The San Francisco call., 1895-08-01
DOES NOT CARRY ARMS,
National Labor Army Holds
Weekly Drills in Two
Halls Now.
ITS PRINCIPLES AND OBJECTS.
Regiments Being Formed In Various
Cities-LoS Angeles to Have
One.

The National Labor Army, recently
formed for the purpose of amalgamating
trades unions into military organization
and which holds weekly meetings for
discussion and drills, has finally adopted
preamble, which Messrs. Rose. Knox
and Farquhar, the committee, have been
preparing for some time, and it has also
made declaration of principles.
Drills are now held in two halls, and to-
night the ordinary military facings and
movements will be practiced at 1l59
Mission street and 818 Howard.
President E. D. Marlatt said yesterday
that the army was organizing all over the
country, regiments having been started in
Chicago, Cincinnati and other cities of the
East. A mass-meeting was held in Los
Angeles last Sunday at which a regiment
was enlisted. Ed Layler of Los Angeles
wrote to Mr.. Marlatt that there were about
300 men in that city ready to begin
drilling.
"a mistaken impression has gone out"
explained Marlatt, ''to the effect that we are
arming ourselves. Such is not the case at
all, and so far as we are concerned, there
was no occasion whatever for Governor
Budd's proclamation against organizations
drilling with arms.
'If the Governor aimed that proclama-
ton at our organization, he must have
acted upon mere presumption, or else he
was greatly misinformed. Perhaps he
thought it was a necessary precaution, but
it strikes me as extremely unwise for any
executive in this country to act with un-
warranted haste. Besides, his proclama-
ton, II of any effect at ALL strikes great
many more societies than the Governor
had in mind at the time.
1--WE have about HOO men enlisted in
this National Labor Army in this City al
ready, and there is not a weapon of any
through the ordinary military tactics with
out arms"
The observation was also made by Mr..
Ma7latt that Governor Budd received 1900
votes from the American Railway Union.
Mr.. Marlatt is president of the local union,
and quite number of the members of
that organization are in the National Labor
Army. He thought the Governor "should
think of his Obligations to the working
people before rushing into type with proc
famations, the effect of which was to
throw some stigma upon organized bodies
of wageworkers.'
Following is the preamble adopted, and
it speaks for itself:
In this great age of progress the universal
tendency is toward organization and combina-
ton. The wealthy capitalists, com bined and
consolidated, monopolize the products of the
world, while the rapid concentra ton ofiwealth
and power in the hands of the moneyed classes
has had an extremely injurious erect upon ali
branches of honorable toll
With the aid of their money and the power
it wields over the masses, capital has been able
to defy the will of the people and has prosti-
tuted our Congress, the Legislatures and the
judiciary. In vain have we searched for relief.
| The ballot, it has been declared, is the great
and only remedy. We have tried 1t, and are
forced to realization of the fact that the
ballot as it is used to-day, does not express the
true verdict of the will OF the people.
1t is a notorious fact that corporations and
| trusts compel their employees to vote directly
against the various interests of said employees,
thereby depriving the worklngmen OF the only
peaceable means of solving this great struggle.
With the power of his money does the capt.
alist control the very existence of the men that
have made him rich, being able to confront
the worker and his family with the menace OF
starvation, unless said worker consents to add
more links to the chain OF slavery that already
binds him.
Now does this condition of affairs demand
our most earnest attention. From bitter past
experience we have come to the conclusion
that as individuals. or as individual trades
unions acting Independently, we can never
| successfully fight against the great and massive
aggregation of wealth. Never can we Tlght
this great and crushing wrong until body
composed of all wageworkers OF this country
shall como into existence.
The time has arrived when we can no longer
permit ourselves to sink lower and lower until
beyond all possible hope of redemption. The
labor of this country must organize as one
union of all the working classes. We must
stand shoulder TO shoulder and upon election
day march to the polls and cast our votes as
free men, not as hired slaves, and we must pro-
tect the purity of the ballot at any cost or sac
rifice. Then once more shall the American
flag occupy the proud position for which our
forefathers fought so valiantly to give 1.-THE
flag of a free and independent people.
Never more Will we as nation bow to the
will of the money bags and allow property
rights to be considered paramount to human
life. We must call a halt when our railroad
maPnates can get behind their property rights,
as interpreted by our supreme courts, tor this
they do now, showing conclusively that LIE is
regarded by the tribunals of this country as
secondary to property rights.
The capitalist does not have to arbitrate or
make any concessions to labor. He simply
degrades the emblem of this country by wrap
ping it around himself. and he then calls upon
an army, composed of the working classes and
maintained and supported by the wageWorkers
of this country, to enforce his views OF the
rights of property as against the natural rights
of human life, which we know, to our cost, is
readily and invariably done.
When we ask for bread and shelter we are
fed with bullets and housed in jafls. and are
shot down for simply asking recognition of our
natural rights; and ali this in a country m ore
blessed by nature than anv other on the lace
of the earth in country whose Declaration
of Independence sets forth that all men are
born free and equal and are entitled to the in
alienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness
Therefore it is imperatively the duty OF
every man who has the welfare of this country
at heart to do all in his power to secure,
through the organization of this army, the
power and freedom guaranteed to all true citi-
zens of these United States; the right OF true
and honest verdict of the people at the ballot
box; the due and proper regard for human
life by the powers of government in all contro-
versies wherein both life and property rights
are at stake, and the protection of our rights
by the Government as guaranteed by our Ma
tional constitution.
To accomplish these objects and the objects
set forth in our declaration of principles and
constitution have we organized the National
Labor Army OF the United States of America.
James w. Rose, Harry A. Knox, Frank Far
quhar, committee on preamble.
The declaration of principles contains
the following:
1. An honest ballot at any cost.
2. The value of human life before property
rights
8. Government ownership of land and all
public utilities such as railroads, steamships,
telegraphs, mines, etc.
4. Reduction of the hours of labor in proper
ton to the progress of production.
s. Municipal ownership of all municipal
utilities such as street transit systems, gas,
electric light and water service; all public
work to be done by days labor.
6. Executive officers of the United States to