The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-07-04
THE GREAT STRIKE.
TREMENDOUS CONFLICT.
A Battle Between Watered Stock
and Hungry Stomachs.

OF MammOn-worShippers, on both Sldes
of the Atlantic, we have counselled
the labor-force to be patient and long
enduring;-that this was no time to
put forward even just demands:-that
''a half loaf was better than no
bread;"-and that the real remedy for
all their grievances was for the work.
ing men and farmers to unite and
take possession of the government,
through the ballot box; and WELD it's
powers for the repression of abuses
and the lifting up of mankind.
We regret, as much as any, the dis
turbance of business, the interruption
of travel and the mails and the ten
thousand inconveniences brought on
the people of the whole United States
by the great strike.
But we remember that there never
was any reform accomplished in this
world that did not disturb some one.
AS the French say, "to make an omelet
you must break some eggs" The set
tlement of the slavery question incon-
venienced great many people.
This whole labor question is, as we
understand it, simply this:
Civilization has advanced the hui
man family tremendously. Inventions
have multiplied the power of human
muscle immensely. AS the laborer can
now do ten times as much work as
formerly, in the same time, he should,
by right earn ten times as much; or
his hours of toll should be reduced to
one-tenth of what they were; and the
other nine-tenths should be given to
education, culture, amusement, enjoy
ment, happiness. But instead of this
happy condition the profits and advan-
tageS of civilization and invention
have been seized upon by few per-
sons who made themselves million
aires, while the mass of the workers,
under the competition of starvation,
have been forced down into the depths
of wretchedneSS, under what the
economists call "the iron law of
wages by which the workman is to
be obliged, by competition, to work at
last ''fOr just enough to maintain life,
and raise another worker to take his
place when death calls him" The
workingmen have organized to resist
this dreadful fate. And why not?
Would not the upper classes organize
and fight to death if such a destiny
threatened them? Subject the aristoc-
racy to the conditions from which the
toilers are trying to escape, and they
would become the most terrible con.
SpiratorS and dynamiters the world
has ever seen.
There can be only two futures for
the world. Either,
1st. The laborers, the toilers, the
producers, in shop, and mine and on
the farm must go down to the utmost
limits of human misery compatible
with existence. Or,
I'd. The progress of the world,
which lifted up the nobility despite
the tyranny of kings; and the middle
classes despite the tyranny of the no.
bility; must go on until the great
army of the workers have full and
fair share of all the blessings Of this
wonderful civilization which God has
bestowed on the human race.
We are now in the transition period.
We are in the midst of the battle. The
rattle Of the rifles and the roar of the
cannon surround US; the sulphurous
smoke blind us. We are ready to cry
out,-"Oh Lord! Let this cup pass
away from our lips!" But we cry in
vain. The divine impulse which be-
gan when the savage first Clipped his
axe out of flint stone, has been roll
ing down the ages, with steadily in
creasing force, everywhere lifting up
and beautifying humanity with mil
lions of blessings and graces. Once
more the Almighty One
Hath sounded forth the trumpet
That shall never call retreat;
He is sitting out the hearts of men,
Before his Judgment seat;
BE swift, my soul, to answer him.
Be jubilant my fect,-
For our God is marching on"
But away beyond all the storm and
uprOar we can see a redeemed and
glOrified world:-a world where unre-
Quilted poverty no longer tolls to en-
rich the idle stranger; but where the
blessings and benefits of civilization
are shared by all who are willing to
work for them; where cunning does
not control Justice; where might is not
right: but every man has enough and
every home is happy.
In this struggle we have on one side
an American snob, raised from the
ranks by happy chance buying from
the King of lily, with the present of a
sleeping car, a title OF nobility. a
countship or some jim-crackery of that
kind, SO that he writes himself, "Sir
George Putnam" and on the other
hand we have great multitude of
honest American workmen, who pro-
test against their wages being cut
down, to enable ''Sir George" to pay
interest on many millions of bogus
capitalization, watered stock, for
which not one penny of actual capital
was ever invested. 'Sir GEORGES,
ancestors, as his name testifies, was
originally hitched to a cart, like the
women in Holl and, and pulled it: but
the purse-proud accident resents the
effort of other men to rise as he has
done: and he is ready to wreck the
business of the whole nation to smash
his workmen into submission.
Pray God, this great movement may
not culminate in civil war; but no SEN
Nble man can view the present situa-