The Washington times., 1894-04-29

lb,
| field work at an increase of pay of over $1,000
per year August 9, 1888 Very respectfully
| April 25, 1894. j. M MCCOY.
PoUGIIING HAWLEY AND WOLCOTT.
A Correspondent Refers to Their Recent
Speeches and Quotes from Ruskin.
| To the Editor of THE TIMES:
1t is ell very well for Senator Wolcott to de-
nounce turbulent workingmen and their sympa-
thizers as thieves, cranks and lunatics: he pro-
ducor of nothing at any time Of his life that was
useful, expert in the play Of his wits for gain.
and himself spectacle of statesmanship that
provokes the revolutionary gorge to rise within
them; he is just blind enough to stand up In the
Senate md ieer and call hard names.
It is well enough for Senator HawleY to de-
nounce the words Of Senator Allen as containing
the bacteria and bacilli of anarchism. The SEN
ator from Connecticut is possessed OF an ego
tisin that increases with his age, and q heredl-
tary bigotry that refuses to recognize that al
former systems went down under the merciieSs
wheels OF progress, development, new ihteu-
gence, new assertion, new and splendid possible
tiles of comfort and happiness for all
Men who, like Hawley, lived in the past ana
are welded TO all that is pernicious, with all
that is good in the systems that are now Decom-
ing obsolete, and men like Walcott, VINO nave
within their little hour, like fungi or ephemerse,
cannot be expected to take progressive view
OF anything, and would not dare to give utter
ance to progressive idea If any such thing
were struggling for egress from their brains
Others do think, however, some in one way
and some in another, Coxey in his way, Carlyle
in his way. and the prophecy of the phllosopher
and the grotesque and yet eloquent and pathetic
protest of the rising and marching bands OF the
so-caled commonweal are part and parcel OF
the same evolution, which recognizes that the
system of exploitation of labor by capital oi wage
slavery, which enables one man to use the Work
of another in the interests of his own idleness
] f- ito lacf Iafrc
everybody now recognizes this, except the poll
tican. whose only art is to run with his machlne
and use the disgraceful corruption of the ballot
box and the favor of the money power 10 Keep
himself installed in Office.
These time-serving politicians, who one day
not far hence will be swept to dishonorable and
despised obscurty, yet feel safe to denounce the
cry OF hungry men and women treason ana
their defenders as anarchists They still count
on the ignorance of the masses TO support them
in their denunciation of the phenomena OF the
times the production of cranks and lunatics
They still feel free utter the ancient lie that any
honest person who wants to work can lind work
Others and greater ones do not see through their
| eyes. The warning of seers never penetrate 10
the profound recesses CT their elongated ears AS
a counter irritant to Wolcott and Hawley let US
take sentence or two from John Ruskin, writ
ten in 1871 after the downfall of the Paris COM
mune:
.,But occult theft, theft which hides itself even
from itself, and is legal, respectable, and cow
ardly, corrupts the body and soul OF man to the
last fiber of them, and the guilty thieves OF Eu-
are the capitalists-that is to say, people who
live by the percentages of the la Dor OF others, in
stead of by fair wages for their own. The real
war in Europe, of which this lighting in Paris Is
| the Inauguration, is between these and the
workman, such as these have MADE him. They
have kept him poor, ignorant, and simple, that
| they might, without his knowledge. gather for
themselves the produce OF his toll At last aim
insight into the fact of this dawns on him, and
as they have made him he meets them and VIII
meet"
As the best rhythmic expression of the ten
dency of current thought that has come under
my notice, the thought not only OF the wage
workers but of a vast and highly cultivated class
as well, hope you, Mr.. Editor, in the columns
of your paper, that is open to symposls upon all
subjects, viii print the following from the Ger
man of Herwegh who, while not a cynic as Heine
was has much of that wonderful power OF ex-
preston in meter which made Heine feared and
famous. 1t is called 1.-The Song of German
Brotherhood of Labor
Said Wealth to Toll, pray thou. but labor too;
And-time is money-let thy prayers be few.
Pale Hunger always hovers O. er thy head,
Then let thy prayers be short, for time is bread
Ye SOW and reap and plow the furrowed field,
Your heavy hammers evermore ye wield
| Unwearied still ye weave and stitch and spin;
| Then say, We people, what reward ye win.
| 1T loom and shuttle day and night ye sit
| Dig coal and metal deep in darksome pit;
| Fill high rich plenty's overfowing horn
With earth's best gifts of wine and oil and corn
But where is then your rich reward, and where
Your gaia garIGe ent ana your ltStAl lares
| Where the home comforts OF your bed and board,
And where the shining of your sharpened sword?
| All these are fashioned by your arm alone,
| And have ye nought that ye can call your ownp
| Of all We forge does naught indeed remain,
| NOught but the links and rivets OF your chain?
| The links and rivers of a chain whose rings
| Your bodies bite and gall your spirits wings,
| Whose clank your children all too early learn
| To know-ye people, this is what ye earn
| The spoils that We from gloom TO light of day
| So hardly bring, your master takes away;
| And all the gay, bright colors that We weave
Are naught but curses 10 your limbs that cleave.
| The homes your hands have built and the halls
| To you no shelter give within their walls;
| And men the latchet of whose shoes you tied
| Shall tread ye down in insolence and pride.
| Ye human honey bees, has Nature taught
| le how to store your sugared sweets for naught?
| The drones around ye buzz with idle wing:
| Have ye been plundered of the power to sting?
| Ye sons of labor, upl awake, arise!
Learn all the virtue in your strength that lies.
| The worlds great wheels and works refuse to go
| Unless your stalwart arms the force bestow.
| Pale grow your proud oppressors in their fear,
| II ye, oerweary of your evil cheer,
| Refuse for to plod behind the plow,
| And cry, Enough Wen toll no longer now"
| Oh break at last your double yoke in twain,
And burst under slaverys iron chain;
Cast of the servitude OF want and need,
For bread is freedom, freedom bread, indeed.
Herein Messrs Hawley Wolcott and the rest
| is the virile and dominant thought of the civil
lized world to-day Let me beg of you, instead of
making horrible mouths at those who are hon.
estly striving to find remedy, that you offer
some remedy yourselves other than the man
bareback, who would be bowled out of his
saddle in the midst Of the most terrible carnage
the people of earth have ever witnessed.