Kansas City daily journal., 1897-01-04
CONTROLLED BY SOCIALISTS.
AN ALLEGED MEETING OF THE UN-
EMPLOYED OF THE CITY.
..Mother" Jones and other "Advanced
Thinkers" Aired Their Peculiar
Vfews-OnIy n Few Work.
ingmen Present.

The mass meeting of the unemployed"
of Kansas City which had been announced
to take place at their labor headquarters,
l117 Walnut street. yesterday afternoon,
was much more a genuine socialists meet
ing than that of the starving representa-
tives of American manhood seeking hon
est employment. The meeting was called
to order at o'clock and when darkness
came on it was still in session. In the an
nouncement of the meeting it was stated
that its purpose was TO get all the un-
employed laborers of the city together to
sign petition demanding work from the
city officials and to make arrangements
for marching in a body through the streets
of the city to the city hall and presenting
the document to his honor, the mayor, and
the city council.
Anyone attending the meeting out of
mere curiosity to see the army of Kansas
Citys unemployed laborers would have
come to the conclusion that either the
army was very small or that those out of
employment did not care to repeat Cen
eral Coxey's plan and march through the
streets of the city as a band of Weary
Willies The meeting was held in the hall
occupied the SOCIALIST OluD every Quiz
day afternoon, and, with the exception of
eighteen men who answered to roll call
of the unemployed" the hall was filled
with the members of that party. The meet
ing was presided over by Clinton Waller,
who was formerly a member of the A. r.
u, but who is now without employment.
He was compelled to repeatedly call the at
tention of those present to the fact that the
meeting was not socialist meeting. but
of he
his efforts. the theories of the advanced
members of that party as to the cause" of
the men being out of employment had to
be given in full, and the eighteen laborers
who attended the meeting with the hope
that some plan was to be devised whereby
they could make a living, We're compelled
to patiently remain in silence. incidentally
the meeting developed the fact that the
Socialist party contained some bitter fac
tions.
Mother Jones, who marched across the
country with Coxey's army. and who is
now the leader of the Socialist party in
Kansas City, made the opening address of
the meeting.
"If the government of this city is not
capable of taking care of you, get a gov
ernment that is capable she said. You
have voted yourselves into your present
abject condition. You helped the other fel-
low get his job, now make him get you
job. This is surely not civilization at the
close of the nineteenth century that we can
boast of. Children are being employed
while you walk the streets in IdeneSS. 1t
" ould be quite an improvement of things
if you men would all remain at home while
we women go out in the world. We can
do the voting and make a good living for
all of you. This country is the best repre-
sentation of rot royalty in the world. You
have been doing the voting for years and
hay haA iT1Cr ItN- NIN-
haven't you protected yourselves by max
ing direct legislation, so that when the
city council or the school board refuses to
give you work you can recall the men who
you voted into office. In all these years
you have produced only one great man,
Eugene V. Debs. If you can't do better
than that just put on the Mother Hubbards
and stay at home with the children while
we women take a hand at running the
government"
This speech was followed by speech by
another advanced" socialist, who said
that he did not blame the police for arrest
ing every man on the streets vino could not
give a good account of himself and show
that he had visible means of support, but
that he did blame the city for not putting
more policemen to work and thereby give
employment TO more men.
The most remarkable speech which the
little knot of unemployed laborers had to
n.
who poses as the organizer of socialism in
this section. The doctor wears the latest
cut of Prince Albert and dainty nose glass
es, parts his hair at the equator and,
though of diminutive stature, wears heavy
sandy burnsides which makes him look
quite the English plutocrat. He went from
England to Australia as missionary sew
eral years ago and now seems to have Il
grudge against everybody. In the same
breath he denounced the ''glaring' trusts
and then the eighteen unemployed laborers
before him for voting for men who pro-
tected the trusts. He said that there were
more unemployed men in this country than
in any other country in the whole world.
The vast armies of Europe gave employ
ment to the surplus men there while in this
country the men went without food.
What We want is to form an army of
construction" he continued; IAN army to
build and to work. If at any time our
army is met by the army of destruction, the
armed troops. let us go down as martys
Despite the trusts, the combines, the plu-
tocratic press and you reporters (referring
to those present at the meeting) let us
stick to our purpose of demanding work"
AT this Juncture one of the unemployed
men, said to another who was sitting be-
side him that he did not see how that
fellow" was capable of advising them. he
certainly had never done any work. The
present form of government and every
thing in general at great length and the
more he talked the more he jumped and
gestured. Nearly every phase of his ha-
ranEue contained "a government Of by
ana for the people" and it was only when
he had used up his store of metaphors
and theories that he consented to leave
the floor.
When the doctor had finally seated him
self one OF the less advanced" members
of the party declared: "All this theory
business is good but that is not giving
these poor fellows work. We are the same
crowd that has been here for years. We
have squabbled and made governments
amcnE ourselves and then divided on the
proper methods of reform. What we want
to do is to get all the unemployed men to
thinking and to studying, TO educate them
to the point where they can see for them
selves that as long as they continue to
vote as they have in the past they can
never expect to better their condition. We
must get them all to join the Socialist
party. | move you, Mr.. President. that
we enroll the names of those present here
to day"
Several of the members of the party i'm
mediately arose to speak and in the maze
of parliamentary rulings that followed the
motion was forgotten. p. z. Duffy, well
known in labor circles gained the recogni-
ton of the chair. He classified the MEM
bers of the party for their squabblings and
said that as the meeting had been called
for the purpose of organizing the unem-
ployed laborers of the city into body to
march to the city hall he thought that that
business should be attended TO without
further delay. He said he had information
to the effect that outside of the clerical
employees of the city, only 200 men were
employed The common laborers, he con-
1 t,1 Of fa1E 1Esy,r-