The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1891-05-14

members of the order of the knights, of
Labor to vote upon the subject of indie
pendent political action. This. if prop
crly understood aud appreciated, is the
most momentous question: they have
ever been asked to vote upon. Shall the
| republic live for thc benefit and future
liberty of our children or shall we allow
| It to be Strangled TO pcrprtualy crslave
| 'hcm? These are the real issues in
| volvpd in this vote. TO those who have
| closely watched the course of events aSd
| thr action of the llw-makiug and eNecut-
| ing departments Of the government. there
| can be 10 hcstating as to how tn vote.
| To the members of our order it will be
| timely to give Il little resume of reasons
why they should unanimously vote in
| the affirmative.
All the advantages that labor has
| ever wre>tcd from monopoly up to the
| present time has been achieved by the
| strike and boycott alone. The pluto
cracy has been Inadc to feel that So often
| and severely that. in Sclf-prot"ctiun. il
| has been compelled to form all kinds of
| counter combinations against il. BY
| manipulating the law-making and eXr-
| cutivr powers ,f the government il has
! at last succeeded i'll getting law that
| Will cnrctuallJ crush out every labor
| organization. The antitrust law will
make every strike or boycott ii criminal
| utf"nSc under severe penalty. That be-
ing the ease. every labor organization
| that uses them not only can but will h..
crushed inside of three years at the
fartheSt. The process of crushing ont
has been guiu. ON for some time. in a
| secret. uu9I way. without re-
| course TO this law as Yet The
| action of the New York Central railroad
| is one proof Of this: the outrageous ar
| rest aud Siberian incarceration Of the
| striking Binghamton rigarmat"rS. the
| wholesale discharges OF the express conf
| panicS' employees. the displacement of
| the old experienced employees on al! rail
| reads "a is proven by the f"arfEliy nu-
meroiiS accld"ntS. ar" more. III" tcir-
| graph companies are doing lii" same
| thing. IN" old faces "" have seen at
tn" windows Tor years AZ" gone: girls
| and boys MI their places: at what terri
| bic cost is shown hy the recent railroad
sma>li-up, caused by an "v"rw"rkrd boy
| telegraph operator. Information comes
| from all over TIL" country that all the
| larg" employers ot labor are COM
| bining to suppress the hated trade
| union W" already nave bosses asS,-
J cations III every trade. lie press
| Informs lis that they are even making
| their comhlnatInnS international. Soon
| as they learn to know the efficacy of the
| antitrust law. to forever rid themselves
| OF the hated unions. they Will use II to
| its utmost limit. Then the days of the
| trade union, with its strikes and boy
| colts. Will be for"Nrrpa>t. Nothing will
| then remain for the protection Of labor
| but its vote. There will be no altrrna-
| tiy" but to convert every assembly and
| every trad" union into political club.
| This no law can prevent. The conSti-
| tuition guarantees all citizens the right
| of free a>s"ml,lagc. So We can fall back
| on our constitutional rights. But the
| plutocracy fears that vote worse than
| the strike and boycott. and = dong all
! it can ~ prevent worl>ingnion from COM
| hinine at the polls. They are .tlnningly
| manipulating the press and pulpit 10 set
| labn" organizations against each other
| How Sweetly they are Just now patting
| the federation and the locomotive engi-
nerrs on the back and condemnng the
| knights. Little do they know that the
| rank and file Of labor have no quarrel
| with themselves. much though their
| leaders may at times have differed. But
| while they are thus working the labor
| racket they are not ncglccting the poll
| tical on" either but are working all
| kind Of schemes to keep them divided on
| political lines. The whole tariff humbug
| is only gotten up for that purpose. Nor
! are they negiecting the legislative power.
| The ballot will b" the only recourse
| left. This we will have to agree on.
| The only difference of opinion will br
| upon the question of how To use it,.
| whether to continue to vast" it upon he
J old parties or unitcdly Join issue witt
| the new party that is >pringing to life
| all over the country i'll spite of our
| order. II organized labor but generally
| knew and understood the rue cond-
| ton of affairs there could be no differ
| encr of opinion upon this question.
| Ever since our order wa. founded it
has tried influencing both old parties to
| take up our demands. 1t has supported
! politicians who have pledged themselves
| to work for them regardless of party
| And what is the rcslllto After all these
years of that kind cf effort we have not
| a single effective law to benefit labor.
| but many to plundcr it and rifcct,lallv
| crush and further enslavr it. They
| have continually PLAYED lis for suckers,
| used as as ignorant dunes to accemuiSii
| their own PURPOSES. We have gained
| very much less than nothing I;y hnay-
| ems. if we are fools enough to continue
| this kind of effort any longer. we de-
| serve to be shaclll"d forever
| notice the republican campaign com
mttcc in order to catch workingmcn' 5
votes. is sending ont document with IA
glaring titIc-pagc of red, white and blue
| and the portraits of Grant and Lincoln.
| and boasting of the number of labor
bills the g %. y. had passed at this scs-
| sion of congress. mentioning especially
Il number of important amendments it
| had made to them. Now this document
is d glaring. barcfacrd misrrpreSenta-
ton from beginning to end. The truth
is the g o. D. has not enacted single
| measure for the benefit of labor. But
the nature of the amendments is par,ic
.larly noticeable, and shows how cum
| ning!y they study and how low they
will stoop to deceive the working people
|