The Labor enquirer., 1886-08-21

administration-that th ey showed that
s5 cents from every dollar produced or
the average went to the proit-takine
classes, and that Is cents on the average
was the sum received bv the producing
class for having produced the whole
dollar. / said that this was wrong, and
that in the face of such condition OF
things we could expect nothing else but
poverty, but destitu ton, but want and
misery. / showed how under this sYs-
tenn that the workingmen of the United
States were really doing ten hours work
for two hours pay; that the employers
say to the men: You want to work
only eight hours. Do you mean to say
that we must pay you ten hours pay
for eight hours work?' 1 said: Gen
tlemen, fellow workmen, let US answer
these men and say and prove to them
by statistics of the United States census
that we are receiving now but two hours
pay for eight hours work, that that is
what the wages of the country on the
average represent. spoke of corpora
tions crowding the workingmen to the
wall, and summed it up in some such
words as these: Now, for years past the
associated press, manipulated by Jay
Gould and his infamous minions, have
been sowing the seeds of Revelation
These seeds thought could be summar-
lied about as follows:
"To deprive labor OF the ballot.
ITO substitute monarchy for the re-
public,
"To rob labor and then make poverty
a crime.
ITO deprive small families of their
land and then convert them into serfs
to serve huge landlordism.
"To teach labor that bread and water
are all that it needed
To throw bombs into crowds of
workingmen who were opposed to labor
for starvation wages.
ITO take the ballot bv force of arms
from the majority when it was against
the interests of corporations and of cap
ital.
'To put strychnlne upon the bread of
the poor.
ITO hang laboring men to lamp-posts
by a mob in the absence of testimony to
convict them.
"In fact, to drive the poor working
classes into mutlny against the laws, in
order to secure their punishment and
conviction afterward for it.
These threats and these diabolical
teachings | said had been openly and
boldly uttered by the great conspirac y
the solid associated press and monopo-
lies of this country, for years against the
liberties of the poor, and the workin G.
men of America were as sensitive to the
wrongs imposed upon them as the pos
SCISSOR of millions. l said that this was
the seed from which had sprung the
labor movement, and it was as natural
as cause and effect. I then called the
attention of the worklngmen present
and they appeared to be very much in
terested. l never saw a more quiet
orderly, interested crowd of men, and |
have spoken to great many in my life,
than was present on that occasion. |
then called their attention to the fact
that labor paid for everything aid all
the expenses of the government, of the
police, of the armies, of the judges, OF
congressman, of Legislators eyerything.
Labor paid it all. That l, as tenant
| used nv own case as an illustration
says l. Now, the landlord claims that
he pays the taxes. What are The facts
When paw him my rent l, in fact, pay
the taxes He claims that he makes the
repairs on the house, and paints it ny
and all these things. He does not do
any thing of the kind. He is simply nv
agent that looks after these things, when
l as Lis tenant pay for it all. So it is
with all tenants
II said that labor bears all the bur
dens but derives none of the benefits Of
our present civilization. | referred tc
the fact that it was through these
methods that the working people who
produced all the wealth and were KEEP
poor, and being poor they were ign GRANT
and that our school teachers had Yet
to learn the fact that thu need of the
people was more material force before il
would become possible for them to be,
come amenable to the influences of edu-
cation that ignorance was the result ol
poverty that iEtemperance was pro
duced by poverty, and for every mar
that was poor because he drank l coulC
show twenty men who drank because
thev were poor. said that this poverty
this discord, this commotion in th'
civilized world Was because of the dis
ease, the cramming of people away into
novels and dene unfit for animals t.
live in; it was the cause Of the death o
the young, of old age coming upon mid
die age, that it was the cause of crime
that poverty was at the root and at tn
bottom of war. of discord, and of strife
, and that this poverty was an artificial
unnatural poverty W hlch Socialism pro
HonoA "a rnn,oHu rrnS OF thi, ti,no o.