The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-03-21
THE RESPONSIBILITY
MOST OF THE PREVALENT MISERY
CHARGEABLE TO CONGRESS.

CHARGEABLE TO CONGRESS.
Wisdom and Honesty Have Not Been the
Guides to Congressional Action The
Rights of Man Have Been Taken From
Him by Vicious Legislation.
A year age. liz an article written for
the American Press Association, pre-
dicted that before the frost was out of
the ground in the spring of 1894 the
wageworkers in the United States
would find themselves in a condition
worse than any that had inthralled the
working class at any previous period in
the history of the country. The predic-
ton was based upon the knowledge that
for years we had been rapidly approach
ing crisis in industrial affairs-a
crisis which could only be prevented by
legislation of a radical character i
was positive that no such legislation
would be had. 1t is not necessary that
I should discuss in detail my reasons
for the prophecy. Whether or not it has
been fulfilled is more to the point That
it has been terribly fulfilled is known
to every one who is acquainted with the
records and has knowledge of the situa-
ton today. Never before was the wage
working class in America in so depressed
and unhappy a state as at present, and
never before was the future of that class
SO dark and threatening. With the
workingman now the main question is
not the rate OF wages or hours of labor,
but whether he is to have work at any
price and under any conditions It will
no longer do to say Of the idle. ooh,
they are tramps and buns, because they
choose to be such and will not work
when they can avoid it.. am sure that
my estimate is conservative when l say
that there are in the United States to-
day more than 1900, 900 persons who
are out of work through no fault of
their own, who are seeking in vain for
an opportunity to earn their living and
who have been engaged in the fruitless
search for varying periods extending
back over 10 months. Further, this
great army Of enforced idlers is being
augmented with every rising and set
ting of the sun.
And SO we see the personifcation of
that element to which we owe the crea-
ton Of the things that make life worth
living ragged, starving mendicant
in the midst of civilization built by
it's Drawn and brain. What spectacle
is this for the closing years Of the nine
teenth century of the Christian era!
What picture it will make drawn by
the pen of the historian! What would
the men who declared for the right of
"life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness'' say could they return and see our
present conditions? The right to life
certainly carries with it the right to
those things necessary to sustain life.
This right should not be abridged SO
long as its exercise by an individual
does not trespass upon the equal right Of
another. Nature has performed her
part. She has placed at the hand of man
the elements out of which he may pro-
duce the things needful to the sustenance
of life and has equipped him with the
physical strength and the brain to guide
it, to shape those elements into things
for his use. Therefore if any man is
deprived of the opportunity to learn his
bread in the sweat of his face" he is
cheated of natural right. The 2,000,
900 and more of enforced idlers in this
country have been cheated CT that right.
Every stomach that comes into this
world to be fed, every back to be cloth
ed, brings with it the hands or other
members capable, if allowed, of supply
ing it's wants. With the improve
ments of the past 80 years in methods
Of production each pair of hands is able,
if given the opportunity, to produce a
great deal more than one person can
possibly consume. l will not say how
much more, for the doctors disagree
somewhat upon the subject. This coun-
try is gifted with natural resources as
is no other land under the sun. Then
why these millions of poverty stricken
men of muscle in such an enlightened
age and in such country?
There can be but one correct answer
to this query, and it is written in the
four words vicious and unwise legisla-
ton. The laws which men have made
have circumvented the laws OF nature,
and the natural equal right to the essen
tials to life which the Creator gave to
all his creatures has been taken and is
withheld from some by law. 1t was my
opinion year ago that the legislation
which our national lawmakers would
give us during the ensuing - months
would further curtail the opportunities
of those who must live by their labor,
and thereby greatly aggravate a situa-
ton which was even then unbearable for
many. During the past 10 months 80
per cent of those at present unemployed
have been thrown out of work, more
than 500, 600, who are not counted with
the unemployed, have been put upon
short time, and wages have been re-
duced by cuts of from 10 to IS per cent
The wage reductions would have been
much more extensive had it not been
for the restraining influences of the
trades unions. which have so far been
able to keep up the rates in most of the
trades. By providing for their unem
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