{ title: 'The Clarion. volume (Troy, N.Y.) 1886-1887, June 05, 1886, Page 1, Image 1', download_links: [ { link: 'http://www.loc.gov/rss/ndnp/ndnp.xml', label: 'application/rss+xml', meta: 'News about NYS Historic Newspapers - RSS Feed', }, { link: '/lccn/np00170002/1886-06-05/ed-1/seq-1/png/', label: 'image/png', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00170002/1886-06-05/ed-1/seq-1.pdf', label: 'application/pdf', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00170002/1886-06-05/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.xml', label: 'application/xml', meta: '', }, { link: '/lccn/np00170002/1886-06-05/ed-1/seq-1/ocr.txt', label: 'text/plain', meta: '', }, ] }
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£ 5 , INS 7 RS,” about \■“ k S j W* ot. V.Va L“^ >11 b o ireof. r ad- VOL, I, NUMBER 5. T E O Y , N . Y ., J U N E PRICE 3 CENTS, T h e F actory (I ib l ' s L a s t D ay . Yfras on a w lstff monilig, TO* w«»t n r wet aod wild, r«o lwur< belor j tbe dawoltp Toe tit&er rous'd Us ctalU; Her oatty mttmi b 'lt glng, Tbe darkfome room be paced And cried. “Tae Drll la r l t f ^ g ; U / baplea dailicg, baste! ’ And less tbe way and dreary, Oa, carry me once more:' II r west'd form seems noibisf, Tbe loid la os blB Dealt; Hesootaa tbe little suiierer, Till a t tbe mUl they p m . Tbe orerlookei mf t ber As from ber frame sbe crept. And witb b it iboog be beat ber. A id CDrsed ber 'wben abe wept. It seemed as sue grew weaker, Tne iDreedB they o;tener broke; Tbe rapid wheels rab auickei ALdbea-rier tell the stroke. Sbe tbougti DOW ber dear mother illessea her wit a latest breath, And ot bs T little biotbei. Worked dowo, Uke ber, to deatb; Then told a tfby neigtbor A peony she would pay To take her last hour s labor. While by ber frame she lay. Tbetonbad loigdescecded Bre she sought that repoee, Her day be«bb and eided AS cruel ty rants cboes. Tbenbomei ButoasaeU rried; Sbe tell, snd roee no m « e ; By pityleg comradee carried, Sae reacaed her lather's door. At Bight, with tortured feeing. He watched hlBBleepiees bhild; Though cloee baelde her kneOlng, Sbe knew him iCFt, nor smiled. Again tbe lactory's lingisg Her last percepfon tried: I'p from her straw bed springing, -It's iimei\ ahesbritked. and died. That night a chariot pisaed ber. While on tbe ground abe lay, Tbe daughters of her master AD eraEiDg Ttot pay. Tnelr tend r uearrs were sighing AS negro's wroogs were told, While tbe whits siavs was dylig Who gained tbtlT father’s gold. LABOR NOTES. It is the eolume ot monej that meas ures its putchasiog power; it is the fiat of the govemment that gives it power to p a j debts; tbe material out of which it is made has nothiog whatever to do with Li Austria, two years ago, union print ers were discharged and their places filled by girls at low wsgeA The typos adopted a novel and effective way of getting rid of this cheap labor; they married tben. It is the sheerest stupidity and non- tsense for tbe government to keep filOO,- OOO.OOO of gold on band with which to redeem outstauding greenbackA Redeem them by taxation, whenever they need or demand redemption. Tbe theory ot the rich ie that the la borer must be utterly subservient to cap ita] in order that he may be a law-abid ing, sovereign citizen of ----- Great Ctesar I what insuf is this !—Stockton Mail. prodaettoa posteroull w-abid- ing, sovereign citizen of this republic. Great Ctesar I what insufferable arrogance »!—Stockton M f ’ Jt production i nides are snfferii icttaa The idea is absurd and ]>re- isteroull A sensible remedy consists : measui' affording constant employ ment snd ...beral wages. Alleged over- pfodoction^U then be consumed.—In- dnstnal News. The dudes that are sent to represent us at the court of St. James are all of a piece. Phelps, tbe latest of tbe spawn, takes occasion to a-snre the English aris tocracy that none in America favored Home Rule but the Irish. Poor fellow, he will be wearing knee breeches and silk stockings like his predecessors next, in order to show how well “he loves a loid.”—Chickasaw Co, Democrar. The Commis^oner on stT'k/^ asked Mr. Powderty and Mr. McDowell lor reme dies for the strikee. If they would read the platform of tbe Knights of Labor, they wonld find a tolerably clear state ment of causes snd some decisive meas ures recommended. These have been the result of full discussions and delibera tion and must stand as tbe voice of that mighty organization uutO repealed. soe to Messina, labored a less number of hours than tbe workingmen of to-day, and less days in the year. The old ‘•guilds” provided a hearty life for their members. It would be an interesting question to analyze tbe causes which brought tbe guildsman of the middle agee front his healthy, merry life to be the bard-worked, poor-paid, half-starved slave 01 toil which tbe craftsman of the eighteenth eentniy bad got to be, and which, in too many cases, he is in tbe latter part of the nineteenth century.