Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1888-10-13

occupied IN making wealth for
others to profit by, A few of them
are bright enough to see that they
are imposed upon, and they spend
an evening or two in each month in
attending meetings of their fellow
kickers and talking up the situation.
And here's where labor politics be-
gins. These men have progressed so
far that they have formed societies
called unions and assemblies and
what not, for the very purpose of
beneftting and defending them
selves against the workings of the
system which makes them produce
goods and then get cheated out of
their productions. The wages they re-
ceive not being considered by them
sufficient to procure enough of the
goods they make at the prices the
employers and their agents offer
them, they actually have the assur-
ance to appoint committees and re-
quest more wages. If the employ
ers cannot find idle workers who are
skilled in the special business they
are engaged in, they give the work
ers who made the demand more
wages whenever they fear that their
little business may have to cease for
want of workers, for these union
men sometimes get mad and 90 on
strike; that is, they stop working.
But when they get their demand
they are satisfied for awhile, and the
employer sells the goods his men
make for him at higher price to
the wholesale merchant, who adds
the additional cost and good per-
centage additional to the price he
charges the retail merchant, who in
turn does the same with the con-
sumers, the working people, who
thus pay out as much more for the
necessarles of life as the increase in
their wages amounted to with the
merchants percentages added. Now,
that's a queer way of being smart,
isn't it? But it's the beginning of
politics, just the same. Alter lew
years of this sort of thing, and just
as the workers are beginning to
tumble to themselves" as the
newsboys have it, here comes the
presidential election, and "a lot of
men who seemed to be as stupid as
the stupidest begin to show signs of
exceeding shrewdness, and the work
ingmen gather around them and
listen to their sapent arguments,
which 90 to show that every one
can't expect to live on the fat of the
land, but that the workers would
not have to expend so much Of their
wages for commodities if Thingama-
jig or Thigamaree were elected to
the Office of President of the United
States. The subtlety of this reason
ing seems to penetrate the noddles
of the workers with force that is
astonishing, and when it is added
that Thingamajig says he is in favor
of permitting the employers and
merchants to import wares made by
the workers of Europe without pay
ing customs duty, one may well i'm
agine the benefits that may accrue
to the workers who can't afford to
pay their rent, let alone customs
duties. On the other hand, Thinga-
maree allows that the merchants and
employers should pay the President
of the United States and his en-
ployees a sort of fine every time they
purchase any goods made by the
people of other countries. This is
what Is called "protection" to Amer
lean Labor, IA technical term of no
special value except around election
time.
This is politics.
The workers who have formed
unions get to talking over these mat
ters, and the men they elect for
offices being very superior men, as
work ngmen 90, have a good deal to
say about free trade" and "protec-
ton" and about the excellent quail
ties of Thingamajig or Thingamaree,
according to the terms made with
their respective agents, or heelers,
as these people are euphoniously
called.
Well, opinion is divided, for work
ingmen have opinions when an elec
ton is imminent. Some incline to
the belief that their employers should