The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1893-11-02


but as to inclination to organize and enthus.
asm over the suggestion that the old
association be the leading spirit expectations
were fully realized.
The meeting was held in Robbins opera
house. The men were slow in getting to the
time fxed-2 o'clock-there were between
100 and $50 people seated in the hall. All
were adults and men who work in and about
the mines. A number of them were of the
Polish and Lithuanian element.
Mr.. Harris opened the meeting with brief
Szlupas. The organizer said that the crowd
was not as large as he had expected to find,
but it compared very favorably in both
numbers and material with the first meetings
held in this region during the first introduce
tion of the NJ. & L. A. A. and he felt sufic-
iently encouraged to state that another meet
ing would SOW seeds for an organization
which would attain membership of from
600 to 800 within month.
DR.. Szlupas was then introduced He asked
permission of the audience to first speak in
the Lithuanian language and did so. This
occupied about ten minutes, after which
the doctor read the following address in Eng
| lish.
GENTLEMEN AND BROTHERS: The present
organization of human society is not an ideal
one. As in the times of antiquity there are
rich and poor classes There are social
ranks-the rich, the educated, the ruling
classes on the one side the poor, the unedu-
| Gated, the ruled and oppressed on the other.
The one lives in luxury and plenty; the other
in misery and distress. Now the oppressed
classes, the mob, are the producers of wealth,
the creators OF commodities, 1t is natural,
and we would expect it, that the producers
should be the legal consumers of their pro-
| ducts. In the meantime we find that the
non-productive labor-if we call it so-earns
more than the real workers who expend their
muscular force and their nervous strength.
| If we estimate the yearly productions of the
| United States to be worth twelve million
thousand dollars, three-fourths of this goes to
| the benefit of the higher classes and only
one-fourth of the national wealth reaches the
| huts Of the poor, the working and destitute
classes Now, who compose the higher classes2
In the first place. the capitalists, monopolists
and millionaires, who organize trusts, who
despise and at the same time fear the bees OF
society? Then follows the army of clergy,
which hold in its hands large estates at
present, great funds, all of which are exempt
from taxation and other social duties. AT
last there is the government with a long list
Of officers, police, army and militia"
Continuing DR.. Szlupas said, "The working
hands create all the wealth, yet the laborer is
hungry build houses and palaces, yet the
workers live in sinking bee-hives, so badly
ventilated, dark and filthy that the cattle
might often commiserate the fate of the poor
man. Plenty of clothing is there, yet the
working people walk about badly clothed {;
the wealth of the nation is increasing every
year, yet the integral portion, the dynamic
portion of society, is kept poor, emaciated,
sickly and uneducated."
In conclusion DIR, Szlupas said the remedy
for this is organization, education and agita.
ton, The power of the higher classes
consists in their organizations the perditon
and misfortune OF the poor lies in their
centrifugal tendencies. Organization at the
same time is a mighty instrument for educa.
ton, especially if meetings for discussions of
the labor questions could be organized.
After DR., Szlupss concluded his addresses
and the applause which followed them had
died out Mr.. Harris advanced on the stage
and prefaced an address by complimenting
the doctor. Mr.. Harris reverted in his re
marks to the early days of the NJ, & L, A. A.
and the difficulty he experienced in getting
I the organization on its feet and in support Of
his movement to re-organize he said there
wasn't man who belonged to it who
did not reap more benefit in one month at the
time the Association induced the Reading
Company to withdraw the notice of FIVE per
cent. reduction than he paid into the Associa'
tion in any one year He said that if the
the organization had been kept upand was in
existenceto day the men would be in a far
better condition than they are at present.
Mr.. Harris stated that unfortunately he was
not in position to prove the assertion, but
he felt confident that the Reading Company