Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-09-06
Class War and Social Revolution.

Class War and Social Revolution.
Many Of the workers talk at the pres
ent time as if the epidemic of strikes
which we are Witnessing were unprece' /
dented, This is a great mistake. Twice |
during this generation we have seen Il
similar conflict between labor and CAPT
tai; and those who can remember the
great movement Of seventeen or eighteen
years ago, cannot but regret that the
strikers per5istently take 50 marrow a
view of the battlefield, even with the
lessons Of the past to teach them that a
general rise Of wages cannot he main
tanned. What, however, is remarkable
in the agitation of the last eighteen
months Is, on the one hand, the growth
of solidarity" between all sections of
the laboring class, with the marked
tendency toward Socialism even among
! those who would be puzzled to give any
| Ineligible account Of our theories; and
! on lne Otncl, lle tIillIu anu dllhont hpolo-
getic air of the capitalists and their sup,
porters in the press. ManifestIy, as was
the case at the time of the agitation for
the Factory Acts, the professional
classes and that portion Of the capitalist
class which do not derive their incomes
directly from the robbery of labor
though indirectly they of course all do
are to Il considerable extent permeated
with the sentiment that the condition
of the English workers is not what it
ought to be. The howls for horse, foot
and artillery to be used against the
makers of the wealth Of England are
therefore not quite 30 loud or so terO-
Clous as they used to be. Not a few in
deed of the educated middle class are
beginning to range themselves definitely
on the side of the proletariat, at the
same time that those of the workers who
have hitherto been hired 10y the land
lords and capitalists to bludgeon and
butcher their fellows, AS police, soldiers,
and marines, are displaying Il growing
Discrimination to put up with the tyran-
nous measures of the plundering classes.
All this Is so far satisfactory, even if
events do move quite so fast as we might
wish. NM
Recent events have shown that the
soldiers and police cannot be relied upon
to protect what should be the property
of the people against the demands of the
people. All that is needed, therefore, is
that the workers should be educated
up to the standard of using the great
Instruments of industry for themselves
and for the community, instead of for
the profit of minority of non,pro
ducers. The capitalist is not any longer
. a necessary portion of society. lie has
become IN his turn as useless as the
STAKEHOLDER or the feudal lord. Let lis
continually strive therefore to educate
the workers, so that the next great labor
movement may be a simultaneous effort
to capture the railways and coal fields
of the whole country. This attempt, If
even partially successful, would newt
ably lead to still farther soCialization
whereas the universal strike which some
shortsighted folk advocate would throw
the whole industrial machinery out OF
gear, would injure the workers more
than anything else, and would probably
result in the establishment of tempo
rary dictatorship with the consent OF
the misled people themselves.
On the other side of the Atlantic the
same lesson requires to be learnt--that
an equal amount of sacrifice on the part
of the men and of inconvenience to the
community would bring about far more
than rise IN wages. The strike on
> the New York Central Railway, OF
E which none but distorted reports
l reach this country through capitalist
!; owned cables, is another revolt against
d the tyranny of swindling monopolist'
Il like the Nanderbilts and their crew
There, of course, the presence of tn,
Pinkerton thugs com, Gates the situa
ton and is likely to render the contlic
more desperate in the near future. But
alike in the United States and in Grea
Britain it is reasonable that we hop
g that we have heard almost the last o
u mere strikes, and that at the next perio,
Is of industrial depression serious en-
deavor will be made TO commence tn
l. social revolution in an organized ant
" determined fashion by the deliberat
seizure and management of the grea
highways and coal mines of both coun
II tries by the people.
N Ii. NJ. HYNDMAN,