The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-10-04

treatment may be judged from Pc
rusal of the following synopses:
Mr.. Wallraff opened his remarks by
expressing his pleasure in. the fact
that the churches were taking hold
of the labor question. He hoped
that their suggestions might become
more practical. It was not true that
the capitalist was indispensable to
the production and distribution of
commodities; capital is the creation
and should be the agent, and not the
master, of labor; labor and labor
alone was the parent of wealth; but
capital which is only so much stored
labor, instead of blessing to the la
borer, while he toiled has been filched
from him, monopolized by the CAPT.
talist and is now turned against him.
The problem which cOnfronts the la
borer now is how to shake the CAPT.
talist off his back; having sliced the
stored product of his toll, capital
now begrudges him an existence.
The general cry of overproduction
was ridiculous; the people were hun
cry because there is too much to eat !;
the wives and children of working
men are half clad because there is too
much clothing; people swarm in ten
ement houses or live in shanties be-
cause there are too many houses. We
have enough; God has showered this
country with his blessings but they
have been monopolized by the few
and the many cry for bread; pos
sessed of great forests, rich mines,
millions of acres of fertile lands yet
untouched by the pillow, if given eq-
uitable laws labor could even now
soon create sufficient new wealth to
alleviate the distress of the people
without disturbing the owners of ex-
listing property. The natural resour-
ces of the country have been handed
over to the great corporations osten-
sibly to build railroads. Official re-
ports show that in Minnesota alone
nearly $4,000, 900 acres of land, valued
at S. an acre, and in addition about
100000 in cash in bonuses from
cities and villages, or a total of about
$4,000 mile for every mile of road
that existed in Minnesota June 1st,
1890. If the state has thus furnished
the means with which to build the
railroads, why should it not own
them?
Another agency by which capital
has enriched itself and despoiled the
people is the control through cor
rupt congress of the volume of mon
ey-the life-blood of commerce.
In 1866 we had $1,000, OOO,O 900 circu-
lating among thirty million people,
or more than $50 per capita. Labor
was we'll paid, business in all lines
was never more prosperous, the peo-
pie were contented and strikes and
tramps unheard Of.
When the public mind was thus
occupied with producing wealth, a
little coterie of conspirators in con-
gress, with John Sherman at the
head, procured the passage of laws
authorizing the conversion of the
misunderstanding greenbacks into
Understanding bonds. From 1866 to
1873 about billion three hundred
millions of these notes were destroyed
and the circulation reduced to $685.
100000. Ruin and desolation fol-
lowed; failures multiplied at an
alarming rate; labor was thrown out
of employment, an army of tramps
was created.
The speaker concluded with pas
sionate appeal to his fellow workers
to cut loose from the old political or
CARNATIONS that offer them no hope
of relief; Ito forget party and march
in solid phalanx to the polls and vote
for their demands; that until they
do so their appeals will fall upon deaf
ears.
Mr.. James Dillon, speaking to the
working men at Labor hall, said that
he admired the great parade that
marched in line on Labor day and
was impressed with a sense of the
tremendous power they might WELD
if they understood as we'll how tc
vote as they do how to march. Then
they would not suffer the inequali.
ties of today. How easily they might
secure laws that would establish eqi-
ty between the wage Garner and the
capitalist. But the tendency of the
times was toward the conditions that
prevailed in ancient Rome when the
wealth of the empire, centralized
in the possession of the aristOcracy
made the Roman plebean helpless