Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-08-12

which made them seml-military tenant
serfs, without the means of self-employ-
ment, they became so degraded that
they were sold as part of the estates
where they were born, were forced to
live and die. Private land ownership
was so ruinous to the submissive popula-
tions OF the middle ages that all Europe
presented the most pitiahly miserable
spectacle Of abject slaves in beastly
ignorance, subject to pestilence and
famines, without comfortable food, shell
ter or clothing. Yes, Master Work.
man, the masses of People in all
the Kingdoms OF Europe made cringing
slaves, poorly fed, worse housed, living
in filth, and covered with vermin and
rags; from the tenth century till the dis
covery of America at the close of the 18th
century, which gave an outlet for and
profitable employment to surplus popu-
lation and liberated all the Christian
World. This gave encouragement to all
kinds of industries, creating new ones,
stimulating enterprises, and caused q
stream of emigration from all over Europe
to this country continued for more than
300 years, constantly increasing til! they
now number more than half million
souls year, without releaving the parent
countries; that have become again so
badly impoverished by private land
ownership upheld there by those mon
archal governments, notwithstanding the
great yearly exodus of working people,
that it has given rise to so many con-
spiracies in all these kingdoms to over
throw them, that immense standing ar
mics are employed, ostensibly "to keep
the peace of nations" but really to keep
the masses in subjection. So much so,
indeed, that it may be truly said that
one-half the people of Europe are made
slaves, who have to pay for keeping the
other half in arms, to oppress amp keep
themselves in condition of helpless
slavery, destitution and want
But l need not 60 out of our own great
country to find examples of destitution
cause by this devil-begotten hell-born
system of legal robbery-private land
ownership-that has aroused to sense
of our danger all the working people of
| this mighty nation, who are organizing
labor unions, land reform leagues, single
land tax clubs, holding mass meetings,
county, district and State conventions to
| give expression to their dissatisfaction
for, and their determined resolves to de-
stroy this vicious system of oppression
and they already have defiant litera-
ture that proves they are desperately in
| earnest.
They keynote of all which take from
the action of State convention, lately
held in Alabama, having delegates from
nearly all the counties, and resolving
with remarkable unanimity, that "We
aim at the abolition of q system that
compels men to pay their fellow-men for
the use of Gods gifts to all, and permit
monopolies that deprive labor of natural
opportunities for employment,
thereby filling the land with
tramps and paupers, causing an
unnatural competition, between working
men, that reduces wages to starvation" /"
Their discussions giving evidence of a
| thorough knowledge of this subject, an
honesty of their belief in its Justice, and
an earnestness of their purpose worthy OF
admiration and of our general example.
That the Unsuitable monster private land
ty of our people all over this great fertile
or doubt. Even now, before our public
opportunities for self-employment by ap-
/
timber are already extremely scarce
| Now" some ask. Yes, sir; now! At
the close of the first century of our ma
tional existence our lands are monopo-
llzed, and in the midst Of the most
abundant wealth, the most skilled me-
chanics utilizing steam and electricity,
multiplying human power thousand
fold, efecting the most rapid production
iNf oil ,prxo f,rI 10 i
ever knew, and with all general inde-
scribable suffering, destitution, degrada-
ton, deprivation want and crime pre-
vail to an alarming extent. In our large
cities the rapidly increasing numbers of
the poor are crowded in tenement houses
to suffocation, forced into degrading COM
petition with one another, depressing
wages below living rates; while all
our highways, from Canada to Mexico,
and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pa
cific, are teeming with men in the vain
search for employment, without homes,
friends, money or clothing; and many of
whom, it must be said to our national
disgrace, are on the verge of starvation,
with some good men under arrest upon
charges of vagrancy! The truth of these
assertions the late newspaper reports
abundanty attest. ''In the city of New
York, June 1st, there were 10000 work.
ingmen idle, many of whom are skilled
mechanics; 10000 girls and sewing
women driven to prostitution by want;
and as many more in the other large
| cities, making more than 200, 900 persons
out of employment in that one State"
"Pittsburg, July 10th-In Pennsylvania
there are more than 10000 persons
locked out from the iron factories and
coal mines alone" Same date: "Work-
ingmen are suffering greatly from want
of employment in st. Louis" Kansas
City-"There are too many idle men
here now" Minneapolis-"Our streets
are thronged with many idle men,"
Denver, Col.-"The labor market is
greatly stocked" adding as it's cause,
"and all our lands are COB
bled up" At Walla Walla, Seattle and
Tacoma, Washington Territory Portland,
Salem and Eugene, Ore., San Francisco,
Sacramento and Stockton, CAL, and all
other large cities on the Pacific Coast
similar conditions exist; and many sad
cases of destitution and suicide of both
sexes fill the daily reports, while there is
great depression Of wages and inforced
idleness of more than one-half of the res
ident workingmen in Los Angeles all
this summer, causing a condition of
want and privation never before wit
messed here and commercial traveller
who has made grand tour of all the
middle States to the extreme South and