Workmen's advocate., 1889-06-22

dent to orders as will prevent the "wheels of industry" from turning. Now, the present condition of organ iled labor. as near as can be gathered | from all sources, is that about a million or million and a half workers are or ganizcd in trades unions. etc. Outside of these there are probably fifteen to twenty million workers who are not members of any labor union. Admit- | ting that some of these would be com. pcled by d strike of all the organized workers to cease work, there would still remain, subject to the commands of Capital large majority of the workers, not to say anything of "CapjtaIs re- serve army" the hungry unemployed.
 Then it must be borne in mind if it i. argued that competition will compel the employers to keep their factories run ming, that if it comes to d serious con- test, with the organized capitalists on one side and the organized Iaborcrs on the othrr that the capitalists may 'pUol their issues. and with the wealth already possessed by them-the wealth that has been wrung from the laborers-they can stand d longer siege than their poor opponents.
 If in desperation it is argued that the workers might he driven to the use of physical force, history and these self same workers own acts will proclaim the futIity of such an idea. The very men who have assisted by their votes to place in power the nominees of the "repuhlican' and "dcmOCratiC' parties will be ruthlessly shot down if they at tempt agg gress sive measures. And all this under and according to statute law
 But the advocates of the eight-hour work-day, which it is proposed to en- force on and after the first day of May, 1890, have decided to agitate for their cause, and have designated as one of the days of special agitation, the Fourth of July. They have decided that great mass meetings should be held, so that the people may become edu' cated" upon this subject
 Let us admit that thousands will come to see that there would be an advantage in the general introduction of an eight
 hour work day. To this extent the agi tation of the great mass-meetings would
 be d success, But more than this would be necessary to bring the object of thi,
 agitation about. The people must bt
 "educated" as to the method to be used but no word of how the eight-h0ul movement is to be made a success is sub :, mitted, except to hold mass-meetings. l How much of criterion of public
 sentiment and public education mass meetings are, was shown by the result , of the agitation in Chicago in 1886
 When the time for action came tht
 masses were not there, and a few agi
 tators, more persistent than the rest were sacrificed on the sCaifold after
 farce of a trial. Or, if another eXampI ~ is needed of the unreliability of the aT
 parent sentiment of mass-meetings, le
 us remember New Works 6S ,000, wh
 voted on the strength of mass-meotins sentiment, and scattered again whe e the CloNeh hool oi one "ell-duNottiSe ,. individual showed itself, while it's owne ,o scampered over the backs of the wildl '. hurrahing masses into the favor ( ,r the democratic party managers wh ,+ used him and his nostrum to hel "elect' Cleveland. The fact that al
 other tool of capitalism was made Pres :, dent of the United States signifies notl ,. ing more than that the democrats
 placed too much value upon the