davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

freedom they mean equal freedom, There can be no other freedom, for when the law of equal freedom is vio- lated rights are infringed, and the one whose rights are infringed is not enjoy ing freedom. By the term free land we mean the removal of all restrictions, eX- cept those enjoined by the law of equal freedom, which restraints labor from us- ing land This is not hard to under stand, yet there are some apparently in teligent men who either cannot or do not desire to understand us
 Now, who shall decide where one mans freedom ends and another mans freedom begins? And who shall enforce the decision When these little questions are answered satisfactorily, perhaps the "appar- ently intelligent" may "catch on."
 A Buffalo newspaper thus speaks of the Centennial leahet published by the National Executive Con- mittee of the Socialist Party:
 "The national socialistic committee has issued an address bearing upon the celebration of the Washington inaugural centennial It points to various respects in which the ideals entertained by the founders of the republic have not been realized, and deprecates the prevailing tendency to suppress this side of the pie ture and to unduly emphasize the more obvious facts of increased population and wealth. The mere increase of wealth, the socialists insist, cannot be considered proof of genuine progress. The real test would be as to whether wealth distributes itself equitably; whether opportunities to acquire it are equally accessible to all, and whether or not there is danger of the introduction of class distinctions founded upon differ ences in wealth. It is upon the substan- tial economic independence of the citi- zen as well as upon his political inde- pendence that the true hope of people rests"
 The same paper calls this "belit- ting George Washington" Does it mean to say that the Socialists rise so superior to the illustrious "father of his country that he dwindles by comparison?
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
WHAT OTHERS SAY.

If people would and could be pre- sented with all the facts in disputes between capital and labor at one and the same time, there is every reason to believe that an impetus would be given to the labor movement by the different sentiment that would un- doubtedly prevail. But labor's side is always behindhand, and the opin- ion is formed before it's returns are in. There Is little hope of a change until the facilities for procuring news are in the hands of a just and impartial controller and a fair rate is established. The Government must control the telegraph, for the ideal would never be reached in a private corporation. - rrattSman.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

parts of the metropolis, against job- bery, pensions, and exorbltant salar- ies to big officials; and in favor of fair wages to all employees, public ity of its meetings, an extended suf- frage, and popular control of the pollce-all this, we say, shows a considerable advance on what wo expected from so bOurgeOiS body as the London County Council. This demonstrates the truth of the posi- tion we have always taken up, that it Is to the interests of Social-De mocracy to, as far as possible, secure a representation on administrative and legislative bodies. A minority, be it ever so small, if It has clear, definite principles and steadfast de- termination, can do much to mold the policy of the majority, the ma jority being generally composed of men with no clearly defined princi- ples, who are constantly influenced by the exigencies of the moment. We have Q minority on the London County Council, a very small mi nority, a minority of one, yet n one can deny that John Burns has done excellent work on that body, has greatly influenced it's action in a so- cialistlc direction, has, in fact, done far more than might have reason ably been expected of one man, to make of the County Council yer itable Commune for London. -LO,5- dOn Justice.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
JAMES EDWARD HALL.

The members of the Socialist Party have suffered the loss of a faithful comrade, and the cause of socialism an able advocate, by the death of James Edward Hall, of New York, which occurred on the morning of the 3d inst.
 The deceased was man of re- markable gentleness of manner, while yet bold and aggressive as an agitator for Socialism. A strict party man, contending for discipline and political action, he still found opportunity and took pleasure in seeking out from among his acquain- tances such as promised to become useful in propagatlng soclallstic truths, and thus made the best use of his good influence for the cause he loved so well.
 He bore his long illness with for titude, and was continually think ing of the cause of the proletarians while OL his sick bed, even writing for their enlightenment and encOur- lgement when every eXertion brought on the hectic fever. Death had no terrors for him; his only regret being that he could not continue his existence for the sake of what he might accomplish for socialism.
 His memory will ever be cher ished by those who knew him, and the Socialist Party will ever honor him for his steadfast loyalty to their organization, and the grand cause which moves men to regard their own private affairs as of little mo- ment when the common interest is at stake. Such man was our departed Comrade Hall.
 We honor his memory.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
PUBLICATION NOTICES

THE NATIONALIST is the name of d new 32-page monthly magazine pub lished at 9 Hamilton Place, Boston, in the interest of standardization of indus try and the brotherhood of humanity Among the contributors in the current number are Edward Bellamy, the au thor of Looking Backward" Col T. w. Higginson, Gen. Arthur F. Dever- euX, and Sylvester Baxter. While to Socialists the ideas presented. by The Nationalist are "conquered stand point" its usefulness in the socialist movement will undoubtedly he consid- eTable.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
HOW IT WORKS IN LONDON

Hitherto the work of the London County Council has afforded us con siderable qualification. The Slde which the majority has taken with regard to most of the business which has come before the Council has been a most agreeable d,sappoint- ment to us. The votes against sweating, against monopoly com panies, against the obstruction to public convenience caused by the bars and gates that are maintained by privileged individuals in certain
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
TRADE UNIONS.

