Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-04-05


time comes, unless it brings reforma-
ton, it will bring revolution"
Does this look as if we were living i'm
a free country
And Henry Ward Beecher was no.
great friend to the workingmen.
A horse may be worth hundred dol
lars or less to his owner, yet he will be
well taken care of by the latter; he will
be well fed, well housed, not overworked
as rule, and well attended when sick,
but working man is treated quite diff
ferently. He is worked to death, given
starvation wages and kicked out of doors
when unable to work. Working people
in this respect are worse off than slaves,
worse off than beasts.
Now, where does liberty come in?
Every now and then we hear of peace
able citizens and inoffensive women
dubbed, insulted, maltreated by intoxi-
Gated police-bullies and what redress
do they get when they apply to the
police commissioners or to the police
courts?
How about that army of Pinkerton
thugs who shoot people down with inn
punity? They, indeed, have liberty, but
what Of their innocent victims?
Our daily press brings out such flag
rant cases only once in while when it
cannot well be helped; how many police
outrages police 'mistakes"-are not
hushed up and suppressed?
Herbert Spencer, when asked what
struck him most forcibly in our country,
replied: "The Indifference of the Ameri-
can people to their liberty"
Daniel Webster said: 81 liberty can
not long endure in any country where
the tendency of Legislation is to concen-
trate wealth in the hands of few.
Abraham Lincoln recognized the dan
ger which threatened our institutions.
In one of his addresses he said There
is one point to which ask attention.: It
is the effort to place capital on an equal
footing with if not above labor, in the
structure Of the government. bid the
laboring people beware of surrendering
power which they already possess, and
which, when surrendered, will surely be
used to close the door of advancement
to such as they, and fix new disabilities
and burdens upon them till all of liberty
shall be lost"
Has slavery really been abolished in
our land or have we still slaves with
us?
We find the slaves of capitalism work.
ing in factories, in mines, on farms,
everywhere.
Are the slaves of the needle, the loom,
the pickaxe, the spade and the hammer
really free, or do they work their lives
out in the service of the few, for the be-
nefit of millionaires, for the enjoyment
of sybarites?
Who are our protectors? The police,
the Office holders, the legislators. But
what do they protect? Their pockets,
their influence, their positions. Their
dishonesty, corruption, trickery and
thievishness are proverbial.
With such protectors woe betide Lii
berty!
And what of our right to the pursuit
of happiness? The Detroit Commercial
Advertiser said some time ago: Slowly,
but surely, a condition of affairs seems
approaching that will force the masses
into object submission or determined
revolt against the oppression of sche-
ming capitalists. 1t is frightful state
of affairs to contemplate, but it is folly
to assert that events of almost daily
occurrence do not point directly to com.
ing peasant slavery, or an era of popular
revolution in the United States.
1.-THE working classes are being driven,
like a great herd of cattle, up a slowly
narl owing cafion. When they shall have
reached the impossible cliffs they will
turn and the history of all race and
class expressions will be repeated"
Have we, perhaps, not yet reached
such frightful state of affairs?
Have we no voting cattle that are led
to the polling place by their industrial
lords, the railroad kings, the coal barons,
the sugar princes?
But we have free lands in the West,
it is asserted. Well, that bubble was
pricked long ago, and no sensible person
advises you now to Ego West.
Look at our rising generation Of free
men and women. Hollow-cheeked boys
we find in factories, eight year old cash
girls in our dry goods palaces. They
should be at school, where they are not.
WhyP
We have reached in this our "free
and glorious" country condition Of
affairs truly appalling and almost with
out a parallel in the history of the
world.
Politicians sell their country, work
men their labor, women their bodies,
parents their children, Americans their
honor and citizens their birthripht-all
for money,
And how can change be brought
about? How can the country be saved {?
E. THIMME.