Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-08-16

the Crisis tnat Is approaching, anu an viz
willing and often venal instruments OF
the Plutocracy which they have them
selves nursed into existence by shame
less favoritism. None of these parties
can break away from this plutocracy,
for they depend upon 1t, and not upon
the people, for their own support; and
they are compelled, therefore, to leave
the masses dependent upon that class
for the very means of life; which Is to
say, that the mas3es are to be left to be-
come dependents and slaves, for they
who control the bread of a man control
his life and own it.
Bearing this in mind we arraign the
present political parties as unavoldaoly
corrupt and unable to do otherwise than
to pervert the forms and laws Of Demo-
cracy to the ends of Plutocracy.
We charge that they have for this
reason shamelessly alienated to domestic
! and foreign monOpolists the public lands,
public property, public franchises and
! public functions; thereby creating by law
private privileges, corporate govern
ments and almost empires, out OF what
belongs to the people, and thereby tax
ing and fleeing the industrious producer
to keep in luxury those who riot and
unblushingly fiaunt their ill-gotten
wealth before his face.
That they have thus subjected the
wage-worker, the farmer, the trades
man and the professional man alike, to
the implacable despotism and Unsuitable
greed of selfish, irresponsible Masters
or Idlers banded into Corporations,
Trusts, Syndicates which have become
organized conspiracies against the people
They have laughed at the idea of JUS
tice, morality, public interests or even
humanity in politics or economics; and
through legislation have plainly pro-
NOTED a perverse, unjust and inhuman
economic system, destructive Of life,
liberty and happiness; and thus have
actually turned the mighty power OF
modern inventions and machinery into
a means of enslavement and misery to
men and women, and even to children
They have thus created such state OF
affairs that, while the wealth of the
plutocracy, in spite Of notorious mis-
management, wasteful expenditure and
scandalous luxury, is accumulating in
our country at the estimated rate OF not
less than nine millions of dollars per
day. the enforced idleness, dependence
and consequent misery OF those who
produce that wealth are steadily increas-
inc. With boundless elements of en-
ployment and comfort, the opportunities
of getting living by honest industry
are constantly growing less. In the midst
of commercial prosperity eleven thou
sand failures are recorded every year;
large numbers of farmers are expro
priated, and thousands of heretofore
lndependent citizens are driven into the
ranks of wage workers, merely to con
solidate Monopoly.
Our partizan Legislatures in the ser
/ vice of capitalists have also persistently
Disseminated against labor by conspiracy
, laws, or by the systematic violation OF
such laws as they have been compelled
to enact for its protection, and have
even resorted to the use of the gun o.
club in behalf of the master, robber, ol
drone, against the industrious toilel
seeking to better his condition.
They have corrupted the ballot box
/ made Justice, or rather 'the law, an ex
, elusive privilege of the rich, and denied
, to the poor who cannot pay lawyers anc
fees; while they have prostituted public
offices and the ballot unblushlngly TO
t corrupt party and election purposes.
They have, for these unworthy ends
consented to fasten ignorance, vice ant
helplessness upon the next generation
bv failing to provide school accommoda
8 tions for the children of those they hav'
, despoiled;-to the extent, that IN tn
: city of New York alone, over one hun
dred thousand children are deprived 0
, the sacred right to public education
l.. To remedy these intolerable and in
creasing evils, with others not les
q fragrant, we know that there is no cure
2 all. no remedy, short of the organ
q lied uprising of a long suffering an
= indignant people, to manage their owl
/ affairs, and to take charge of their owl
y interests.
{ WE DECLARE, THEREFORE, that ou
e object is the emancipation of the masse
|. from their present increasing industria
financial, political, social and moral sui
J. iugation to selfish, heartless, rapaciou
Q plutocracy, with the consequent poverty
s misery and cruelty, which form the gres
d curse of our country and OF our age.
o the pursuit of this object every true ma
Il and patriot should rise above every othe
If political question or issue.
l. Realizing the tremendous impOrtant
d of this, THE CAUSE OF The PEOPLE, W
e regard as of trifling consequence VIII
e ther the offices of the City, State
Nation shall fall to the spoilsmen of tt
IF Republican, Democratic or so-calle
al "Citizens" political machine; while it
e. evident that all questions concernif
e. the tariff, or the colored people, large
s, arising out of the late civil war, shou
Of be withdrawn from partizan and sc
d, tional politics, and be settled by tho
I'd who are not as to them party bound, b
w devoted TO the higher interests of 81
n whole country and the whole people.
q. We demand therefore;