Year: 1874

work. They demand work as a right.
which others are bound to acknowledge,
Is there any just ground for this damand
/ Look at it a moment


Jones is a laboring man, industrious


and steady. he gets ahead, lays up money,
i becomes an employer of others: lays up
1 more: gets to be contractor, and a cap


italist: puts his money out at interest


and lives on it. There are thousands of


men this moment who are rich and were


once laboring by the day. We know one


who has millions, and before US this mo-


ment is the entry in the book of his
employer where he was engaged at So 25
| per day He is now rich and increased
| in goods, and lives on his income from


judicious investments. Every laborer
aims at the same result Now we ask
the laborer to reflect that man has a
right to employ his money as he will, if


he does no wrong with it. This is a


truism. He is not bound to hire men


to work, and to pay them wages unless


he has some work for them to do. And


what is true of Mr.. Jones is true also of


thousand other Joneses, and of all


others, and of the community and the


government. There is no duty in the
case. The laborer has no right to demand


work at the hand of Mr.. Jones, and it is


not the duty of Mr.. Jones to furnish the
laboreP with work. And not one of these
men who now demand work would feel it
their duty to furnish work, if they were
capitalists themselves This is SO obvi- |
ously true, that it seems like idle talk to |
repeat it. But the false notions of rights /
and duties infesting the laboring classes
who are misled by foreign emissaries, |
make it important to keep these truths
constantly before the public mind.


l., ! 81 IL
many will suffer. All that benevolence
and wisdom can do to relieve the desti-
tute should be dome Work should be
provided for all who are willing to work,
if there is any useful employment to be
had. But it is not the duty of individuals
or government to build houses or docks,
or to make shoes or clothes for the sake
of giving employment. There is no sense
in such demands.


A mass meeting of workingmen was
held on Thursday evening last at Cooper
Institute The large hall was overflow
ing, an q two stands were erected outside
for speaking in English and German
At the German stand one orator inveigh-
ed against the rich men of the city, and
that their ill-gotten wealth
should be taken from them by force, to
which some of his hearers responded with
loud cheers. Many of the audience, in
side and outside, had been drawn to the
meeting by curiosity, and were not in {
with the spirit manifested In I
the hall a series of resolutions was adopt
ed, including the following:


THAT we will in this, our time of need,
supply ourselves and families with proper
shelter and the necessaries of life and
will send all our bills for the same to the
to be liquidated until such ,
line as we shall obtain work and pay !
or all our work


"That we demand work and pay for
'ur work now, without delay, and the
Instant and entire abroga ton of the
whole government contract system


THAT we steadily and persistently de-
nand that hours shall constitute legal r
lay work. ;


That in order to prevent money panics !
n the future we will demand the imme-
late enactment of a law that shall limit r
he accumulations of any individual, i. e.,


law of gradual taxation.


THAT the Committee of Safety will call O


meeting of all the industries of this
ity whenever it is deemed expedient to
i've force and expression to their action. y


THAT we recognize in the farmers :
ranges movement throughout the coun- :
ry our most efficient co-workers in the =
imitation principle"


An address to the people of the United
tates was also adopted, in which it is
emanded, first, that a law shall be i'm
enacted, which shall prevent Fl
ny law being enforced until it has been Il
lbmitted to the people and sanctioned n
y the people. Second, that no indi- is
idual shall be allowed to hold, either b
irectly or indirectly, sum of money,o 81
roperty represented by money, greater
1an 100000, or any sum which the peo- q
lie themselves shall determine upon. So