— Beobtold. “The bondholders’ crop comes twice a year, and eomts without an error. No labor, no (oil, no anxiety, and no taxes. And the weather does not effect it Rain or shine, tbe crop comes right along, and It comes in money, too. No losding up, hauling to market, no higgling over price, no trading and dicker, but the mean bright gold. ' —Michigan Sun. THE UNIT OF PAYMENT The committee on labor in the lower house of the Ohio Legislature recom- ' ' idefinite postponement of Ouse of the < mended the Indefinite postpooemi tbe bill to pnnish boycott»s and to pre vent union strikers from vnttrfenng with scabs, by making such conduct a felony. The House wisely adopted the report. This bill has gone the way of many of its predecessors introduced in the General Assembly of Ohio.—Swinton. Jay Gould wilh bis SIOO. 000,000. stolen funds, has purchased legislators, bribed courts, turned tbe scale in a presidential contest, and been rewarded witb the ap- pointment of a Judge in the United States Supreme Court, and yet, with all tl s infiuence among Legislators, Gov ernors, Judges and Pres’den's, be 'las been unable to purchase a single Knight of Labor or working man. Such integ rity indicates succesB to tbe cause of labor. —Iowa Plain Dealer. The national bankers are a set of favor, itee of middle men who borrow money of the government at one per cent., witb which to Bpecnlate upon the necessities of their neighbors by re-ioaning the same at six, eight, ten and twelve per cent. Why ■' class legislation, why not pw n it in- iduals to borrow on the same rate on good real estatestate security ? Echi why? Corporationr dividuals to borro' e s lorporal should be put on an equa sped, there can be no just reasons to ho answers, and individuals quality in this re- t can be no just reasons to the -labor E tn ld . Inflicted by the Anarchists. Ones whirligig of fashionable life goes id. ^ m o very g.iy entertainments Dounced< by irksrli are shut haye been given and are ann the very capitalists whose wo down becsQse of the short- hour move- menf. “It la so much more agreeable,” said a lady, “to entertain forty guests at dinner or opera than to grant a twenty- five cent raise to an army of ill-bred and ignorant workmen.”—Bwinton. Tbe employes of tbe Knickerbocker Sythe Co., of Balleton, found on going to work Saturday momidg. May 29, a notice posted on the door was read as follows: Hereafter men will have to wheel their own coal. lo consequence of whicli all the men employed in that department quit work. Leretefore the company have employed one man to wneel all tbe coal used. I t has been the mle of tbe company every year to either reduce their wages or pnt extra work on tbe men, “but the l » t straw generally breakes the camel’s back.” but radical m your demands, No changes of hours nor n se in wages can be a per manent relief while the present Land and Money systems continues. Their evil potencies transcend all such pitiful expe diencies and will continue to rob and en slave you untU they are utterly destroyed. Make common cause with your employers against the usury which consumes your earuings and all their capital like a de vouring flame! Tbe millstone that is about your neck is sinking them also. Help them to work out your deliverence and their own by freeing the land and the money from monopoly. A VERY LIVELY CORPSE. About a month ago. Jay Gould said that tbe Knights of Labor had got their '‘death-blow.” Just at that time, the clerks at headquarters were beginning to foot up tbe reports of the previons fort night, which showed that, within the two last weeks of April, 690 Local Assem- blira had been organized. This was the first sign of the death-blow. There bas been another sign of i t during tbe present month of May in which close upon 2,0C0 applications for charters have been re ceived from varions parts of the country. “On roll call,” said Mr. Powderly, a few days ago, “we can muster 8,000 Assem- pliee, with a membership ot not less than one million, or qaadruple onr strength at the time of the last General Assembly m Octobor.” It is thus that the Knights are booming under tbe death-blow. If Gould should givs them another death blow, they might have swallowed bim without knowing it. I t is a very lively corpse. But Gould won a victory over them in the Southwest. There was once afamous General, who, after winning tbe day, looked over the field of carnage where tbe flower of bis army lay bleeding, and ex claimed, “Another such victory, and 1 am lost” MONBT ; ITS FClfCnOKS—ITS arBSTHTTBS. OODcincted. Money is often mixed, ignorantly mixed, with commodities, merchandise, labor, etc. Let us untie this knot ss we have that of money,eurrency and finance. Money is the creation of the government; merchandise of individual industry. Money exists only by legislation ; mer chandise only by labor. Monev is a legal counter by which prices are measured; merchandise is that which is valued by the aid of this counter, ticket or check. Money as such has no intrinsic value; merchandise is sought for only on ac count of its intrinsic value. Money is perpetual in its nature, and ie designed lor all tim e; merchandise ie temporary and adapted to special wants, and made for wear or consumption. Money is cir- culative—centering m those districts or communities where industries are most diversified, and hence where interest is lowest; merchandise is diffusive, being required and consumed by the many. Money is a legal certificate