The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1894-08-04

l ssOn every sfde mems being discharged
lsseir places. When ssssere.. factory Shuts
down. the workers who fnhabit and gave IL
\ life, a. thoughts TO the brain, go away, and
1t stands there like an empty skull. few
| workmen by force of habit, gather about
the closed doors and broken windows and
talk about distress, the price of food and
the coming winter. They are convinced
their labor created. They feel certain that
the machines inside were not their friends.
! They look at the mansion of the employer
but have nothing themselves. The employer
seems to have enough. Even when en-
| Ployers fail. when they become bankrupt,
! they are far better off than the laborers ever
| were. Their worst is better than the toilers
| best.
The capitalist comes foreward with his
! specific. He tells the workingman that he
| must be economical-and yet, under the
present system, economy would only lessen
| wages. Under the great law of supply and
| demand every saving, frugal, self denying
| workman is unconsciously doing what little
| he can do to reduce the compensation of
himself and his fellows. The slaves who
did not wish to run away helped fas!en
mechanic is certificate that wages are high
| enough. Does the great law demand that
every worker should live on the least possible
amount of bread7 Is it the fate to work one
day that he may get enough food to be able
| to work another7 Is that to be his only
| hope-that and death?
,CaPita! mas always clalmeds and still
| claims, the right to combine. Manufactu-
ries meet and determine prices, even in
spite of the great law of supply and demand.
Have the laborers the same right to consult
club house or parlor. Workingmen, when
| they combine, gather in the street. All the
organized forces of society are against them.
] Capital has the army and the navy, the leg
| islature, the judicial and executive depart
ments: When the poor combine, it is a
they really do something. it is ..mob."
| If they defend themselves, it is treason.
| How is it that the rich control the depart
| ments of government In this country the
J political power is equally divided among
| men. There are certainly more poor than
| rich. Why should the rich control? Why
should not the laborer combine for the pur-
pose of controlling the executive, the legis-
lative and judicial Departmental Will they
| ever find how powerful they are? A cry
| comes from the oppressed, the hungry, from
the downtroddcn, from the unfortunate,
| from the despised, from men who despair
and from women who weep. There are
is:s-when rag becomes banner, under
! which the noblest and the bravest battle for
right.
How are we to settle the unequal contest
between man and machine? Will the ma
chine finally go into partnership with the
laborer7 Can these forces of nature be
controlled for the benefit of her suffering
| children? Win extravaganza keep pace
Will AuSeHu4ty6 Will the WOfkmen become
intelligent enough and strong enough to be-
| come the owners of machines? Will these
giants, these 'ritians, shorten or lenethen
| the hours of labor? Will they give leisure
for the industrious, will they make the
rich richer and the poor poorer? Is man in
volved in the general scheme of things?
Can man become intelligent enough to be
generous, to be just, does the same law
or vegetable world7 The great oak steals
the sunlight from the smaller trees. The
strong animal devou.s the weak-everything
at the mercy of the beak, and claw, and
brain. and greed--incquality, Injustice
everywhere. The poor horse standing in
the stree; with his dray, overworkeI, over
whipped, and un,lerfel, when he sees other
horses gros:tiea to mirror, glistening with
gold and silver, scorning with proud feet
the very earth, probably INDUCES in the
usual Soc'aIistic reflections; and this same
horse, worn out and old, deserted bv his
master, turned into the dusty road, leans his
head on the topn,ost rail, looks at donkevs
in the field of clover, and feels like a Mill
list.
In the days of cann:;oalism the Strong de-
voured the weak-actually ate their flesh.
In spite of all the laws that man has male,
in spite Of all advances III science, the strong,
the hea:tlcss, sill live on the weak, the UNI
fortunate, the foolish. True, they do not
cat their flesh or drink their blood but they
live on their labor, on their self-denial,
their wcarincs5 and want. The poor man
who defocms himself by toll, who labors for
his wife and children through all his anx-
ious, barren, wasted Efe-who goes to the
grave without ever having a luxury-has
been the food of others. He has been de-
voured by his fellowmen. The poor woman,
living in the bare and lonely room, cheer
less and freless, sewing night and day to
keep starvation from her child, is slowly
being eaten by her fellowmcn. When take
into consideration the agony of civilized
lfe-the failures, the anxiety, the tears, the
withered hopes, the bitter realities, the hun
ger, the crime, the humiliation, the shame
l am almost forced to say that cannibalism,
after all, is the most nlerciful form in which
man has ever lived upon his fellowmen.
1t is impossible for with good
heart to be satisfied with this world as it now
is. No man can truly enjoy even what he
earns-what he knows to be his own-know-
ing that millions of his fellownlen are in
misery and want. When we think of the
famished, we feel that it is almost heartless
to eat. To meet the ragged and shiveriny
makes one almost ashamed to be we'll
dressed and warm-onc feels though his
heart cold their bodies.
In world flied with MILLIONS of acres of
and awaiting to be titled, where one man can
raise the food for hundreds, yet millions are
on the edge of of famine. Who can COM
prehcnd the stupidity at the bottom of this
truth?
Is there to be no changer ;.
Are the laws of 'ssupply and demand,,'
invention and science mpnoro1v and