The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-11-15


Ropulist Principles Arc Getting . Foot
hold In the Etrongholds OF Monopoly.
Many striking events, deeply signid-
cant Of popular discomfort, have re-
Gently occurred in the east Let ~
study few of them.
= The Olneyville strike at Providence,
h l.. stands at the head just now.
''Six thousand workers driven to des-
peration by heavy cut in wages" IL
the way the Boston Globe, q demo
cratic capitalistic organ, states the
case in big headlines
These wage-desperadoes (such they
will be before long, and woe to the
militia that should try to bar their
march) paraded through Providence
the other day. It was q grim and
CHASTITY spectacle. There were the
pallid women of the Olneyville mills,
whose beggarly wages had been cut
close to the zero point, keeping step
with the men in that death march and
as ready for rebellion and all that inn.
plies as they.
1.-THE frost of the coming hungry
winter is in their faces" exclaims one
spectator, but another said: Look
deeper. Frost and fire sometimes al
ternate quickly. l should say that
those women faces were just beginning
in their hopeless poverty to show the
whiteness, the white heat of holy hate
How do you fancy they feel towards
the rich men of this very rich city of
Providence?" That is the point and
the short five chapters it seems to me:
Poverty. hunger, despair, hate. venge-
ance! Why cannot the millionaires see
it in time to prevent the revolution?
You smile at the apparent exaggera-
ton of the suggestion. But those wo-
men of the Olneyville mills, in that pa
rade of poverty, did not smile. They
led by the hand their little children,
pretty and clean, but ragged; nor did
the toddling children smile as they
glanced up now and then into their
mothers faces They could not under
stand, but they felt instinctively; they
realized that they were forming part
in the beginning of some frightful,
true drama.
Winter is close at hand. Add lack of
fuel to lack of food and how much is
the sum? That sum, my friends with
fat bank accounts, who make liberal
subscriptions to public charities and
die in the odor of sanctity leaving your
half millions to Harvard college-that
is growing and growing with more
than compound interest-it is swelling
to an account which, before long, no
amount of money can settle.
Let us look at this situation POLITICAL
ly. A Rhode Island paper puts it thus:
1.-THE workingmen of Olneyville have
been forced by the heartless action Of
the manufacturers to raise the flag of
resistance to corporation greed and
capitalistic tyranny. On one side is
colossal wealth amassed by taxing the
whole body of the people, through laws
controlling the law-making power and
backed by the military. On the other
side is humanity asking for JUSTICE
And now speaks out the Rhode ISL
and Democrat and urges the workers
to break away from the old parties, to
make the Olnerville strike national; to
declare labor's intention to take COM
plete control of the ballot box. The
Democrat goes SO far as to suggest that
the battle be fought under the populist
banner. 1.-THE thing to do, however"
it especially urges. lis to organize at
once as a political force" Then it
tenders to the strikers the use of it's
columns to spread their appeal and
purposes before the people throughout
the land Thus ray of light, feeble,
it is true, but still ray, breaks through
the eastern cloud.
In Massachusetts, another raw! The
democratic party, like the republican,
has been and is. dominated by the rich
for many years; however. just about
election times it has had spasms of
ir tense sympathy for the wage-earners.
asst year, in its ambition to elect Rus
s~ll governor for the third time, it
made promises to labor leaders of Off
cial recognition after election. These
promises it did not dare or care to
keep
Now the labor leaders, NOTABLY those
of the blacksmith clan, have declared
that they intend to vote the populist
ticket. Thus the eyes of the working
men are opening to the fact that they
have been simply tools in the hands of
the democratic and republican parties
and whichever of these parties win,
they always lose. 1t is safe to say that
a political break as great as that in the
west is likely to occur. A republican
said to me the other day: "The popu-
list party will poll 10000 votes in Mas
sachusetts this yeag," and added. this
is the only thing that will elect Green
halge. for most of the votes will come
from the democracy" Not half an
hour afterwards democratic politician
said: THE populists in this state will
poll 10, 600 votes, mark my words; and
this drain on the republican party will
elect Mr.. RUSSELL
think the latter calculator is nearer
right as to the populist vote this fall.
and the former as to its source. Ny
own estimate, perhaps too conserva-
tive, is that we shall double our vote of
last year.
Anyway, what terrv to both old
parties the populists will be next win
ter in the Massachusetts legislature!
To prevent the masses from stamped
ing into our ranks, both the demo
cratic and republican parties have