Workmen's advocate., 1890-06-07
INTELLECTUAL ADVANCE,
frogress of Socialism in our Universities -kemarkable tttcrances of a Syra-
 cuse student.

in the minds of t students, who refuse
 to accept uncha enged the logmas of
 capltallStic econo ny and hay, begun an
 independent inve ;tlgation, in which the
 works of Socialist writers are carefully
 considered. Some time ago Cambridge
 produced several notable contributions.
 Now comes Syracuse.
 w. H, Van Allen, of the class of 20 of
 Syracuse University, and who is editor
 in-chief of the SyrocuSdn, a publication
 issued every three weeks by the Syra-
 cusan Association, writes the follow.
 ing for his magazine:
 "Three classes exist in modern so-
 ciety" says some one. "The aristocrats
 of birth or inherited wealth, the capital-
 ists and the wage workers; rather let us
 say the drones, the robbers and the
 slaves. And despite modern 'progress".
 the first grow steadily stronger and
 smaller, and the last, the base of the
 soclal pyramid, grow weaker and more
 numerous The rich become richer and
 the poor become poorer. every year, and
 the boundaries more distinct and inn
 passable. Let us examine their relative |
 conditions. On the one hand there are | | a few who control the springs of pro- |
 auction, and who enjoy every luxury
 the world affords, in idleness. On the |
 other an army of laborers. born to
 ceaseless toll, an>' rewarded only with a
 bare subsistence; herded together in toul tenements, with plague, pestiltnce ana famine for companions that the
 lew may live in palaces; producing
 everything, gaining nothing. And in
 the face of this terrible injustice, we see
 a, government that proclaims universal
 liberty and equality, and faith that
 teaches the Fatherhood of God and the
 Brotherhood of Man, 1.-the one refusing. the other unable, to right such a mon- strous wrong. Is 1t strange that desper- ate men threaten our foundations with dynamite and torch, or that, looking ur. ward to the brassy heaven, they cry aloud, "there is no God:"
 Read in your daily paper the account of the Bradley Martins ball, where the favors for the German cost $15, 900. or of Mrs. Mackays quart of unset jewels or her miilion-dollar necklace; then turn the page and read of strikes and lockouts every where; starving men who prefer the quick release of the pistol bullet to the lingering agony of hunger; women , who kill their babes and themselves in their frenzy of want and despair chil- dren wearing out their young lives amid the pltlless, untiring machines of the 1 great factories; sweaters" who stitch , and stitch all day, in the hot smoke of , thelr breath, for barely wages enough to keep body and soul together, while the 'masters" of all these fare sumptu- , ously every day, nor heed their sweat, 4 and tears, and blood. Fifth avenue and f Cherry street-yes, and James street and Orange alley-show as strong a con- trast as did Versailles and St. Antoine a century ago, and if '93 comes again, it l will be more awful in "the blasting of ( the breath of its dispeasure" than that ) which ragged through the palaces of Paris. t
 This is the age of gold; but the gold | IS stained with blood. Never were such l enormous fortunes found in so few C hands; never was poverty more vide ( spread and abject. Vast corporations everywhere crushing out smaller enter 3 prlses have made the wage worker a I mere machine to be bought at the lowest 7 price, or left to rust, while the profits of | his labor, less what the iron law of wages | allows to keep the machine going, en- rich few, already wealthy beyond the Il most extravagant desires. The labor CTS back is the table whereon the game |
 modern industry IS played, and on | shlch ln shameful welts and sores all the d losses are scored, and the whip that the t employer cracks over his workmen has V all the sting of the lashes that the other Slave-drlvers used. In our own city the s street car drivers go to their work at 6 Il clock, and leave it at II or later-sev- \ enteen hours of toll, and seven for recre- K atlon, family intercourse and sleep. d when some bolder ones proposed to or. SanlZe trade union and to demand s lustlce, they were promptly discharged o' ana left to the desperate chance of find u ing work in dull season.
 Tell me which is preferable, chatteI- = slavery, where the workman's health was of value to his owner, or wage slavery such as that! And yet the men who grow rich by such accursed cruelty 10 their brothers Haunt their charity md plety Tn the face of Heaven, endow )rphanages and hospitals whose wards .hey help to fill, and sitting at ease in SSli heir private boxes in church, listen con- "a 1lacently to cowardly preachers and an si gospel! tc
 A certain blind and fatuous optimism !, ienles that any such state of things K exists, or asserts that it is only to be " ound Tn the great cities and among the r azy and incorporate. But one needs VI 'nly to look beyond his own circle of S, rends to see his brothers starving in K 'ody and mind on every side. Last ssaa winter family in Syracuse were found s5 luddled together in two rooms. without ira or fond rnptIar .,a aL.II Ci