Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-07-20
THE BASTILLE.
SOCIALIST CELEBRATION IN
NEW YORK.
A Great Meeting of Wage Workers in
Cooper Union - Speeches by
Schaidcr, Pentecost and
Sheyitch - Evolution
or Revolution.

The great hall of the Cooper Union
enthusiastic audience, assembled to
commemorate the centennial anniver-
sary of the French Revolution. Ten
red silk banners hung at the back of the
stage, and above them was draped the
French tricolor. The banners were
contributed by the Framers, Walters,
Brewers, Bricklayers' Union No. II,
Carpenters Union No. 4, the Railing
and Furniture Makers and the Scandi-
navian Section and the New York Sec
tions of the Socialist Labor Party.
combil I'd orchestra was supplied by the
Carl Ss.hm and Vorwaerts Clubs, and
its energetic rendering of the Marseil-
laise and other patriotic airs were re
ceived with prolonged applause. At s
p. m. the meeting was called to order
Francis Schaider, of the American Sec
ton, was elected chairman, and made a
short but effective speech, in the course
of which he said:
With the successful attack upon the
Bastille in Paris the monumental evi
dence of tyranny and despotism, of
darkness and slavery-the past-the age
of feudallsm, ignorance and superstition
suddenly came to a termination, and
new era, the era of battles for the rights
of men, was inaugurated. We are here
1ol tD 4f
and to demonstrate that we are con-
scious not only of its Importance, bit of
the task it has left us to perform. The
battle continues in our time and we are
to-day forcibly reminded of our duty.
The misery of the masses has in no way
been alleviated, although the intellect
ual progress. since the great French
revolution has given mankind the use
of mighty forces in the production of
wealth. In the midst of plenty and
with facilities for producing infinite
abundance, the masses of the people are
suffering untold privatiOns, because a
handful of individuals control those
forces and deny their fellows free access
to them. Precisely the same conditions
that led to the great upheaval in
France are now prevailing here. The
vultures of that time, with incredible
heartlessness, cornered the neCessaries
of life in days of scarcity. Thus was at
last an outraged people, held in bond
age for centuries, nerved by desperation
to the conquest of liberty. Are not the
lessons of that great period ignored by
the vultures of our day? Aye, the new
order has evolved another form Of slav-
ery-the wage system; but this, in the
light of modern knowledge, must soon
disappear, and give way to cooperation
under the intelligent and constructive
forces of Socialism. By realizing the
great duties imposed upon us and acting
according y let us prove worthy of our
great predecessors.
The chairman then introduced the
Rev. Hugh o. Pentecost, who said in
substance;
am not Socialist or revolutionist,
though there is no disgrace to the name
of Socialist. If / were Socialist
would be proud to bear that name. do
not believe in fighting. | believe in
peace, almost to the point of non-resst-
ance. | have seen force so Internally
used by governments and the police that
l don't believe in it.
don't believe in kings or councils or
in parliaments. | don't believe in up
holding governments by force, yet
every government is upheld by force
alone, and the time comes when the
people do rise and overthrow govern
ments. To free the slaves in America
by giving up 1000, 600 lives, and by do
ing that to establish white slavery, was
the worst possible wrong.
| don't believe in the French revOlu-
ton. Yet believe some good came out
of it. Why do | speak to you, then
Because you are discontented and have
a right to be discontented. 1t looks as
though the masses are robbed out of
that which they produHe, and we know
that there is being formed here a sharp
distinction between the classes, as in the
French revolution. We have got to
understand that the laws are made to
make one man rich and another man a
pauper before we will know how to
change the condition of things. The dis
parity is 81 great that the result will be
slavery or another revolution. Let us
hope that remedy will be found before
that time comes,
There are signs of forceful revolu.
ton in this country. In Braidwood, Ill.
children died of hunger in a strike re.
Gently, and the parents hadn't the man