According to the figures for the year ending December 3lst, 1887, which have been returned by 203 out of a total of 288 societies in England, Scotland and Ireland, these 203 societies, which comprise all the larger ones, have a member ship of 3j6, ,4l6, with an annual in come of f122,8l2 (40s, I'd. per head), while their funds amounted to tS0G,22S tor 34s. per head). Regarded merely as benefit societies these figures are scarcely reassuring, while those workers who have been accustomed to look upon the trade unions as their stronghold, their buIwark against capitalist oppres- sion, must confess that as fighting organizations they are feebly manned and i'll equipped with the snews of war. Strikes are the weapons on the efficacy of which the trade unions repose, and their suc- cess is dependent on the length of time supplies hold out, and the in- ability of employers to find work men outside the ranks of unionists. Looking at these figures, the utter inadequacy of trade unions as means to safeguard the rights of labor is apparent to all. -LoHdI q Justice.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

Henry C. LOchrO0d.
 While the people of the United States have a quas5 republican form of government, they are retarded in their political advancement by a senatorial as well as by a presiden- tial system; while they have no es- tablshed church to support, church property Is not taxed, religious laws deface the statute books, and most of the State Constitutions have re- ligious preambles, in direct violation of the spirit of the United States Constitution; while they have no nobility, there is strong tendency towards moneyed aristocracy; while they have laws the working of which distributes the title of land, and in- duces landowners to cultivate and improve their possessions, there are immense grants of land made to the subsidized corporations of the coun- try; while they have universal suf- frage, the closed or secret ballot opens the door to stupendous frauds, and, in many instances, places the political trickster in a position to defeat the voice of the people, as in the South, where four millions of blacks are virtually denied the right to exercise the privilege of voting at all. The various defects in our general system of laws must be remedied without delay, or they will multiply and develop as the wealth and population of the country in- crease. For example, the greater the number of small States that are created, the more extensive will be the Acknowledgement of the people on the basis of representation, and the greater will be the inequalities growing out of the mode of choosing the President.
 The States pass thelr own laws on all subjects of commercial law, and their separate Courts interpret the same. The courts are continually called upon to decide numerous ls- sues, arising out of our complicated inter State relations. The follow ing are a few of the mooted ques- tions: The correlation of govern ment; citizenship and allegiance; stability of States; interstate right of suit; equity jurisdiction and practice; law of contracts; proof of records; insolyent discharge by State courts; legal status of persons; commerce; marriage and divorce, and interstate validity thereof. The confusion which follows the natural conflict of these laws and authorities acts as tax on the peo- pie. The separate State govern ments, existing under the General Government, have been the prolific source of sectional strife, dIssension and civil war.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11


 Nationalism? ," contained in the first number of IHe Nationalist, just re- celved, Sylvester Baxter says;
 "The service rendered by private en, terprise, though only existing because of the public demand has the benefit of the public only incidentally; the main consideration being the largest possible profit to those concerned in providing the service, and the accommodation of the public being limited accordingly. A case in point A telephone company and an electric railway company are in conflict over the interference of the wires with one system over those of the other. Each is looking out for it's own interest, and neither cares straw how much harm it's own operations may work to the other. But the public, which is served by them both, does care, and suffers greatly by the conflict Inn agiue this same conflict extended al.d going on between all the diverse inter ests of this couhtry, and "e have a cor rect picture of the present condition of things With all this friction, is it any wonder that the machine works pain fully:
 But let the public authority take the telephone and the railway in charge, as has already been done in some autli- cirntly enlightened countries, and opcr- ate them solely for the benefit of the public they were designed to serve, in- stead of for the profit of d few lndiyid- uas or sets of individuals. and how long would the clash of interests last; Con. tests would still gO on between the va rlou, private interests outside, but they would never break out between the ser vices rendered for the public hy the l public.
 The tendency Is now strongly towards public control; no hard and fast line can be drawn through the classes of service that should he public and those that should remain in private hands. and any attempt to define the difference k futile. As the benefits coming from public con. trol will bc manifest more and more plainly while service after service is drawn in, the movement will be arcpler. ated in response to popular demand.
 The result will be that eventually all industrial services will be assumed hy the uation-performed by the rcoplr for the people. The economic gain from the avoidance of the waste of Compcti ton winch will thus ensue Is plainly evident; and from an ethical point ot view no one can deny the superior moral of conduct when men, througl an rnligteued self-interest. perceive how much better the individual flares wher each works for the good of all, and con seVuently for the good of each, instead ot each for himself and a&alu>t al others and therefore against hlmsel also through the antagonlsm from al the others working aiso with ,eltj>l motives.
 The course of evolution k in a spiral from the simple. through the complex and back To the perfected sin,ph1,y Q d higher grade. This k shown m In development of human society. Whel man rose through sayaEery. drlue, in the hard school of competition. aui finally settled down into towns, Twin by tiliiuE the ground, the first degree il } his progress under Natlonalism WAS al , tained. Through voluntary c5-opera ton, great irrlEatinZ canals Were huil in the desert, fields were cultivated
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
MAY II, 1889.
ARE THEY UNTHANkFUl?

