The Labor enquirer., 1886-12-18
P.clins-Hou.e H.Ils.

Il worked nine years in packing
house. and had good position in Ar
mour's." said prominent employe, in
Bridgeport, to the writer of this, q few
days ago, "and can unhesitating!y say
that there is no more difficult employ
ment, no harder word, and no poorer
pay, than what is made in the packing
houses believe that the COM
mon hands do not average, week in and
week out, 81 day. How can they sup
port themselves and their families in
this way?
"Thev cannot do it. The families some.
times have to support them. Children
that should be at school are down town
earning wages to support parents that
have contracted aches and pains at tie
packing houses. They are hells, and in
them there is no redemption. They
have sorrows that no other class of work.
men have. The atmosphere that sur
rounds them is loathsome, the labor is
severe and health destroying, and the
habits engendered in consequence are
brutalizing. Would that some graphic
pen would describe the horrors of this
endurance. The poor slaves recognize
that the eight-hour day would be some
relief for their distress, and they suffer
to secure it, If you, reader, have pull
sation of com passion in YOUR heart, help
them, and heed not the lies of the press
ofMammon.
Such fortunes were never made as are
being built up bv the men who suck their
lfe's blood Armour would rather be
prince of the packers than president of
the United States He builds mammoth
houses, creates castles, and establishes
feudallty before whose power pale the
proud barons of yo1e. He specnlstes in
and corners the provisions of the poor,
making 81 100000 on the turn of a card.
He is one of class of men who are the
creation of our industrial laws, and for
whose suppression The nation may yet
be drencbed in blood, for the spirit that
animates business in our land is greed
and Covetousness 1t is the slavery ques-
ton in new phase over again. Then
it was the planters; now lis the packers
and their like. Then it was black
slavery now it is white slavery that is
to be overc )me.
1.-The men have gone into this matter
rashly,' said Mr.. Allerton. Has it not
been ever thus7 Whenever the work
ing people have attem pied anything for
the betterment of their condition has
not that thing been always termed rash
Yes, there Is rash breaking out over
them all the time. But how can people
in their condition of life and their want
of opportunities do anything but IN a
rash sort of a way2 The men who try
to help them are stigmatized as leaders
who misIead.' Those leaders are men
who make great sacrifices, although
sometimes they may be very poor lead.
ers but they are the best they can
afford, Were the laws just and society
considerate, there would be no necessity
for leaders. 'Thev share in the work.
said Mr. Allerton. Yet It is the labor of
these men that has built up those pala-
tial homes of luxury AMI ease on Prairie
and Calumut aveues.
"On every horse car, on every train,
you will hear those poor toiler5 in blood
and flesh and filth denounced oy well
dressed and comfortable people. Their
sympathy for the rich clearly procIaims
that they are themselves partakers of
the spoils of other mems bodies, and la
Dor and.toil. o., what an un crupulous
partisan is Avarce
10 guard his spoils the police are
brought in, the militia called out, and
hired assassins sworn in. We recognize
the rights of property, but We also insist
on other rights.
Here We have plain statement
showing the causes that lead to these
frequent strikes and lock outs that are
continually occurring, not only in the
stock Yards but elsewhere, by one who
is capable, Trustworthy, being on the
ground, knows whereof he speaks. The
fault is in our econumic system. We
have democratic form of government,
but a monarcnlcal industrial system
that is in dired conflict with that de-
signed BY our revolutionary sires when
they struggled for the maintenance OF
the Declaration of Independence, and it
is high time that thpse clothed with
the responsibility OF citizenship under
our government should cease sy mpathiz-
ing with monopollstlc greed, tuat is in
purpose opposed to the peoples govern
meut and common interests. The men
at the stock yards are beginning,
through organization in the Knights of
Labor, to learn their duty as ciuEens,
and ID know their power and assert it
at the ballot box, and that is what the
packers, the subsidized press and mo-
nopollsts generally fear. The remedy
for the wrongs of labor is out
lined in the design, preamble and declar-
alton of principles of the knights Of
Labor, To help work out these prob
lens is duty that every person owes
who believes In perpetuatIng govern