Year: 1876

-


sive style of living for the laboring classes,
is inspired by the most narrow and super
ticial considerations.


That there is nothing on earth too good
for man.


That the most extravagant extravagance
il that which wastes human beings to saUe
things!


That stomachs should not be starved,
that food may be saved
That q world of palaces is cheaper than
q world of novels and tenement houses.


That the most polished reinements, and
aesthetic tastes, with all their belongings,
are more easily produced, when produced
| for all, than the little now obtained by the
masses.


That poverty for all costs infinitely more
than wealth for all.
And between these bene6cent consider
ations, and the enforced idleness and star
vation of labor, there ia no alternative !:
but if the citizens of a Republic cannot
save themselves, they cannot save their
freedom, or Republicanism.


feesofccu, That while the worlds employ
ments are to end at last in industrial CO.
operation, in which Laborer and Capitalist
will be One, and self-employed, and those
who now pay wages, and those who receive
them, will be mutually but gradually melt
ed out Of existence, through moral causes
that must have time TO grow, that the first
steps on that long road leading up to CO.
operation, must be taken with reference to
the relations that the Capitalist and Labor
ing classes sustain to each other tO-ddy!
And between that large class of trade
unIonists and wage workers who believed
that the wage system is TO last forever,
and we who know it will not, the measures
of to-day must proceed, as if we were OBJ
livious to the slavish conditions the wage
system sustains, and to the war relations
established by a condition that gives or
takes any mans labor for nothing.
ReSOtged, therefore, That through higher
wages, the entire wage paying system will
disappear


And when the amounts earned and OBJ
tanned by the average iaborer are exactly
alike. the syste that employed him has
vanished, and its place is taken by one that
enables him to employ himself-Which is
Cooperation.


But all attempts 70 anticipate co-opera-





are exotics, or mere hot-house growths
that are kept alive for time through the
sheer force Of character and self sacrificing
leadership attempting them, and are rs
foreign to an atmosphere Of cheap labor,
and a world Of wages, a. the plants Of the
tropics in Northern cline


ResoIeed, That thirty long years Of aglta-
tion have at last been vindicated and leg
islation on the Hours of Labor nov stands
entrenched behind the decision Of the
Supreme Court Of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts that the Ten Hour enact
ment Of 1874 is constitutional


And the open and shameless violation OF
this law by the manufacturers, and their
plots to secure It's repeal, must be met, by
demanding it's re-enactment III every State
in the Union, and all Of the additional
legislation necessary to secure its enforce
ment


Resoteed, That the appeal Of Fall River
manufacturers, the 9th day Of Septem-
ber, 1875, to the State militia, is fair no
tice to all concerned that they and their
operative classes are living in war rela-
tions to each other.


And the fact that legislative or official
investigation mas not followed Fall Rivers
appeal to arms, proves either the criminal
indifference of Massachusetts to this dis
grace, or that the Capitalist classes and the
State authorities are unit In all that con-
Germs labor.


ReSoired, That the recent speech of Hon
Aaron A. Sargent in the United States
Senate, on the Chinese in California, should
be read by laborers everywhere, as a most
remarkable statement of the terrors Of
cheap labor.


And all that has probably saved New
England from large influx of Cinnamon,
and the most deadly competition of cheap
labor ever visited upon Christendom, is
the unparalleled stagnation Of industry in
the last three or four years


Resolred, That the question is not mar
rowed to conflict between Chinese and
American laborers, but is between the
cheap labor and the dear labor Of the whole
world


That the most highly paid labor the
world ever saw, was necessary to make q
Republican form Of government possible;
and confidence in the Republic falls, when
wages fall.


That it is treason to use Republic, born
Of dear labor, to make labor cheap and
all treaties and intercourse with other ma
tions, and national and local legislation
should proceed with reference to the
broad, moral and natural causes that in
crease the price of human labor every
where.