Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1891-02-21
NEW HAVEN.

Capt. huntington Delivers IA Lecture on
social Transition" Mayor Sargent
sustained in his Plan of Municipal
Water Works, hut Advised at the
Same Time to Increase the Wages of
his Own Workinsmen,
We held very successful public
meeting at the Labor Lyceum last sun
day afternoon with Cumrade +. 5. Hun
tlngton Of Boston as speaker. The lee
ture on Social Transition" was well re.
ceived by the audience, Of whom many
made short speeches after the lecture,
all favorable to the position taken by the
speaker. Two of our local daily papers
reported the lecture at length, a short
synopsis of which is here given:
Mr.. Huntington spoke for an hour and
said in substance -
The questions connected with social
and industrial reforms are So broad in
scope that they embrace many practical
details. In the evolutionary develop
ment Of humanity no stage of mortal
progress can be called a fixed condition.
The first stage was one of simple COM
munism. Private ownership was UNI
known. With the institution Of mar
riage came the former. After this
came the teudal system. Gradually
feudalism disappeared and modern COM
mercialsm stepped upon the worlds
stage. Then came the wage system.
Wagedom is a transition stage between
slavery and entire freedom, transition
period between the serfdom of the past
and the glorious manhood of the future.
Feudalism founded on rapacity and
brute violence existed as a necessary
stage in social development. Serfdom
lasted some time beyond feudalism as
system. Down to the Fourteenth century
the English workman might be con.
sidered a serf. Feudalism gave the
philosophy of individualism its strongest
expression.
abraham Lincoln said God must
love common men because he made so
many of them 1t is only in modern
times that the common people have had
any voice IN the affairs of political
government. The successful result of
the American revolution was an i'm
mense stride toward the freedom of the
common people. If the solution of the
system must come by
baptism of blood, if the freedom of the
wage slave must be accomplished
through the same horrors that &C
companied the freedom of the chattel
slave on this continent, we must bow to
the will of the Eternal, but we have
faith that no such solution will be re-
quired. The United States census shows
that over 80 per cent. of the people are
on an average of 40 cents
day. There is enough accumulated |
wealth to make comfortable the people |
of all civilized countries. lmprudence |
and personal habits have their large |
share in the misfOrtunes of the very |
poor, but these habits are often the |
effect, and not the cause, of our present |
industrial system. Cunning continues
to grasp the wealth of the world In the |
midst of abundance thousands of will
ing American workingmen are tramping
FOR bread and at the same time unskilled |
abor is pouring in from Europe at the
rate Of 500 900 persons year.
A number of those present spoke in
favor Of Mayor Sargents ideas of
ownership. NJ. Graatz, said
hat if the Mayor raised the wages of his
workmen 81 week it would be of more
benefit to them than the City's control
IF the water works. Continuing be
'aid:-"After all, the ownership of rail,
'oaGs, mines, waterworks, etc. are only
palliative measures. The only remedy
or solution of the labor problem is the
abolition of the wage system, by the
securing control Of all