Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-01-14

than there are rich. Why should
the rich control? Why should not
the laborers combine for the purpose
of controlling the executive, the leg
islative and judicial departments?
Will they ever find how powerful
they are? A cry comes from the
oppressed, from the hungry, from
the -trodden, from the unfort-
innate, from the despised, from men
who despair and from women who
weep. There are times when mend
icants become revolutionists when
rag becomes banner, under which
the nobest and bravest battle for
right.
How are we to settle the unequal
contest between men and machines?
Will the machine finally 60 into part
nership with the laborer? Can these
forces of nature be controlled for the
benefit Of her suffering children 2
Will extravagapce keep pace with
ingenuity? Will the workmen be-
come intelligent enough and strong
enough to be the owners of the ma
chimes? Will these giants, these
Titans, shorten or lengthen the
hours of labor? Will they give leis-
urc to the industrious, or will they
make the rich richer and the poor
poorer? Is man involved in the
general scheme" of things? Is
there no pity, no mercy? Can man
become intelligent enough to be gen.
erous, to be just; or does the same
law or fact control him as controls
the animal and vegetable world !?
The great oak steals the sunlight
from the smaller trees. The strong
animals devour the weak-everything
eating something else-everything
at the mercy Of the beak, and claw,
and hoof, and tooth-of hand and
club, of brain and greed-inequality,
injustice everywhere. The poor
horse standing in the street with his
dray, over-workod, over whipped and
under-fed, when he sees other horses
groomed 70 mirrors, glittering with
gold and silver, scorning with proud
feet the very earth, probably INDUCES
in the usual socialistic reflections,
and this same horse, worn out and
old, deserted 10y his master, turned
into the dusty road, leans his head
on the topmost rail, looks at DON
keys in a field of clover, and feels
like a Nihilst.
In the days of slavery the strong
devoured the actually ate
their flesh. In spite of all the laws
that man has made, in spite of all
advances in science, the strong, the
cunning, the heartless, still live on
the weak, the unfortunate and fool
ish. True, they do not eat their
flesh or drink their blood, but they
live on their labor, on their denial,
their WEAKNESS and want. The poor
man who deforms himself by toll,
who labors for wife and child through
all his anxious. barren, wasted life
who goes to the grave without ever
having had one luxury-has been
the food Of others. He has been de-
voured by his fellow-men. The
poor woman living in the bare and
lonely room, cheerless and freless,
sewing night and day to keep starva-
ton from a child, is slow y being
eaten by her fellow-men. When |
take into consideration the agony of
civilized life-the failures, the pov-
erty, the anxiety, the tears, the with
cred hopes, the bitter realities, the
hunger, the crime, the humiliation,
the shame-I am almost forced to
say that cannibalism, after all, is the
most merciful form in which man
has ever lived upon his fellow man.
1t is impossible for man with a
good heart to be satisfied with this
world as it is now. No man can
truly enjoy even what he earns
what he knows to be his own-know-
ing that millions of his fellow-men
are in misery and want. When we
think of the famished, we feel that
it is almost heartless to eat. To
meet the ragged and shivering makes
one almost ashamed to be we'll
dressed and warm-one feels as
though his heart was as cold as their
bodies.
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