, 1891-08-04
BOWEN BEFORE THE PREACHERS.
A Knight of Labor Tells the CIergymen
What the Labor OuestIon N.ans.

A Knight of Labor Tells the CIergymen
VIA the Labor Question Means
Paul T. Bowen, a prominent Knight
Of Labor, delivered an address before
the Methodist Ministers association in
Washington recently. Mr.. Bowen said
that in ten years the common laborers
have increased 80 per cent, while of
skilled laborers there has been only an
increase Of l6 per cent. Child and aged
labor are s~upplanting the skilled laborer
and many million men who wish to work
are lying in chronic idleness. The poor
est pay is given for the most unhealthy
and dangerous labor, while the highest
pay goes for work surrounded by healthy
environments. What he complained
about, said Mr.. Down, was the unequal
distribution. One man now often pos
sessed half a dozen residences, while
twelve other persons were crowded into
one small room.
The greatest misery arose from the
TACT that those who lived a life of con-
stant toll lived also a life Of constant
fear that even the poor pittance they re-
ceived would be taken from them. There
was dissatisfaction. ~undoubted dissatis-
faction, and military officers today were
planning means for the suppression OF
not mobs of anarchists. but Of disaffected
laboring men.
All classes of citizens were organizing
for the purpose of lobbying and this was
so even of the ministers. There was a
war between capitalists and laborers.
Not over the production of wealth, but
over its division. Many reliefs had been
proposed for this state of affairs.
Charity was one, but Mr.. Bowen held
that in this regard charity was a failure.
1t enabled men to compromise with their
conscience by giving back a small por-
ton of their gains. 1t also encouraged
pauperism. To receive something for
nothing. said Mr.. Bowen, is the surest
means of breaking down manhood.
Charity was no substitute for justice.
Education and increased skill had been
proposed rs remedies, but would equally
fail of success. The fault is competi-
ton, and the fight would be waged just
as bitterly, whatever the universal con-
dition of education and skill. Economy
likewise would fail. A broad spread
ing national economy would be a ma
tional calamity, throwing millions out
of employment.
All these remedies which had been
mentioned, said Mr.. Bowen, were vir-
tues, and applied individually would be
a help. but applied universally would
prove an evil.
Continuing, Mr.. Bowen said the golden
rule was a good one, but that the golden
rule wns defeated by the rule of gold.
The remedy for the existing evils, he
said, was to ~socialize land and capital.
There must be free access to the land.
To organize a cooperative common
wealth was a tremendous affair, and he
only believed in approaching the matter
by stages. He thought the-government
should appropriate all railroad, telegraph
and telephone systems and all municipal
franchises. These things could be ac-
complished, said Mr.. Bowen. Every
child today had on its shoulders n $500
railroad bond on which it must pay in
terest and dividends. Run the railroads
in the interest of the people, not for
profits, but for expenses, and the bond
on the other hand would belong to the
child.
The government, said Mr.. Bowen, had
never gone into any productive enter
prise in which 1t has not succeeded far
better than any private citizens could.
The mail service was cited by the speaker
as an instance.
Mr.. Bowen held that the plans out
lined would not result in any loss of in
~dividuality, but would allow additional
time free from grinding down occupa-
lions for the development of individual
ity.-Washington Star.