The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-01-23
The Negro in American Labor History

ny luS cOuSIeSS Clearly SHOW the manu-
of the bourgeois politician. There are
resolutions recommending frequent
conferences between employers and
worker, ardently advocating loyalty to
the government, unequivocally con-
demning strikes. The resolution on
education is typical:
Resolved that education is one of
the strongest safeguards of the re-
publican party, the bulwark of Amer
lean citizens, and a defense against
the invasion of the rights of man. E.
We feel that it is our duty to educate
them and impress them with the fact
that all labor is honorable and sure
road to wealth. :. that the habits
of economy and temperance combined
with education and independence are
the great safeguard of free republican
institutions, the elevator of the con-
dition of man, the motive power to
increased trade and commerce, and to
make the whole OF this land the
wealthiest and happiest ON the face
of this globe"
Then there Is the following Hill
manesque resolution on the relations
Of capital and labor: wb
Resolved: That we do not regard
capital as the natural enemy of labor;
that each is dependent on the other
for existence; that the great conflict
daily waged between them is for want
of better understanding between
representatives of capital and labor;
and we therefore recommend the stu
dy of political economy in all our la
Dor organizations. as a basis for
the adjustment of the disputes that
arise between employer and employe."
The most important definite recon-
mendation Of the congress, according
to the accounts available, was con-
tanned in the memorial on agricultural
labor in the south, with it's proposal to
remedy the evils existing in this con-
nection by making labor more
scarce" thru the medium of making
laborers landowners by means Of
homestead grants.n The New York
Tribune (Dec. IL, 1859, gives the fol-
lowing account OF this memorial:
1.-THE chief matter of interest was a
memorial. setting forth that the
average wages of agricultural laborers
in the south was but $50 per annum,
that the planters were combined to
keep labor down; that this combina-
ton was made more bitter from pol.
itical motives, and its influence was
so great that it was impossible, as
matters stood, for the colored laborer
to exercise civic privileges, except at
the risk of his livelihood, poor as that
was. To remedy this, labor must be
made more scarce, and the best way
to do that was to make the agricul-
tural laborers landowners. Congress
is to be asked, therefore, to subdivide
public lands in the south into twenty
acre farms, to make one years resis-
dence entitle a settler to a patent, and
also to place in the hands of a COM
mittee sum of money, not to ex-
coed two million dollars, to aid the
settlement, and also to purchase lands
in states where no public lands are
found, the money to be loaned for
i've years, without interest"
The congress platform omits most
Of the main planks of the parent Ma
tional Labor Union, such as the taxa
ton of the wealthy for war purposes,
the establishment of a federal labor
department, the incorporation Of I'M
ions, greenbackism, the solidarity OF
men and women workers, the demand
for the abolition of convict labor, etc.
In addition to the resolutions men,
TONED above it adds resolutions on the
equal rights of Negroes to jobs, en-
dorsement Of the Freedman's bureau,
endorsement of the republican party,
etc. About the only definite point of
agreement in the two platforms is
the emphatic demand for the aboli-
ton Of the importation Of contract
oriental labor.
In the period between the first con-
gress and the second (aDd last) held
-