Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-12-01
WORKMEN'S VOTES.
THE HOPE OF LABOR'S CAUSE LIES
IN THEIR CORRECT USE.

IN THEIR CORRECT USE.
Denouncing Plutocracy, Yet Voting to
Strengthen Its Power-The Lesson in
President Gompers' CircuIar-Does This
Hit You, Dear Reader9
The national election is again thing
of the past. The political trickster and
willy Office seeker, the agents of plutocra-
cy, pretending to be divided into two
camps, no longer claim the attention of
the workingmen, and probably one who
has something to say for labor outside
OF election campaigns as well as in them
will be given an audience. Claiming to
be one of these out of season as well as
in season friends of the cause of labor. /
have something to say. am going to
talk about politics too. You will stand
it from me now, since it will not be
| chargeable to desire to defeat the can
didate of your beloved party. Some of
you have tasted the bitterness of being |
on the losing side, while others have had
the barren satisfaction of bowling for
victory, and every mothers son of youis
| just as deep in the mire of wage slavery
and plutocratic tyranny as he was year
ago.
There isn't man among you, Demo
crat or Republican, who can today give
d sound reason for taking the side you
did, unless there was hope of Office or
personal emolument of some kind in
view, and l defy the winners to show
how labor is to be benefited by their vic
tory, or the losers to prove that their sue
cess would have made the prospect
, brighter. understand that most of you
were honest in your convictions-if that
word may be properly used | know
that you justified your action by what
~ you thought was good ground but also
= know, as you do, that in nine out of
l. ten cases you voted rs you did because
h you knew the other party to be an enemy
g to your class. heartily agree with the
il eighteen-nine ON each side.
have an opinion upon the only ques-
ton which is pretended to be an issue be-
10 tween the two old plutocratic parties;
n but it doesn't make any difference which
" is right on that point. So long as the
l. government-legislativ executive and
V judicial-is in the control of plutocracy,
all under Democratic cloak or Re-
q publican mask-or, as at present, divided
between the two-labor will be forced to
D fight for the crusts to keep it alive, while
+ the millionaires will continue to fatten
m on the results of honest mems toll. That
at any workingman, after the experiences
b. of the past twenty years, can have any
v. other than this opinion is something thai
a passes my understanding, and l have had
=, some pretty hard nuts to crack in study
y ing the so called labor problem.
am not talking to or about the few
labor men who are able to show the sub
stantial benefits they derive from the
he positions they take. That they are about
4 equally divided between the two old
parties shows that in their cases one is
as good friend of the laborer as the
io other. The ninety and nine out of q
IN hundred, the honest men who do the
in politicians no further service than to vote
lis for them, are those whose conduct sur.
n prises and discourages me. You will dc
re me an inestimable favor if you will tel
re me how you square your denunciations
- of Pinkertonism and militia interference
oe with struggling labor with vote for the
81 parties which visit these horrors upor
J. you and your brothers. You can't do it
ID and it is time you acknowledged tht
lie truth.
OIL
inf Do you say, I've heard all this from
mt cranks beforep 1t is to your discredi
- that you still have to hear it. Have thu
cranks who have been telling you thes
no things for a dozen or more years beel
'as right, or have you? You needn't answer
he That you find it necessary to denounc
led plutocracy now more bitterly than yo'
1t ever did before is answer enough. Tha
the you are striking oftener and with NOR
of desperation this year than ever before i
,ro the history of the country is sufficien
~ ~, reply Just keep on striking 1854 days
the year and vote for capitalism one day
gu and your children will rise up and Ca
you blessed-in pigs eye.
The
his Do see only the black side of the pic
lal ture7 Well, if you don't like the vie'
ife you get through my eyes, look throug
no those of the president of the America
- Federation of Labor. In the call for til
-A twelfth annual session of the federation
which is to meet on Dec. 12, Presidel
on Gompers says:
ks Never in the history of the labor movemei
In. of America have important events followed {
the heels of each other as have been witnesss
III, within the past few months, nor at any tin
be have the fortitude, courage and sincerity
NV the wage workers been more thoroughly teste
ny The power of concentrated and corporal
on wealth has been exerted to degree never b.
lif- fore attempted to overawe, intimdate an
Drixr afa m