Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-02-22
GIVE US SCHOOLS.
INDIGNATION GROWING IN
VOLUME AND POWER.

my's Address -- Beware of the
"Chilrden's Party"-Speeches by
Samuel G0mpers, I. Il. McGuire,
s. Z. Sheyitch, T. B. Wakeman,
and others.
As soon as the doors Of the Cooper
Union were thrown open last Wednes-
day night, Feb. u, mighty stream of
men and women poured into the great
hall, and at s P. NJ. every seat was occu-
pied. Considering the magnitude of the
assemblage there was at first remark
able silence. owing to the fact that every
person present was reading the WORK
MEMS ADVOCATE, copy of which, con-
tanning the report of the School Confe-
renee, had been placed on every seat.
The platform was overcrowded and num-
bers stood in the rear. The intelligent
audience was evidently composed of all
classes of people and manifested deep
interest which frequently rose to con-
siderable enthusiasm. The band kindly
supplied by the Balfe Musical Club en-
iivened the proceedings
AS pre- arranged by the School Confer
ence, Mr. Henry Hicks, delegate of the
Central Labor Union, acted as Chair
man, and Mr.. Augustus A. Levey, of the
Liberal Club, as Secretary, Mr.. Hicks
stated briefly the object of the meeting.
He said that this was movement of the
people and therefore, to very great
extent, of the poor people, against their
further degradation by ignorance. Most
of the bodies represented in the School
Conference were labor organizations,
and in the long list of it's vice-Presidents
were to be found, not the names of
wealthy individuals but largely of labor
representatives, each of whom had a
constituency behind him, IN addition to
those of few thinkers, who were in
full sympathy with the working class.
He named, among others, Samuel Com.
pers, President of the American Fedora
ton OF Labor, Thomas B. Mcclure, of
the X. of L., Prof. Daniel de Leon, of
the Nationalist Club, Prof. Felix Adler,
of the Ethical Society, DR.. Foote Jr., OF
the Liberal Club, Henry Enrich, Of the
Furniture Workers, August Delabar. of
.the Bakers, Edward King, of the Type
founders, etc. etc. He then called upon
Mr.. Augustus .Levey to read the report;
Owing to the great length of this
document Mr.. Levey presented an able
summary of it, for the immediate pur'
pose of the meeting, AS it was printed
in full in the WoRKMEN's ADVOCATE, a
copy Of which had been placed in the
hands of every person present, it could
be taken home and perused carefully.
Samuel Gompers was then introduced
and received with great applause. he
said, in substance, that the value and
strength of a social fabric depended
upon the education of those without
whom no social fabric could exist; thai
is, the working class. No child labor
should be tolerated. No man shoald bt
permitted to live upon the labor of {
child; to dismiss father or a mother
and employ their child because its labol
is cheaper than that of its parents
Not only was it possible, thanks to thu
great mechanical inventions of the age
to keep every child at school, but i
was possible and necessary to reduce
the working hours of the adults in every
employment. How vicious and demor
alizing the present conditions wer'
might be realized by looking at tina
statue of ragged, barefooted newsboy
which a great newspaper monopoly o
this city had dared to place on the toI
of its building, thereby proclaiming t
the world with the utmost impudence
immortality and indecency, that its grea
wealth was built upon the toll, ignor
ance and misery of the children. Thi
allusion to the American News Com
pany, suggestive also of the responsible
iry of our great dailies, who thrive upol
the labor and degradation of little boy
and girls, was received with enthusias
tic applause.
Prof. Daniel De Leon was then intro
duced. He had Just arrived from Chico
pee Falls and brought message iron
the noble man that the vast au8Ienc
had expected to hear-from Edwar
Bellamy, great as the author Of "Look