The Labor enquirer., 1886-12-11
THEIR OWN FAULT.

The commercial editor of the Repub
lican, who certainly is entitled to praise
for the usually fearless manner In which
he takes hold of the labor question,
sometimes makes a serious blunder
but it seems to be more from lack of
thorough information than from a dis
position to create wrong impression.
In an article headed Between the Two"
relative to the helpless condition of the
farmer" in Tuesdays issue, he calls at
tention to some of the many ills under
which the tillers of the soil suffer from
the combinations made bv capitalists
and the distributors of wealth, the Of
ganizations of the laborers, and the
mortal strife between capital and labor"
and intimates that the farmer gets the
the worst of it "between the two" He
SAYS:
"But the farmer, who represents in a
small way both capital and labor, is lost
sight of. He counts for nothing. He is
not even considered. Capital and labor
claim the whole country as their field
of struggle. and assume that other inter-
ests are of no concern whatever"
This would be sad ifit were true, and
the farmer would have just cause for
complaint, but 1t is not true. There is
not labor organization in this country,
outside of the exclusive unions of special
trades, that has not extended friendly
hand to the farmers. The Knights of
Labor have for several years been en-
deavoring to get the farmers to cooper
ate through their organization for the
protection of the workers, whether of
mill, shop or farm and special induce.
ments are continually being held out to
the cultivators of the soil to come within
the fold ofthat organization. In some
cases the invitation has been accepted,
but not to any considerable extent have
the farmers of the country shown that
they were willing to accept the aid prof
fered them by the mechanics aud city
laborers Those who are posted know
that the organized orkers OF the towns
and cities have done more than their
duty in this direction, but the farmers,
as class, have held aloof and it is tn
capitalist, the monopolist, who stands
"bet" cen the two''-the producer on
the farm and the consumer in the city
and plucks them both.
Half of the voters of the United States
are farmers, and, combined with the or
ganlzed mechanics and laborers. could
sweep the tools of the monopolsts out
of our legislative balls; but they have
stubbornly fefused to give the necessary
support to movements which have been
made in this direction, and have con-
tinued, wear after year, to vote the po-
litical understrappers of the monopo-
listic bosses into power. And The En-
QUIRER sheds not tear if the bosses are
turning the screws little on the bull
headed sgricuturslst.
The root of the farmers trouble lies
in his bigoled. absurd thought that he,
because he owns piece of (mortgaged)
earth, is better" than the mere wage
worker, who isn't "laEd owner" and
the commercial editor stated the whole
case when he said that the farmer was a
capitalist "in a small way" He is Just
enough of capitalist for it to make a
fool of him, and in too "smali a way"
for 1t to be any protection to him against
the whales who swall W him with the
little fish and the mud"
And it is absurd for anvone to attempt
to create the impression that the
farmers don't know that they are being
squeezed and who it is that is squeezing
them. Why, they are the worst "klckers"
the country has; but they haven't dis
cernment enough to kick in the right
direction or the sympathy to all kick to
gether. They sat up an awful howl here
short time ago because of the iniqui-
ties Of the ditch companies. 1t was
dry season. The farmers resoluted and
cried water or blood" but it rained, and
they licked their chops, rubbed their
bellies and went home and forgot all
about the "hellishness of water monopo-
lists"
Half of the farmers In this country are
afraid to laY claim to their own souls.
They want little evictionlzing and
then probably they will have the coar-
age to get up show that they are worth
saving, and take the hand of organized
labor, SO long unheeded, and then-the
world will be won.
There are many grand exceptions to
the general rule in this, as in other
cases, and they know that the foregoing
is plain truth. Any of the Others who
feel aggrieved are invited to write and
show The ENQUIRER that it has lied on
them.
---
LOOK RACKWARnS