The Labor enquirer., 1888-01-14
X. \. 8. /.
An Interesting Mseting Desplts Jsek
Frost and The Beyesttsrs.

Notwithstanding the extreme
cold of Sunday night a good audi
ence gathered at Schradsky's hall
to listen to the socialists. After
song by the choir Comrade
Monroe entered into an address
which covered a vast scope ol
territory in the field of industrial
reform. Although Mr.. Monroe is
Of a family whose adherence to
presbyterianism can be traced
back into bygone genera
tions of American ancestors he
recognizes the hypocrisy in mod
ern religion.
IL can." said Mr.. Monroe,
hardly imagine that If Christ
came onto the earth to-day he
would recognize in the teachings
of the several churches the simple
and beautiful truths he taught to
tradesmen by the Sea of Gal
lilee or to the scribes and lawyers
and to to the bowling masses in
Jerusalem. The church of to-day
deriving its support from the
wealthy classes is mainly for them,
by them and of them"
referring to the eight-hour agi-
tation the speaker said that al
though it was weak and almost
silly. in itself, it embodied grand
and noble principle. The two
hours saved to the laborer would
give him a chance to relax his
muscles and cultivate his brain,
to make of himself something
more than a mere work animal.
Strikes were battles between the
producers and the robbers and
were decided by the game Of
freeze out. starve out, lock out.
Why should not organized labor
establish great farm or farms
and to furnish food for those who
now starve when on striker
We have no right to restrict i'm
migration or 10 prohibit a mans
coming here simply because we
got here first. All the arguments
in favor of restricting immigration
were based on selhshness.
Comrade Monroe showed the
inconsistency OF keeping out the
Chinaman who wants to come
here and work honestly and de-
velop the country while we allow
the foreigners from London and
Paris to take out of our country
hundreds of millions in interest
yearly and who never did an act
to make the country better, nor
added a cent to its value, or pro-
duced d penny'sworth of anything
useful.
Touching upon the railroad
question and their influence upon
the law-making power the speaker
said:
"Our congress is made up of
railroad officials and their attaches.
The judges in our principal courts
commonly receive a much larger
annual allowance from some cor
poration than their judgeship
pays. and with their executive
officers in strong sympathy with
these polluters OF politics, vio-
lators OF laws, and base poltroons
on whom their tenure OF office
really depends, there is little
chance for even regulating such
branch of commerce by law. For
how could we expect men whose
morals are at such low ebb to
make equitable laws which would
naturally deprive them of privi-
leges of robbing If executed"
Comrade George A. Sherman
followed with an excellent paper
in which he gave reasons why he
was a socialist. As a socialist he
did not pray in the generally ac-
cepted meaning of the term. But
he held that every word said in
the interest of humanity was a
prayer in ITSELF and in that man
ner he should pray as long as life
lasted.
The comrade said he for one
was in favor of demolishing re-
ligion il it consisted in preaching
eontentment to those who are
hungry and naked. That's the
o,ly lind of "relipion" found in