Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-15

or unworthy to govern them; that the
distribution of the products is unjust,
and that property itself rests on basis
that is not equitable. When such deasare
taking root they bring sooner or later
lido not know when, / do not know how
but they bring sooner or later the most
formidable revolutions" Who can say
that these words, so prophetic as to
France, shall not prove just as prophetic
in this country? But prophets--l mean
true prophets-are seldom listened to.
And this alone makes them prophets of
evll, for If their warnings were needed
IN time the evil portion OF their prophecy
would never be realized.
Well, Gentlemen, it was in the face of
that stupendous coalition between the
intellect and the labor of France that
some bourgeois poll icians led by OdllOn
Barrot, ambitious nOnentities who could
see nothing more in that great move
ment of ideas than a demand for a
change of ministry, began to agitate for
reform; that is, ordered viands and
wine, invited their friends to banquets,
and made after-dinner speeChes-just as
our "reformers" do in America. The
people were invited to smell and to hear.
In Paris the banquet was forbidden.
The people put an end to the farce by
proclaiming the Republic and declaring
that the banquet of lite must be free to
every worker.
"Why, certainlyr exclaimed the bour-
geois, thoroughly frightened this time.
eve are all brothers. Vive la kepub-
lique! Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"
And he joined the victorious mob; nay
placed himself at its head, drowning by
his loyal shouts the voice Of the prole-
taire.
So well did he shout that day for the
social-democratic republic and his own
candidates that in few hours France
had Provisional Government over
whelmingly bourgeois. With the ex-
peCtion of Louis Blanc, who imposed
himself, and of the workman Albert, that
the workmen imposed on Louis Blanc,
every man in that government proved Il
tool of the bourgeoisie.
The people, however, could not as yet
be safety tritled with; and, on the 2jth
day of February, the duty of Govern
ment to provide every citizen with the
means of living by working was official.
ly proclaimed as the social creed Of
France.
February 26, 1913 Bear that date
in mind, friends, for it marks one of the
four great historical steps in the evolu-
ton Of equality.
Eighteen centuries ago, more or less,
the pagan world, rooted in slavery, was
struck by lightning at its very root.
Some one, it was said, had IN an obscure
corner of Judaa discovered and pro-
claimed the equality of all men before
God, or, as some of us might express it
to-day, their equality in Nature. This
was the first step.
Anew world grew up. Strange enough,
however, in that new world humble
men. equal before God to the mightiest,
were forbidden to think. And SO it came
to pass that slavery, instead of disappear
ing for ever, simply took the form of
serfdom. But in the course of time
some one, who had boldly done what he
was forbidden to do, discovered that the
right to think was a corolary of Natu-
raj Equality, and Freedom of Conscience
was proclaimed.y This occurred four
hundred years ago, more or less, and
marks the secold great step in the Evo
luton of Equality.
Still, humble men, free to think, re-
maiued Berfs in law. But thought is
mighty, and when the Nineteenth Cen
fury emerged from the womb of time in
deluge OF blood, the guns of Equality
had proclaimed on two continents that
40 If Il,
This was the third step.
And yet men were neither equal nor
free. | have just narrated how, in fifty
years of extraordinary mental effort,
they discovered this simplest of all
truths: that equal access to the means
OF labor must first be obtained, before
any sort of equality in freedom can be
realized.
SO, then, on the Goth day of February
l84S, the Right to Labor was proclaimed
10y the French Republic. But in the 4S
hours that had elapsed between the flight
of the king and the issue of this procIa-
nation, the bourgeoisie had fully re-
covered its equanimlty. Thanks chiefly
to Lama, tine, it had been highly success
full in deceiving the people by false pro-
fessions of sympathy and sham appear
ances of cooperation; in preventing the
red flag from announcing to France and
to the world that the era of class rule
was gone and the era of unity and hui
mainly had come; in putting the reins
of government into the hands of men
that it could trust to do its bidding; and
in actually decapitating formidable but
spontaneous and unorganized revolution
by Inrcinm hack lis natural Leaders into