, 1890-10-30
WORD TO LABOR.

Il WORD TO LABOR.
II is n part Of the art of the dema-
gogue to appeal to the prejudlces OF
the masses, or to seek to array one
class against another. The news
paper with a high mission, the
broad-minded statesman, appeals TO
the intelligence aud fairness Of the
people, and seeks to array reason
against folly, irrespective of class or
creed.
Since three or four Drained
agitators have seen fit to appeal to
the prejudices of the laboring men,
II becomes the duty of fearless
and fair press to appeal to their rea-
son.
The REVIEW has n few questions
to ask the laborlng men of Spokane
Falls this morning, and it asks q
brief hearing as matter of fairness
and justice, because 1t defies the
public to point to n single utterance
wherein 1t has spoken lightly or
unfairly of true labog and because
1t stands itself the production Of
labor. 1t is made by laboring men,
is owned by men whose youth was
passed in scenes of privation and
toll, and 1t now gives employment
to little army of prosperous, we'll
paid and contented workingmen.
1t is the product of union labor
throughout, and even its editors are
members of trades unions, and men,
bers in good standing at that, which
Is more than a number of the loose
tongued, rattle-brained agltators
who are appealing to the masses can
say.
Upon this showing 1t courts fair
hearing as against the dangerous
teachings of three or four vagabonds,
who do less honest labor in n month
than Is done by the average work
ipgman in u single day.
At public meeting held the past
week at the court house, an agitator
named Jeffries, who once earned an
honest living by setting type upon
the REVIEW, but who has now got
above working for living, used
dangerous and incendiary language
against leading citizens of Spokane
Falls. In speaking of such men as
A. NJ. Cannon, James n. Glover
and ]. j. Browne, according to the
testimony Of reputable eye witnesses,
he uttered the following incendlary
language:
"rhese capitalists and monopo-
lists are starving you boys to death.
They are robbing your wives and
children of bread, and it would be
no crime to hang them"
Is there a single workingman in
the entire city of Spokane Falls who
will subscribe to that outrageous
and lawless sentiment?
There is not one. The REVIEW
calls upon the reputable working
men, irrespective of party, to resent
such language, and to rebuke the
half-crazed agltator whose incen-
diary tongue seeks to place them in
so black an attitude.
Those words were an insult to
every respectable workingman. If
wives and children are suffering for
bread in Spokane Falls they are the
wives of drunken vagabonds. 1t Is
enough to bring the hot blood to the
face of every industrious mechanic
in this city to have a loose-mouthed
idler tell him that his wife and his
little ones are suffering for food.
These are the traducers of the work
ingman, these men who set them
selves up as leaders of labor, who
toll not neither do they spin aught
but demagogic appeals to the pas
sions and the prejudices of the peo-
pie.
These men are for free trade. Are
the worSingmen Of Spokane deslr-
GUS of having the public believe that
they are really striving to enable the
labor of foreign lands to enter into
free and active competition with
their handiwork? If they are, let
them vote for the agitator platform,
and then let them hold their peace
when the country takes them at
their word.
Again, are they in favor of the
exemption from taxation of all the
stocks and bonds of the millionaire,
the brick blocks and mansions, the
railroads and carriages of the
wealthy, and their silks and dia-
monds, their wines and fine raj
ment? Then vote for the agite tor
platform.
These are questions that every
workingman should answer. Lot
reason and not passion rule; let labor
find its true friends, and let It be
deaf to demagogy.
Then the result need not be feared.