Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-01

hackers, Single Takers and also Anarch-
lists, who imagined their specifics will
solve the social problem; but, as their
economic bases were false or only frac,
tionally true, the noble ends they aimed
at would not be reached. BY contrast
the lecturer then explained and illu-
strated Nationalism,; and when, in con-
clusion, he declared that SO long AS the
competitive system in the production
and distribution of wealth continued, SO
long as the land and the instruments of
production We're no6 resumed by the
people, -nationalized d-poverty and all
the Ills that flow therefrom would re-
main, his words were received in man
ner that could leave no doubt of the full
sympathy of the large and int ligent
audience. After the lecture fe Jingle.
takers tried to refute Mr.. De Icons
statements. With the single tax bible.
Progress and Poverty, iii his hands Mr..
De Leon confuted their claims and de.
monstrated their ignorance of their own
teachings. Greatly incensed at this,
they then advanced the claim that the
whole movement to-day owed its ex-
sistence to George and the single tax.
1t is probable that they now greatly
repent having made so risky state
ment. 1t gave Mr.. De Leon an oppor-
tunity which he used TO go into the his
tory of the United Labor Party, and
show that there was no single tax at the
party's inception; that as soon as the
single tax became the feature the
party collapsed, George went overheard
and rushed to hide his diminished head
in the garbage barrel of the Democratic
party. This statement was received
with such vociferous applause that it
served as clear proof OF the total loss
of respect George and his one-legged
panacea has suffered among the masses.
The lecture was 80 well received and
the interest it evoked proved so great,
that the Riverside Association proposes
to hire a large hall and invite Prof. De
Leon to speak again on the same subject
at an early date.
EIGHT HOURS.
On the following Saturday Feb. 90,
mass-meeting was held at Turn Hall,
under the auspices of the United Trades
of that town. Every seat in the spa.
cious room was occupied by working
men, who eagerly listened to a scientific
discussion of the days topic by A. Cahan
of New York, who spoke in English,
and by Edmund Muller of Yonkers, who
closed the proceedings with an able pre-
sentation of the subject in German.
Both speakers mainly dwelt on the eco
nomic side of the question and on its
relation to the final solution of the labor
problem by abolshing the competitive
wage system of industry.
That the audience found themselves
in accord with the views advanced by
the speakers was evidenced by the cha
racter of the questions which followed
Mr.. Cahan's dlsC0ursc. and which mani
tested the questioners' interest in the
intricacies of political economy and
sociology. Owing to such questions from
Frederick Bennett and two other gentle.
men, whose names could not be obtain
ed, the discussion was extended to the
realms of philosophy, to the great salts
faction OF the audience, who enthu-
siastically applauded the ingenious
questions as well as Mr.. Cahan's apt
replies. Mr.. Cahan's said in part:
The stupendous rapidity with which
the eight-hOur movement is spreading
throughout the civilized world, while il
promises immediate relief to the toilng
portion of humanity, is full of historical
meaning which connects it with the
final emancipation of labor, through the
substitution of organized cooperation
for competition as the economic basis
of society.
The history of civilization is the his
tory of consolidation, of the evolution
of union in its capacity of weapon in the
struggle for existence.
1t is this struggle for existence which
unites hostile tribes into nations by
causing them to sink their differences
in the greater cause of defense against
a common enemy. 1t is this strife with
the rest of nature which, economically
speaking, has now obliterated nearly
every boundary line between countries
and amalgamated all civilized humanity
into one compact army of workers, pro-
ducing for each other upon a world
wide system of exchange.
Mark that the growth of this alliance
between nation and nation has gone
hand in hand with and gathered force
from system of ceaseless strikes be-
tween man and man in the form of free
competition between employer and en-
ployer, aided by that between employe
and emDloye which has rallied the
scattered industrial forces and organized
:.