Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-07

! which, despite the fact that labor is the
| producer of all wealth. make the term
workingman synonymous with poor man.
"Since the question of chattel slavery was
| finally settled have acted with the Demo-
! cratic party in the hope that, dead issues
being buried, the living issue of industrial
slavery might come to the front. The time
has now arrived VIXEN the old party lines
have lost their meaning and old party cries
their power, and when men are ready to
turn their quarrels of the past TO grapple
with the questions of the present. The
party that shall do for the questions of in
dustrial slavery what the Republican party
did for the question of chattel slavery, must,
by whatever name it shall be known, be
workingman's party-a party that shall as
sert the principles Of Thomas Jefferson in
their application of the questions OF the
present day, and be Democratic IN aim as
well as in name.
at seems to me, moreover, that q fitting
and hopeful place for such n movement to
begin is in our municipalities, where we may
address ourselves to what lies nearest at
hand, and avoid dissensions that until the
process of economic education has gone
further, might divide on national issues.
The foundation of our system is in our local
governments.
Nor is there any part of our country in
which there is greater need of an earnest
effort to make politics mean more than
struggle for Office than in the city of New
York. In this great city, the metropolis of
the western hemisphere, municipal govern
ment has reached pitch of corruption that,
the world over, throws a slur and doubt
upon free institutions. Politics has become
Il trade, and the management of elections
business. The organizations that call them
selves political parties are little better than
ioint-stock companies for assessing candi-
dates and dividing public plumbers and even
judicial positions are virtually bought and
sold.
"a movement begun by the labor associa-
tions in this spirit and with these aims
would not be class movement. 1t would
be in reality movement of the masses
against the rule of the classes 1t would
draw strength from that great body of citi-
zens who, though not workingmen in the
narrow sense of the term, feel the bitterness
of the struggle for existence as much as
does the manual laborer and are as deeply
conscious of the corruption of our politics
and the wrongs of our social systom. In its
broad political sense the term 'workingman'
does not refer to particular occupations, but
divides those who have to work that others
may enjoy, from those who can appropriate
the produce of others work. There is and
there can be an idle class only where there
is disnherited class. Where all men stood
on an equality with regard to the use of the
earth and the enjoyment of the bounty of
their Creator, all men would belong to the
working class. He who will not work,
neither shall he eat is not merely the in
junction of the apostle, it is the mandate of
nature which yields wealth to labor, and to
labor alone.
"Feeling on these matters as l have said
my sense of duty would not permit me to
refuse any part assigned me by the common
consent of earnest men really bent upon
carrying into politics the principles hold
dear.