FNih@ ' L. V " lFNININI U l.
 Now and again we hear of the in- gratitude of workingmen towards leaders, and of the sacrifices made by those leaders for the sake of the lngrates.
 We have never been particularly struck with the alleged ingratitudo of working people, any more than with the alleged sacrifices of the lcadcre.
 A man ultimately does that which gives him the most pleasure within the bounds of possibility. And while there are instances of seem lngly absolute sclf-abnegation, they are not more frequently prominent among those engaged in the labor movement than among thousands of others.
 We know of man who, having no ability in that line, believes it Is his mission to write articles on pollt- ical science -- all for the cause. Possibly he may develop such an ability lD time, but until he sue cecds in doing something worthy of attention his phIlanthroplc heart and ambitious head will remain in the background, and he may even come to think that he is neglected because of his really good intentions. The NeWSHi0h publishes an art- cle from the pen of Henry Apple ton, which treats of tho labor press and the trials and sorrows of the men connected thcrcwith. Here is case III pOlnt
 "Anothcr Laoor Standard, formerly published in Fall River, carried on a heroic life and death struggle with $l00,- 100000 of capital. The editor had q large family. and had formerly been an operative in one of the mills. The first rlIse of the cruel mill owners was to buy him of, This not succeeding if was at tempted to frghten him off.
 This also failed. The next expedi- ent was to strangIe him iu the courts with libel suits, but in spite of all that could be done some of the operatives al ways got onto the jury, and could not be shaken, Finally, all other means failing, lt was sought tu blackeu his character, bribc his wife tO turn against him, and iu the divorce suit that was manufactured t0 give him such char acter as would get his subscribers away This last conspiracy succeeded and tht poor fellow was Obhged to surrender after hunger, anxiety and terrible struggle to live for many months. h the last struggle he cried out plteousy to the operatives tO support his paper but they saw him go down with hi, family broken upand himself left penni less. If this man has since gone over {, the enemy, as some now ayOw, wht shall judge him harshly, seeing tha workingmen so often desert their owl tried friends ;'
 This is certainly d hcart-rendin! case, and no doubt the effect of <, much trouble may have made pes simist of the "labor editor.' Bu he only came to the same conclusion that his unapprcciatiyc " constitu ents did before him-that he wa not success as a "labor editor. He had acted without counting tn cost, for 1t Is unreasonable 10 SUI pose that he calculated upon sue utter rum. of course tte r,anne of his persecution was somcthin extraordinary, but that cannot laid at the door of the working pc( pie.
 A hundred laoor papers have gou to the wall because they were nc
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

to assume, however, that by far the greater portion of those papers were really started as private business en- terpriscs by incapable or unbuslness- like men for business purposes, and it is a cowardly excuse for them to accuse the working people of ingrat itude when they fail by reason of their own incompetence or want of business foresight.
 Then there were other proprlotors of "labor papers who, finding that they were not sufficiently appreci- ated and supported by the class they pretended to serve, turned their papers and whatever talent they possessed over to the service of the capitalists. Surely the working peo- pie have nothing to thank them for. If these free lances were sincere, they would rather have killed their papers than permit them to fall into the hands of capitalists; and there are several instances of such honest action on the part of capable and honest editOrs-J0hn SwintOn and Brunette G. Haskell, for example.
 There were still others who, while they still pretend to speak for the working classes, have 80 watered their "prlnciples' that one would hardly recognize these sheets to-day as "labor papers. They still live, but their main business is that of advertising, and in order to hold that, they feel compelled to beware how they offend their patrons.
 Are advertisers more grateful than workingmen? No; but they adyer- tlse because they expect q return. They find that the paper Is useful to them, and they use it and pay for 1t. If the workingmen perceived any benefit from such papers, they, too, would pay for the privilege of read ing them. They buy other papers and support the mouthpieces of their enemies because they find them en- tertalnlng or instructive. Now, there are labor papers which are nei ther, and their entire suspension or conversion into capitalist sheets is only a matter of time. For the efforts of the proprictors of such papers the working people have no cause to be thankful.
 And 80 with labor organizers and agitators. They may be perfectly honest and conscientious, but if the results of thelr agitation are not beneficial, if, after years of agitation, they have not so much as instilled into the minds of the workers a single idea which, upon iuvcstIga- ton, contains real merit, their good intentions will avail nothing.
 No, we cannot agree with those who 8weepingIy denounce the work ing people as ungrateful. We have l in mind the case of our late com rade, ]. Edward Hall. He was not appreciated by some of the working men he cssayed to serve, and for whom he sacrificed most of his time and talents; but on the other hand he was appreciated by thousands of workers to the extent of winning their respect, and by many others who, when they knew of his illness and hclplcSsncss, gladly contributed from their scanty earnings for his
 benefit But even if Comrade Ha.'
 had not received cent, he would
 not have complained, for he vel
 knew the condition of the people ht
 co-oporatcd with, and he knew also
 that there were many more besides
 himself who had equal right {,
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

