Year: 1872

killing the goose that laid the golden


eggs. Through the want of professional


education" they tell us, man is no more


than mechanical agent, and free trade,


without the solidarity of laborers, viii en-


gender industrial serfdom more implacable


and more fatal to humanity than that


which our fathers overthrew in the great


days of our Revolution. Is it mechanical


agents and uneducated serfs who are ad-


dressing this kind of language to us? Is


it a process of degradation or one of i'm


provement which has rendered it possible


for men laboring with their hands to form


an international organization, to compose


elaborate manifestos, to interpret for


each other, and to plan, however errone-


ously, large schemes of European policy !?


We invite these gentlemen to look back


some fifty years, and to ask themselves


where were the men, the machinery, the


railroads, the books, and the newspapers


which have rendered these efforts possible.


By their own account it is but forty years


since the very idea was conceivable, and


to what do they owe its realization but to


that capital, that division of labor, and


that free trade which they denounce? If


they will show us what other means have


done the work, they viii have something


more to say for themselves; but when


they assert, as the starting point of their


inaugural address, that the misery of


the masses has not diminished " during


the immense development of industry and


commerce of recent years, they themselves


are the standing proof to the contrary,


and are the vindication of the social ar


rangements they denounce Would it


not be well to ask whether it be prudent


TO throw away agencies which have al


ready produced such extraordinary bene-
fits for the sake of making a fresh start


with utterly untried means? When we


come to ask more definitely what is want
ed, we are once more astonished at the


strange blindness which overlooks facili-
ties ready to hand and snatches at some
visionary future. 1t appears that the
Congress of Geneva, which supplies the
last starting point of the Association, was
in great part occupied with such matters
as the protection of female and juvenile
labor. 1t is most proper subject of dis
cussion, and good service might, no doubt,
be done by those inquiries into the cir
cumstances of labor throughout Europe
which the Association has in hand. But
did it never occur to the members-at all
events to the English Delegates-that in
order to attain such humane ends it was
not necessary to re-establish Poland or to
confseate the land Do they live so en-
tirely in dream as not to be aware that
by the simple and harmless methods al
ready prevailing in England, the State
has been induced to interfere for such
purposes, and that the greater part of the
work has been done by some of those /
" monopolizers of the sources of life "
whom they wish to eliminate from So
ciety? We do not, for our part, pretend |
to say what may be the most perfect form
of society possible, but we are quite sure
that when the most glaring grievances
can be quietly redressed by existing
means, it would be madness to risk gen
eral overthrow for the chance of something
better coming out of the scramble. Sim
ilarly, we are little perplexed to under
stand what is meant by "the economical
emancipation of the working classes" If
il be not intended that each man is to be
selfsuficient, it is clear all must
be more or less dependent on others, and,
whatever form the mode of employment
assumes, there must be employers. But
{ it be meant that the working man is
rot to be at the mercy of capitalists in
'espect to the wages of his labor, we
hink it is not necessary to go so far as
Poland to obtain such a result. At this
moment, in this "plethoric country, the
attention of the Legislature viii be largely
Engaged next session with Bill for pro-
Getting miners and other workmen from
he system of truck, and from other ex-
esses of power If the ultimate and
aims of the Association were,
n are, mainly political, this criticism falls
o the ground. But we are repeatedly /
ssured of the contrary. The Declaration I
f Principles asserts that the economical !
of the working classes is i
he great end to which every political
lovement ought to be subordinate as a I
,eans." If so, it is apparent that the !
eaders of the movement are sacrificing a {
ood bird in the hand for the chance of 4
wo in the bush. a


Unhappily, it is not every nation which '
assesses that safety-valve for these as. {
irations which insures the steady progress o
this country. 1t is instructive TO notice u
lat at critical moment in the history of d
le Association, the English members are
+ more concerned to obtain the suffrage o
home than to complete an International tt