Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-03-08
FROM MEN OF NOTE.
President Gompers Says That the
 Workers Will Learn.
Congressman Livingston Do1nes the At tituds of the Farmers Alliance Now Steering Between scylla
 and ChaFybdis.
[coPYRIGHT, 1S92.1 WILL THE WORKERS LEARN


 WILL THE WORKERS LEARNf By Samuel Gompers, President American Fed
 eration of Labor.
 Win the working people learnr is question often asked by mon who have given the labor question some thought, and after expending their zeal and enthusiasm for 0 time become 'disgusted with the whole business" and go the even tenor of their way thoroughly satisfied that the working people will not learn.
 The truth of the matter is that the wouldbe teachers have more to learn from the masses of labor than to teach them.
 As soon as some professors or other we'll meaning persons learn for the first time that there Is such a thing as labor question, and are converted to it's justice, and then decide to advocate its claims, the common mistake made is to assume an air of superior knowledge They urge the workers to give up the crgant- cations which have brought them all advan. taees and improvement, which have defended them against unjust exact1ons, and ask them to adopt some crazy panacea which will be 0 ''cure-all" for their economic and social ills. They do not argue with the wage workers, they talk down to them and want to instruct and teach them"
 Our well-meaning friends forget that the working people are confronted with and sur rounded by the actual conditions and environ ments of the factory, the store and the mine. They have no time to theorize. They must act, and act quickly, with the facts that meet them in their everyday struggle, and defend their position and themselves upon the particular
 
 advantages in the same time which at other times are utilized against them.
 Wages, hours of labor, shop, factory or mine ! rules and other conditions of labor enter moro deeply and directly into the everyday life oi the totlers and are frequently more tyranntca than any of the laws enacted at the federal o1 state capttals To secure higher wages, less | hours of drudgery or hurdeneofne toll, steod1el ', employment, moro leisure, fairer rules" an6 i better treatment while ss work is the first duty l of the working people, and our friends who be | neve that they can be diverted from the constd | eration of these questions to follow their leat l into the fields of speculative thought vii 1 always find themselves much disappointed discouraged and will frequently be heard to de l clare ''it is no use wasting time on the working | people, for they will not learn" They havt learned, do learn and will learn, but they vii | do so, as in the past in their own way, by thei l own experience and volition.
 Will any observer deny that the toilers hav' ! come to be looked upon with greater deEre' | of respect than they were few years agor Tn l demands of labor have passed the ordeal o ridicule and contempt and have now entered the arena of discussion. Is this the result o the "teacherf" Is it not, rather, the struggle | of the workers to compel unwilling and unfai | employers to conceda them better conditionSp l have no desire to underestimate the value o education and culture and its influences upo the improvement in social conditions. We wei come the good men and true who have give their moral support to the efforts of the toilers
 
 organizations of labor, in their everyday agtta tion and struggles, have done more to diser thran the professors and teachers from ant Quated supcrstttions and preconceived notion of abstract and concrete rights and justice ( the masses than they in turn have aided eithe in teaching" the workers or in helping them secure improved conditions
 In seeking to improve our condition as wag workers by the methods alluded to hope tha the reader will not infer that we eschew th maintenance of our rights as citizens-in othe words politically. On the contrary, uaaintai that with every betterment in our economi condition, with every hour reduced in our dail toll (the million hours of golden opportunit1e daly), the toilers become Q more potent factc in public affairs, and are moro thorough aroused to the intense necessity of achievin every right to which we are entitled and th abolition of every wrong committed against th weakest of our class
 Yes, the working people arc learning. The are learning the history of the struggles of the forefathers, as well as tho wrongs endured t. day. They arc learning that tho only hope fc the protection of themselves, their children ( 3 postertty from the ravishing and devourir { greed of the day is by Snd through thoroug organization. They are learning, not only the past and tho present, but, taking them z 7 the guide for tho futures are inspired with e " husiasm, and in distinct notes shout: t Swing inward, gates of the future, { Swing outward, ye doors of the past, l( For the soul of the people is moving
 And rising from slumber at last. l Tho black forms of night are retreating, a The white peaks have SignHled the day,
 And freedom her long roll is beating, And calling her sons to the fray.