The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-23
MAN WITH THE RED BUTTON
IN INTER ESTING NEW YORK
 TYPE.
An Apostle of the discontented--yyha He Thinks on Important Social and Political Questions.

! You are apt to meet him anywhere on
 the east side, for there are ten thousand
 of him scattered through the egg-box
 tenenents of the overcrowded districts.
 He is not unlike his neighbors in ap-
 pearance, except that, while they are
 dull and apathetic, he is bright, fiercely argumentative. Almost always under sized, and narrow -chested, with half furtive, half-defiant expression, you
 would not imagine him to be a propa- gandist of high social Ideals, or the pi- i oneer of society disenthralled from vice and poverty He does not look in,
 any respect like & Marxian or one who
 has been born thousand years ahead
 of his generation.
 Yet, he considers himself all this, and
 more; for he is no less than member
 of the international body of Marxian
 Socialists. He belongs to that Salva-
 tion Army of social revolution which
 has overturned cabinets in France, ex-
 torted political concessions in Belgium,
 and blocked the plans of the emperor
 in Germany. In all countries his em-
 bem is the red bead or button or rib
 bon, worn on the lapel of the coat. In
 New York it is button, half an inch
 in diameter, with an upraised arm and
 hammer, or hand and torch printed
 upon it in black. The shape and design
 very in different countries and among
 the rival sects of this contumacious
 organization, but the color is always and everywhere the same. The red
 button and the red flag have been the emblems of labor and revolution for more than three thousand years. In the ancient world the favorite colors of the aristocracy were white and azure blue, while red was plebeian. Minerva and Ceres, the goddesses of labor and agri- culture, were always represented as dressed in flaming red; and the banners of the Greek and Roman trade unions were of the same color. The red flag nowhere in antiquity meant ferocity and slaughter, but rather typified the fact hat all men, whether slaves or masters, had in their veins the same blood, and in their nature the same hu- manity. But in the frequent servile wars of Italy and Greece the red flag gradually became the emblem, not of labor, but of revolt. At one time, when the rebellious slaves and gladiators un- der Spartacus defeated three Roman armies, the red flag was on the point of supplanting the eagle in the imperi- al city itself. It is related that the la were so fanatically devoted to their flag that it was the custom of their generals when in battle to hurl it | far into the enemy's ranks, and so com pei it's devotees to rush forward and | recover 1t.
 And now, after the lapse of more than two thousand years, these red buttons and f1ags-emblems of proletarian re- { yolt--are still worn and waved ill our { western republic. Every liberty that spartacus and his hosts fought for, and ] thousand privileges that they never | dreamed of, are now the heritage of all, whether born on Hester street or Fifth avenue Caste and kingship, with all heir accouterments have been forced rom the streets into the museums; and yet here on Broadway and In Central Park you will meet with some undying 'evolutionist, the Man with the Red Button, still as resentful as he was when Cheops flogged the slaves of Gi- ,eh.
 Not many evenings since I met him n a cheap Ladies and gents" restau- ant on East Canal street. He was sit ing alone at one of the smaller tables,
 md glanced up somewhat churlishly as
 took the chair opposite to him. He efused for some time to be lured into tion, doubtless having learned n the beer gardens of Berlin to be sus- icious of loquacious strangers. At ast I chanced upon the right question, 1 nd his tongue loosened. Tammany { egradation, the anti-vice crusade pon these subjects he talked with anil nation, though his plans for reform yere heartily orthodox
 But said I, after he had descanted | length upon the futility of all pres- mt suggestions of reform, lis it not lght that we should try to make the l ast side better place to live in!'
 The Man with the Red Button shriv- I led me with a scornful glare. z
 What do you call 'better?'" he said. , What do you call right?' They are , he foolish words of sentimentalists. :, hey are whatlthe church uses for bait f l it's traps. Rich employers say to the r Be good, be good What g 0 they mean? They mean, Be pa I ent; be economical be content with r w wages and twelve hours a day of ard labor; don't join unions; don't ,rike; don't study socialism; don't agi- lte; don't vote for your rights. Go to le churches-not to the rich ones, but a the mission halls, where they serve N 1t religion like free soup. Make mon- s, s 7 for your boss, so that he can have D illions to go to Europe and buy doles it 1T his daughters. Don't go to the sa- e ons, because Slave that is drunk n tnnot do as good work as a slave that n
 sober That is what the employers 1. can when they say, Be good.' "Then how do you expect to improve s z, cial conditions Ii Me? I believe in economic revolu- S' on. am not reformer; I am rev. utionist It is no use to patch a rot S' n coat. You must get new cloth and in ake a new coat. This present system al nnot be improved, except for the cap dist it must be destroyed. There will SC
 a revolution that will set free the m 0rkers. just as there was a revolution le
 France to set free the middle classes. q. lu know that great motto of Karl arA. 'Workingnen Of the world 10 lite. Labor must free itself. It must W
 class conscious. It must get rid of iaul the ia L,irs who pretend to be friends I,