The organization of Socialists for extended political action should be pushed in every State ill the Union.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

NOTES.
 We welcome 7He Nati0ualtst to our exchange table. May it flourish and Spread the light among the American people. It's advent is one of the significant signs of the times. While President Harrison and other great" men were celebrating a portion of the Centennial at St. Paul's Church, sitting in "Wash- lngton s pew, they had to listen to sermon by Bishop Potter in which he said: "We have lost the dignity of Washington and the simplicity of Jetferson-and what have we in their place ?' He didn't answer the question, but Harrison and his pom pous following were sufficient answer.
 The editor of the WORKMENs ADvO. CATE seems to think that there is no law of equal freedom. Equal lib erty asks nothing but gives everything. To couple her with compulsory taxation the State-is impossible, ,-Denrer Ar btrdtor.
 Never mind what ye editor "seems to think" about alleged laws of al- legged conditions. Just buckle your self right down and deliberately read the Socialist Platform down to the word "Demands.' Keep cool. Start out with the known. Contine your premises to facts. Consider what means you have available. i What has "eQual liberty' given you? What is "equal liberty" any way? Who attempts to couple "cqual iberty' with compulsory taxation; Is compulsory taxation the Statc2 What are you going to do abOut it.
 The English socialists are about to make an experiment in practical social ism. The Social Cooperation Fedora ton intends to open stores in London where the hours of labor will be eight daily, and at least trade union wages will be paid. The profits are to be wholly devoted to securing to the work CTS the full result of their labors, which in the first instance will he the eight hours working day, because business being commenced with the modest capi- tai of tl0O it will be necessary to some what widen the operation by means of earned money.-i)ctrot Adrace.
 The above item Is founded upon fact; but there are two points that need correction In the first place the experiment is not socialism, and in the second place it IS not practi- cal from a socialist point of view. The English Socialists have, how ever, done some practical work: They have elected Comrade John
 Burns to the London County Coun- cil. When that body becomes so. cialjstic we'll hear of some more practical socialism.
 We don't pretend to guess at tn, politics or religion of the writer O , the following lines in the Denver ? Arbitrator, but they are certainly a ! glib as they are nebuIous;
 Some people seem to think when . person uses the term freedom that h, | l means unlimited freedom. There is nt . such thing as unlimited freedom. Ont . mans freedom ends where another's be { ! gins. When the believers in uatura , ] law and natural liberty use tn" tern
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11

We welcome 7He Nati0naliSt to our exchange table. May it flourish and Spread the light" among the American people. It's advent is one of the significant signs of the times.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
JOUR COUNTRY"

From "Abolition of the Presidency by
 Henry C. LOchlCOOd.
Workmen's advocate., 1889-05-11
IT IS SOClALISTIC.

In an article entitled "What is Nationalism? ," contained in the first number of The NatlOnalist, just re- Celved, Sylvester Baxter says;
Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-08-09
The Oldest Living Man.

The Oldest living man in the civilized
world is living at Barez, Hungary. HIS
name is Macy Ferenz. He was born one
year before Napoleon Bonaparte, and Is
therefore one hundred and twenty-one
wears of age. The date of his birth Is
well established BY local history and the
events of his lite Ferenz is peasant,
and when the first great coalition of the
European powers were formed against re
publican France, in 1893, he enlisted in the
Austrian army, and served continuously
for twenty years. passing through all the
great wars of the Napoleonic era. He
was present at Marengo, Austerlitz, Wa
gram and Leipsic, and opposed the little
Corsican from Montenotte to Waterloo.
Things have changed a great deal since
Macy was a boy. His native empire,
Austria. has gone down considerably in
public estimation. and the map of Europe
has been changed many times. France
was Kingdom when he was born, and
since then it has been three times a repub-
lie, twice an empire and kingdom again.
The multitude of great events which have
been crowded into his lifetime require
many histories to tell.-LOndOR Times.
Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-08-09

All our readers visiting Eull''
will do we'll 10 "a to sam J"rdHn' ~
restaura ut inr their mcals W" serve
lunches, soft drinks. inharco aud
cigars. No. (, :. Main ST., under
Schneideman's clothing store