New-York tribune., 1886-11-07
LABOR PARTIES.

| LABOR party Is no new thing. Ii is not
phenomenon strange to human vision and un
precedente1; TO call it a new baby, lively O
otherwise, is not sensible. The people of thi
country are laborers and they have hal labo
parties ever since there were parties at all. Ii
fact, when any party has ceased to be labor
party, when it has ceased, in the belief of a con-
siderable part of its adheIents. to be honestly
devoted to the best interests of the laborina
people of this country, which are Identical with
the interests of the entire Nation, the party has
at once been disciplined bv defeat. At all
times. different opinions have existed az to the
| policies and measures best calculated to serve
the interests of the laborng people. The tariff
question has always been essentially a labor
! question. The land question is another of the
san sort free hOmesteads have been favored
or opposed, and land grants in aid of public i'm
| progements, by those Who believed that these
measures would benefit or harm labor as a
whole. The banking and money questions have
always turned upon the sup oossi in iluence of
this or that political opinion upon the interests
OF labor; in the end it makes little difference
whether the dollar is good or bad, steady or un-
steady in value, except to the labOrer who
wants his wages paid in the best money he can
get.
The fact is that no party has a chance of sue
cess in this country unless it can convince the
public that it is essentially labor party. An
Anti Masonic party, a Know-Nothing party,
vanishes from sight as soon az the people real
ize that it has pothing to do with their interests
as labOrers. The temperance party is fore
doomed for the same reason-becausa the peo-
pie who want any temperance measure what
ever can get at that by direct vote for high or
low license, or for prohibition, and then the
issue dies But the same people cannot afford
To leave without attention AMI constant effort
those Interests to which they and other cilizens
have In common as labOrerS. Parties that are
not labor parties cannot govern the country.
l he Democratic party emDodes the belief Of
men who hold that free trade would be better
for labor IA a whole than protection; that
more money" and cheaper money would be
better for labor as a whole than the best money
possible; that suppression of the political
rights and influence of the cooreh laborers at
the South Is necessary To the interests of white
labor. The Republican party, on the other
hand. emholies the belief of those who hold |
that Southern labor must be defe nded, as well |
as Northern, by free ballots honestly counted
its wages in the best money; and that labor
cannot prosper in the long run without steady
defence against the widely varying intensity of
foreign competition.
What is it that men mean, then, when they
talk of the new Labor party7 Broadly, they
mean the organized efforts of laborers who
fancy that special enactments for them wage
Farmers would do more service than wise Ma
al rnlI doc "a
labor. They would neglect the uue stion
whether protection or free trale is needful, in
,rder to vote for eight hours or against convict
abor. They would gnorethe question whether
he dollar shall mean 100 cents or 70 cents, in
'rder to demonstrate and increase the strength
If organizations which promis to raise by or
10 per cent the number of dollars paid as
months wages. They would leave Southern
abOr virtually enslaved, while they attack
microscopic monopOlies in other sections.
These voters wish to be considered the labor
,arty. as if there were no other. They forget
hat half the voters in this country are farm ers
# farm laborers, who are directly and pro-
Oundly interested as such in questions of Ma
iOnal policy, and in a conservative mainten-
nee of the value of land and of the ri yhts of |
Individuals as land owners, but are not so in {
crested in trade unions, or in convict labor or {
D the eight-h0ur issue. They forget that m ore {
han half OF the other labo7ers who are not on {
arms, are also by their occupations compelled t
D regard the tariff question a. of paramount in
'rest. 30 1t appears that many supporters of r
IT, George are amazed TO hear the president of 4
ne Association of Window Glass Workers de-
are that organized labor can never support =
Ir. George, as a leader or as a candidate, so :;
ing as he does not advocate protection. When E
lie workers lift their eyes to the great ques- r
ons of National policy upon which depend h
e welI-being and the happiness of all labor =
the land, far more than upon any =
ecial eDactments of the sort asked by this or :,
at set of workers, they presently see that the a.
spublican party is and always has been the 3,
ue labor party, and that they cannot afford a
abandon it, or to neglect the issues it repre- b
nts. for any other less broad, permanent and NJ
nefcent in its aims. !,