The Labor enquirer., 1888-03-03
SLAVES
We are q Poor. Miserable,
DisgustingIy Foolish
Lot.
WE'LL, WHAT'S FoBE DONE Z
There Can be but One Sensible
Answer-We Must Educate This
Oaly viii End Robbery.

Answsr-we Must Educate This
Oaly viii End Robbery.
For the ENQUIRER.
The laborers are a badly used
class. They toil, and smcil IN all
kinds of weather, and under all
adverse circumstances, and create
all wealth; and then get but Z
tithe Of what their labor produces.
And why7 Who is to blamel
They howl loud and lsng about
the injustice heaped upon them
by the other, the non-labor class,
the lords. But still who is to
blame7 Are the lords2 Who.
made the first lord7 Can you iml
agine lord without a slave1 And
which takes precedence in point
of time? / think the two must
have been born twins; and the
family of the slave grew ten times
faster than that of the lord. There
are more slaves than lords. This
being so, why don't the slaves
unite and dethrone the lords3
l will tell you. Because the
slaves-the laborers-the wealth
producers, are ignorant, improvi-
dent, vicious, avaricious and dis
honest. They all hope in time to
become lords. ! know a hundred
fne-looking, intellectual speci-
mems Of manhood working under
the direction of one man, who are
constantly complaining that they
are getting scarcely enough for
their labor to give them a poor
living. They live in novels or at
poor boarding-houses. The lord
lives in palace. He pays the
toilers out of the products Of their
own work, and yet has enough to
support his fine establishment.
| Well, who's to blame2 The
lord or the serf2 Is there one of
these serfs that would not willing
ly take the place of the lord7 As
long as this is true of the laborers,
as long as they are dishonest
enough'to become lords, and are
willing to be supported by some
others work besides their own, so
long will the great mass of the
work people be slaves.
The work people are starving,
physically, mentally and socially,
on the pittance, the IS per cent
they receive of the product of their
toll. Who's to blame that they
do not get the other s. per cent?
But if they did this there would
be no room for the lords7 They
too would be compelled to become
workers or starve.
! don't call in question the right
of any worker to make that dispo-
sition of the results of his labor
that best suits him. He may give
all the kernel and sweet of it to
another and live on the husks
himself, and | have no right to
kick. But he has no right to con-
spire with other laborers and a lot
of profigate lords to give up 81
per cent of his production, when
this abdication on his part involves
IN ruin my independence, my in
diyiduality and manhood.
The laboring people are a lot of
poor contemplate slaves, who
have but themselves to blame for
their servile condition, or, more
correctly, the false education
which has been imposed upon
them by church and State during
many past generations.
Really these institutions 1.-THE
church and the state) are and have
always been the spoilers of the
laboring people. They first robbed
them of their independence, their
selthood, their individuality, by
teaching them falsehood, that.
they may the better rob them of
the fruits of their toll.
Under these circumstances,
what's to be donea We must ed
ucate; we must educate the hearts
and brains of the toilers. We
must show them that to be true,
men and women each must have
the highest conception of the in
tegrity of his or her individuality.
That no one can demand or rem
der obedience without doing vio-
lence to the integrity of selfhood.
The true man or woman cannot
render allegiance nor do thew owe
it to any form of authority. Every
fellow who sets up the claim of
allegiance due, whether king or
emperor, god or devil, church or
state, IS tyrant, usurper, a rob-