Workmen's advocate., 1886-11-28
LABOR AND LAW. GEORGE MANSFlELO'S RE-
 VIEW OF THE SITUATION.
What Capitalists Loyc-Bad For W0rkingmCm Reserve Force of ldlers-i'he People The
 State and The State
 Sovereign.

The country has just passed through an exciting National Con- gresslonal election. Yet the labor problem has not entered into the contest at all so far as the "demo- cratic" and republican, parties are concerned. There are one million persons out of work in the United States. Abundant evidence of this fact is everywhere seen in the thous- ands of men that are everywhere to be found, ready to take the place of strikers when or wherever strike takes place. And capitalist manu- lecturers and cXploiters of labor gen erally love to have it so. They de- ny that there is any labor problem to be solved; or that labor has any just cause of complaint. They tell you that your condition is no worse, nor yet as bad as that of the tolling millions of the old world. and it IS your duty to be content in that state of life to which it has pleased God to call you A statement of very ques- tionable divinity and smacking very strongly of rank blasphemy, Wheth- CT uttered in jest or in earnest makes no difference, US they pride them selves upon their lordly superiority just the same when making it. The millions He hath doomed to servi- Jude and the sinister, grasplng un- scrupulous few He hath appointed to enforce the hellish degree. How it warns up our souls in songs of praise and thanksgiving as we think of it and what exalted views 1t gives us of the divine economy
 They even deny your right to combine or organize for mutual pro- lection.
 One manufacturer in Massachu- setts has standing offer posted on the walls of his factory of ten dollars for the discovery of q Knight of La Dor on his premises. Some of the States have conspiracy laws making 1t a criminal offence for a half-dozen employees to unite together to con cert measures to defeat the vile, sin istcr machlnatlons of the bosses. Armour, of Chicago, and the syndi- cate of pork packers with which he is associated, demand of every em- ployc hls signature to an agreement to give fortnight's notice before leaving his employ, and that one or two dollars per week from every mans wages shall be left in hls hands until he has sum equal to fifty dollars per capita on each person in his employ, to be forfeited Tn case of noncompliance with agreement as he shall construe the meaning there of; and as there are Il million idle persons in the United States whose necessities will compel majority of them to sign anything to obtain work at Q mere subsistence wage, don't see but that Armour holds the winning cards in his hands.
 Now, then, the retention of fifty dollars per man would make $2j, ,0OO on the employment of j,0O0 men. A sum not to be desplsed ill starting a little buslness-Eh? But this IS a mere bagatelle compared to the millions that are annually wrung from the toilers of these killing and pork 1 packing establishments. Now, then, as the government of the United States was organized 'to establish 1 justice, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and postcrity," how long will it be before the people in their sovereign capacity will be able to say to these exploiters of labor through their State legislature: ''This robbery has got to stop, and the manufacturing, carrying and busi- ness enterprises of the State have got to be run on cooperative princi- pies with an equitable division oi the value of the proceeds among the toilers thereof, or the State will take