The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-09-27
ON BOSTON COMMON.
THOUSANDS GATHER TO DISCUSS
POLITICAL ECONOMY.


Nationalists Pleading the Cause of the
Producer.
1t is commonly assumed in the west
that in those reform matters which in
terest labor New England and Massachu.
sets especially are past hope. This is
an error. While there is a traditional
reserve in the method of getting at the
remedies for industrial distress, let it not
be thought for an instant that Massachu-
sets is asleep. Here in Boston we have
our barometers of public sentiment that
can be understood as readily as the con-
fusion of New York bread riots.
For instance, when factories shut
down and contractors let their men 90
by the hundreds, Boston common fills
up rapidly on Sundays. A well informed
newspaper man tells nae that there are
about 10, 900 members of labor organiza-
tons in Boston out of employment.
Among these may be mentioned 1000
clothing trade workers, 500 furniture
workers, 600 carpenters, 400 painters and
decorators, 300 steam filters and plumb
ers, and so on through list of trades
that count the summer the busiest part
of the whole year. To this may be added
10000 lower grade workers. Indeed it
could be safely said that %, 900 wage
workers in and about Boston are now
waiting for something to ''turn up"
But it is not necessary to consult labor
statistics to realize the seriousness of the
situation. Boston common tells the
story better. I recently spent Sunday
there. It was a characteristic Boston
crowd, well hammered, quiet, earnest and
deeply troubled if not bewildered. That
present economic conditions are oppress-
i've to the producer was admitted. The
remedies proposed, however, were as
wide as the imagination could make
them.
Icounted seven distinct groups of men
and women who were being addressed
by men and women, each indicting oul
economic system, but each having diff
ferent solution. There were at the time,
! would say, 5000 people on the COM
mon. A portion of them, to be sure,
were drawn there to hear the band music
furnished at the expense of the city.
One speaker was wading through the
nice calculations of the single tax the
DRY and telling some 800 hearers that
America must soon choose between
ground rents or chaos.
At some distance, near the public gar
dens, were heard the passionate appeals
of a long whiskered, orthodox revivalist.
On the brow Of the hill an eloquent
woman was addressing fine group of
socialists. She described in really thrill
ing manner the effect of selfish competi-
ton upon the laboring women and girls
of Boston. Near by scholarly looking
individual led his audience, which was
by no means small or impatient, up to
his belief in the approaching second ad-
vent of Christ. Near the band stand
young minister, who had recently left
the pulpit apparently because he could
not square his religion with the ethics
of cruel competition in business, was
talking to many interested hearers about
nationalism and advocating the practical
schemes of Edward Bellamy-govern-
graphs, telephones. express companies
and the securing to the producer by law
an equal and just share in the things
produced.
There was another group of revival
lists and seventh group of men, whom
took to be proletarian socialists, ear
nestly discussing economics in CONVEX
sational tone among themselves. Nor
did the scattering people about the com
mon escape the importunings of reform
ers. Literature of all kinds, except
such as get into the plutocratic news
papers, was distributed upon every
hand. In fact, poverty and political
economy had possession of Boston COM
mon, and it has been so all summer.
To any one who knows Massachusetts,
Sundays on the common, as any one
may see by going there, are more signif-
icant even than d zen strikes or
bread riot, and neither a band of music
furnished at public expense to calm the
multitude nor salaried revivalists can
dull the impression one gains of the SOL
emn discomfort that is beginning to
sweep over Boston.
MASON A. GREEN.
Boston.
The Dodge Will Not Work.
Eugene V. Debs of the American Rail-