Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-08-17
THE LABOR CONGRESS.
What Good it Did-TeXt of Import,
ant Resolutions.


ut was difficult now and then to keep
400 men of different nationalities III
order, difficulty complicated by the
fact that all speeches had to be translated
into English, French and German, and
that even then some of the delegates, as
the Swedes and Portuguese, did not
perfectly understand them.
"No matter, despite the difficulties of
different speech, much practical good
was done by the Congress.
"Nlen who had read of one another
met and talked and smoked together.
National angularities were smoothed
off and torn down. The German and
French fraternized. They saw that not
they, but their governments were enc
mics; they parted mutually satisfied,
and with the feeling that there was
nothing ntrinsically bad in a French
man or a German. The English trade
unionists gave organizing power, the
Italians sincerity and fire, the Germans
steadiness, and the French independence
of character.
"Whilst we felt that as to hours and
wages the Englishmen had decidedly
the best of it, still it was equally unde-
niable that the Germans were far bet
ter educated, and that the French sur
passed both in a certain real Republi-
canism not the cheqp Republicanism of
man who, being a rough, uncultured
oat, insists on dragging all down to his
level, rude to his equals, brutal to his
interiors, and subservient to his supe
riors, but frank, genial air of being a
citizen of his own country, a determina-
tion to treat all Civilly and be treated
in the same manner himself, which in
my mind places the French workman tat
least in my eyes in the first rank So
cialIy, if only second economically, of
the workers of the world. Perhaps it
is the consciousness that his fathers
have fought for liberty, and that he
himself is prepared to do the same if he
is forced to do it, that gives this air and
bearing.
above all the Congress has done
this: The vague feeling of discomfort,
born of overwork and fOstered by in
creasing education and better capablli-
ties of studying economic problems, has
taken a definite and concrete shape.
Certain reasonable and definite demands
have been formulated, and it now rests
with the various governments of Eu-
rope to endeavOr to see these reforms
carried into effect, or, if they cannot do
so, to make way tor government COM
posed of WOrklngmen, TO whom the
iargon of Liberals and Conservatives,
Moderates, ProgreSsiyes and Reaction
aries are of as little consequence as is
the noise of water running out Of a
bottle.
1.-The Congress has shown that a work
man i, a workman the world over. and
that whether in Portugal or in Den
mark, he suffers chiefly from three
things-over work, under-pay and the
tyranny of his employers; the moral of
which is that he should combine inter
nationally, and endeavor to free himself
from the rule of the middle class,
no matter whether it takes the form of
Conservative reaction and force as in
Germany, or Liberal hypocrisy and
fraud as III England"
Here is the text of several important
resolutions adopted by the Marxist
Congress:
WAR AND STANDING ARMIES
Whereas, The standing armies OF
European countries, which cost the
people of Europe more than four thou
sand millions a year, are running oui
countries under the pretence of protect
ing them, and are maintained rather
as the bulwark Of the privileged class
against the prOetariat within each cOun-
try than against the enemy without;
Whereas, By the ever-increasing bur
dens imposed upon the people for theil
maintenance, the armies bring about
intolerable conditions in every country
and thus inevitably lead to war as the
only escape out of these conditions;
The Congress denounces the inclina
ton for war manifested by the desperate
governments of Europe; declares peace
te be the first and indispensable condi
ton for the emancipation of the work
ers. and demands the abolition OF
landing armies, and in their place be
neral arming of the people on the fol
lowing basis:
The army is nothing but a schoo
which is entered by every able bodied
citizen for such time as Is absolutely
necess AIRY for his military education
The ,nen who have gone through this
school are organized locally, so thai
each district or city has its company
composed of citizens acquainted will
one another and equipped and prepared
on twenty-four hours notice to be ready
for marching, having, as in Switzerland,
their arms and outfit at home to be useC
in defence of the liberties of the peo
pie and the safety of the country.
SWISS CONFERENCE.
The Congress calls upon alliabor or
ganizations and Socialist parties of al
countries Immediately to take steps tt
induce their governments