourth psse.l