Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-10-04
Views Of a Practical Thinker.

hope some pen has been able to write
lelsurely to your paper of the mos
prominent features of the parade in
Boston on Labor Day. The chief fea
ture to me was its promise of repetition.
on larger and larger scale until the
utility and dignity of the occasion is
acknowledged by all. The only lack in
the reception by the crowd of the Labor
pageant was enthusiasm. can almost
imagine it was caused by the presence
in many minds of doubt as to the
meaning of the great, orderly, self.
respecting cOncourse of men with ban
ners bearing honest, every day legends
i'll unmistakable language. Thoughts
like these were astir: "What is going to
come Of IT, 1T looks as if there were
enough of them to take charge of the
government of the country at any hour
when the word is given" at looks as if
they had found out the full power of
manhood, and that there were heads
as well as hdndS henceforth in Labor's
ranks" "WelI, well, Organized Labor
has little different meaning from the
laborer single-handed for himself"
Thoughts like these, whether welcome
or not, were busy in the gazing crowds,
we may be sure.
OF Labor Day in Waltham, a city of
not less than 10000 wage workers, there
is nothing to report. The carpenters,
bricklayers and building Lahore rs of
Waltham to the number of $50 joined
their respective bodies in the Boston
parade. Of the twenty-five hundred
and more watch makers in Waltham
not one showed his face in the labor
parade of 1890 unless as member of a
band. More than once | was asked in
Waltham by wage-wOrkers, what Labor
Day was for!
A young woman, not much past her
teens, assisted me in breaking up my
home in WaItham. Her health had
given out as house-servant. She had
been, as | knew, working for months
from 5 in the morning until s or 8 at
night with no respite on Sundays.
tried to impress on her that to work
voluntarily that number Of hours daily
was crime against herself and against
Others. The ignorance of youth was
her only excuse Constant missionary
work is needed then on such questions.
The ADVOCATE for Sept. 6 has lust
n | tria "a
of three different daily papers of Chi
cago with no satisfaction thus far, be-
cause of their mastery inactivity on the
labor question The Chicago JOurnal
boasts its age; born III 1914. 1t might as
well have issued its first copy in Noah's
Ark, for any aptitude it shows to deal
with the question of Socialism. Every
paragraph Of the ADVOCATE is signiti-
cant, Without it one cannot keep pace
with the movements of Socialism. "HOw
long," is the only comment possible on
the police outrage chronicled, at Lion
Park.
"The Social Pest is timely. For |
more years than can remember, Walth- |
am has had Aater-works hut no sewer !
age. In ali her seeming material prosper |
lty, her citizens are quite content with !
an old fashioned cess pool Ill every door |
yard. Chemistry and hygiene are taught |
in her schools, but no connection be-
tween the cess pool and presidential con
ditlons Is thought of. The lack of |
sewerage in w. as elsewhere, is caused
by the power which rules Wal ham
the almighty dollar.
From your receipt list there Is evil
a al,
In Santa Monica (CaL) When | was
there III rs, S, NJ. comprised two cot
tages aud a frame hotel. California
needs all the Socialism we can send her.
Natioualism has proved broken reed
on which to organize. One chief cause
which led to the birth of NatiOnalism
was an unwilling fear to own up to
Socialism, on the part Of many who
could not shut their minds against the
efficacy of Socialism for the times. They
feared the odium and ostraCism which
the real power of Socialism,
and hoped to escape it by calling them
selves Nationalist. What il good III
NatiOnalism Is not new, and what is
new in it is not good. All the It al
truth in it belongs to Socialism. The
remainder will serve as toy machine
for those who play at reform,
Comrade II. W. Hyndman's Glass
War and Social Revolution is up to the
times. Would we were all up to them.
It is true that to work for the eight
hours day and increase of wages is
piece meal reform. The wise can see in
such work only an attempt at temporary
alienation of unjust conditions, but the
alienation is needed to
strengthen for the larger work. The
short working day anu living wages are
but stepping stones to a scientific ad |