The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-28

Is ROOO, Dut We nave quicker way tnan
that. We do not need to put our hands
up among the cog-wheels and stop the
machine. Pierpont said of the little
ballot
ut executes the freeman's will,
As lightning does the will of God"
Now, turn my sight that way be.
cause 1 am a Jeffersonian democrat in
the darkest bour. England can look
down into Lancashire. rotten in lgnor.
ance; and if the people there rise up to
claim their share of the enjoyments Of
life, she need not care, because she says
81 have got the laws of the state in tne
hands ofthe middle classes and if that
man down there can handle spade or
work in mill, it is all l want of him
and if he ever raises his hand against
the state will put my cavalrymen into
the saddle and ride him down. The
man is nothing but tool to do certain
kind of work"
But when America looks down into 81
Lancashire, into the mines of Pennsyl-
vania, she saws literally, "Well, this
hand holds the ballot, and | cannot
afford to leave him down there in ignor,
ance." l admire democracy because il
takes bonds on wealth and power, that
they shall raise the masses. If they
don't do it there is no security, There
fore, on every great question turn IN
stantly to politics. 1t is the peoples
normal school it is the way to make
the brains of nation approach
the subject. Why, In 1851 or
1852, when l first approached
this question, you could c get an artl,
Gle on the labor movement in any news
paper or magazine, unless, indeed, there
was strike or something of that sort.
Now you cannot take up anv ofthe lead
ing newspapers or magazines without
finding them full of it; editors eat,
drink and sleep on it. The question is
80 broad. it has so many different chan
neIs, that it puzzles them. Even John
Stuart Mill has not attempted to cover
its whole breadth 1t takes IN every
thing.
Let me tell you why am interested
in the labor question. Not simply be-
cause of the long hours of labor not
simply because of a specific oppression
of class. l sYmpathize with the suf-
ferers there; l am ready to fight on
their side. But l look upon Christen-
dom, with its 3OO,OOO,OOO of people, and l
see that, out of this number of people,
100000 never had enough to eat.
Psychologists tell us that this bo ly of
OURS, unless it is properly fed, properly
developed, fed with rich blood and care
fully nourished, does no justice to the
brain. You cannot make bright or q
good man in a starving btdY; and SO
this one-third of the inhabitants of
Christendom, who have never had food
enough, can never be what they should
be. Now, | say that the social civiliza-
ton, which condemns every third man
in 1t to below the average in the nOur-
ishment God prepared for him, did not
come from above ; it came from below
and the sooner it goes down the better
Come on this side of the ocean. You
will find 40 900 600 Of people, and | sup
pose they are In the highe state Of ciy-
ilization, and yet it is not too much tc
say, that out of the 40,000,0O0, I0,0O0.00C
at least, who get up in the morning and
60 to bed at night, spent all theil
effort to get bread enough to live. They
have not enough elasticity left in mind OIL
body to do anything in the way of in
tellectual or moral progress.
take a man, for instance, in one oi
the manufacturing valleys of Conn ecti
cut. If YOU get into the cars there al
$50 clock in the morning, as l have
done, you will fud getting in at every
little station a score or more of labOring
men and women, with their dinner in a
pail, and they get out at some factory
that is already lighted up Go down the
same valley about 7:30 in the evening
and you will again see them going home
They must have got up about $50 they
are at their work nigh upon s O'Clock.
There is good, solid fourteen hours
Now, there will be strong, substantial
man, like Cobhett, for instance, who will
sit up nights studying, and who will be
a scholar at last among them, perhaps
but he is an expert. The average man,
nine out of ten, when he gets home a
night, does not care to read an article
from the North American, nor a long
speech from Charles Sumner. No; if Ee
can't have good story, and warn
supper, and glass of groG perhaps, he
goes off to bed. Now, l say that the
civilization that has produced this state
=