St. Paul daily globe., 1886-01-17
THE DAY IS AT HAND.
a Minneapolis Observer Sees Caus
for Hope and Rejoicing.

a Minneapolis Observer Sees Cause
for Hope and Rejoicing.
To the Editor of the Globe:
The labor question is an old one. The
Apostle James, with the unerring eye of a
prophet, looking down the stream of time
and seeing the oppression of capital and the
anguish of labor, broke out in these words:
''Behold the hire of the laborers who have
reaped down your fields which is of you
kept back by fraud crieth, and the cries of
them which have reaped are entered into
the ears of the Lord of Sabbath"
The Lord has heard and the day is at
hand when the laborer is about to arise in
his own behalf and exert an influence over
the body polite that will be felt from
center to circumference. In the days of
slavery probably there was no incident
which so agitated and fired the nations
heart as the Dred Scott decision. But
what is the decision to-day of aggregated
and cooperate capital in regard to
THE WHITE SLAVES
of both North and South as enacted and
practically demonstrated? 1t is simply the
old decision with a broader and more
sweeping application; namely, that labor
has no rights that capital is bound to re-
spect. Under the present regime it is
worse than useless for the toiling masses to
appeal to the state or church for help. The
rich and trucking politicians are too busily
engaged pulling the wires and laying the
pipes for his present and future aggrandize-
ment. while the clergy are upon the hills of
pleasure feeding in luxuriant fields of
clover. They are too far away TO hear the
moan OF the common herd. And hence the
mighty gathering together and organization
of men that earn their bread by the sweat
of their brow. Not so much for offensive
as for
DEFENSIVE WARFARE
But there is such thing as getting the cart
before the hol Sc. and it seems to us this is
the case with labor organizations. The all
important point and what is wanted above
all is national, state and municipal enact
ments. placing the labOrers brain and mus
Gle. his only capital, on an equality with
those more favored than himself and then
labor organizations as the judicial and eX-
ecutive machinery when combined we be-
Ieve will prove to be the great panaeea for
all our woes. The labor problem is so SIM
ple and easy of solution that we look be-
yond and above the fundamental principles
of our government, which was conceived in
the minds of cur fathers and born with the
Declaration of Independence. We have
life and liberty. but where is our happiness?
We have none for the simple reason that
we refuse to utilize the opportunities which
so often force themselves upon us. We or
ganize against capital with one hand, and
with the ballot, that mighty lever, lift il
into power with the other. Oh, inconsiSt-
ency, thou art jewel. Fellow laborers, it is
OUR OWN VOTES
which have brought the majority of all oul
sorrows at our doors, and yet how 10th we
are to look the suicidal acts of our own
hands squarely in the face. In our blind
devotion we cling to our political affinities
with the tenacity of death. The history OF
both prominent political parties lies open
before us, and we still remain poor and un-
known. Alas, alas, how often our manly