Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1894-04-29

sembling of these vast throngs. On
May day, 1898, it was estimated that
500, 900 workingmen marched into
HYDE Park, listened to addresses from
Morris, Burns, Arch and other well
known labor and socialistic agitators.
This represents more than half the
voting population Of the greatest city
in the world, and if TO 1t be added the
hundreds OF thousands OF unorganized
men and women living perpetuaily on
the edge of want, with hardly home,
and no feeling for patriotism, ready to
follow the leader of any out0teak in a
work OF desolation, we can see some
reason why extra brigades of troops
should be ordered to London and al the
police reserves called out on the first
OF May. II this vast gathering, proper
ly led, were to assert itself for revolu-
ton, the red coatf and blue coats OF
London would be swept from its path
like a straw from torrents conrse,
and all the hereditary rulers, and the
throne itself, would 60 down before it.
But, to the credit OF the working
Englishman be 1t said, these great de-
monstrations have so far passed off
without one lawless act on the part OF
any member of any labor organization.
This in itself demonstrates that the
English workingman fully appreciates
his privileges, recognizes that they
elevate his manhood, and so will never
let any accession of liberty degenerate
into the license of the mob.
On the continent, however, 1t Is very
different. France, though a republic,
still retains many Of the methods that
distinguished the monarchy from whose
ruins it sprang. Here the suppressive
measures of the government have been
unnecessarily harsh, and the tendency
has been TO drive the proletariat into
opposition, and to foster the spirit of
the commune which, despite the horrors
of its suppression in 1871, still exists in
that country, and is growing The
French workingman OF 1894 fully un-
derstands the great things accomplish
ed by the workingman Of 1898, and he
regards the methods Of the revolution
which so effectually broke up the power
OF the French aristocracY as the proper
means TO be used at this time for the
abolition of what he regards as the
'tyrant landlord" and "capitaIistic
master" The gathering in the Champs
Elysee or the Champs de Mars have
therefore much more ominous signi-
ficance to the French government than
have the gatherings in ST. James and
Hyde Parks TO the English.
Labor in Belgium is becoming more
and more aggressive, and although il is
Catholic country, the workingman,
hitherto so submissive To the power Of
the church, now refuses to follow the
counsels Of the priests when they run
counter TO the rules of his local accoca.
tons. 1t is a curious fact that in those
countries where labor has been most
suppressed, but where it has gained
concessions and come TO realize its own
power and begun TO see its own wants,
the tendency Is TO run TO extremes, and
to hold its own labor organizations as
superior 10 the government itself. The
spirit Of patriotism that once so strong
ly distinguished the Belgian working
man seems to have passed away; the
power exercised over him by the church
is fast becoming a dead letter, and, IN
the fierce struggle for existence, all his
thoughts are centered on himself, or If
he gives a thought to others, it is SIM
ply TO regard them as associates to
whom he must cling in order to further
his own ends. The revolutionary and
democratic spirit of the age is permeat-
ing and haneycombing this little king
dom TO the north Of France. The
peasant no longer doffs his hat and bends
his knee to the passing count, and the
grimy miner and the hardisted farmer
unite in sneers at and denunciations Of
Leopold, their debauc hee king.