of value, and Is transferebie for what it represents; merchandise is tbe thing valued for what it is itself or for its uses. If money were merchandise as money, tben a yard stick would be merchandise as a meas ure, and the cloth would measure the yardstick as much as the yardstick would measure the cloth. If money be mer chandise and a law be passed to make it BO, tben all merchandise should be money which would be a literal destruction of the invention of money. Money pars a debt atithe will of the debtor ; but law recognizes no such power in mereban- disc, Money has a minimum and maxi- mnm power according to law, otherwise it could not be a standard of payment with any more consistency that govern ment can authorize elastic yardsticks or bottomless bushels, but prices of mer chandise finctuate according to demand and supply. Money is tbe InsCtumensof exchange—of settlement amongst trad ers ; merchandise ie the stock in trade to be exchanged. Money is authorized by law for convenience, not profit; mer- cbandiac is produced by the labor of the people, and for profit. Money as mer chandise ceases to be money; mcroban- dise as money nowhere exists except by legislation. Money exists only as a rela tive agent for measuring other things; merchandise is prized for what it is it self. Money is an agent to promote w ant: merchandise sipplies want. Money saves labor : merchandise sustains tbe laborer. Money marks the price: merchandise pays it. Money is borrowed and loaned; merchandise is bought and sold. Whatever may be said to tbe con trary, these fundamental distinctions can not but be acknowledged, for while people are content to borrow money on special terms of security. Porchasers of merchandise are politely and urgently solicited to buy, while borrowers of money are ceremoniouajy permitted to make their propositions. A great variety of commodities nave been legally adopt ed to serve as money in different coun tries and states of society sneh as cattle, slaves, corn, tobocco, tea, coon skins, buffalo robes, leather, tin, iron, wood, etc., etc. Whatever commodity be se lected to serve as money, is invested with special power, and it is the greatest power conferred by government. Tbe value of money is in ifs acceptability. It has no other. A material which has a market value in itself can make but a barbarous money. The material of money should b e inexpensive and unex portable. Money has not any use if there is not labor. Money should be based upon, or issued only in receipt for labor tendered to the government. If one of ns were sitting upon all the money In the world fat in the desert of Africa, we would be poor—be, in fact, worse off than if we had been working for the dis trict nng. A loaf of bread to a starving man is worth more than all the gold dis- oovered. Bread baa an intrinsic value, gold, (the gold dollar has a legal value, a market value, and a mint vilne. The first is its value as a standard of payment The second cannot be known so long as the third value exists) strictly speaking,- has not an intrinsic value. Gold at best, has but a m-irket value, and that only where arts and society exist. The mint value of gold misleads us. Its msrket value is much Itse than its mint value— as we learn after gold com hasbceo dem- onetized. All the gold and silver in the world might be carted into the sea, and the arts alone would be the loser. Tbe value of money is in its acceptabili^. If this is not so, suppose Congress should give the greenback tbe unconditional legal tender laws which bow relate ex- clcsively to gold coin, and should allow tbe gold coin to crawl on under tbe con- (lilional legal tender laws which now re late to tbe greenback, wonld any of you like to risk a new hat that gold coin would not be at par and greenbacks at a prem ium. Does anyone here think he can buy a gold dollar now for one hundred cop per cents, or a greenback for eighty-five coppercenta ? No, my friends. There is not a person in the land who would give a greenback for eighty-five copper cents. The greenback one dollar bill ie tbe unit of the standard of our payments. I t IB worth one hundred copper cents—it is par. A gold dollar com to-day ie worth about one hundred and Steen cents, or a premium of fifteen oents—a silver dol lar coin is worrb about ninety-six cents, fonr per eent. beiow par. Of all labor- saving machinery in nse, there is none which so economizes human power, and Bomucb facilitates combination as money. Wealth, or the power of man to com mand tbe always gratuitous services of nature, grows with the ability to com mand tbe aid of a legal tender, Wealth thus should iucresse most rapidly where that ability is most complete. Money, a legal tender, or a staudard of payment, has four powers or properties, viz: power to create value, power to represent value, power to mark value, and power to ex change value. These properties are co- essential to a medium of exchange: it is impossible that any one of them should exist in such a medium independent of the others. The material of money is a legalized sgeni employed lo express these powers and render them available to legislaiion, therefore money can possess none but legal value. As all legal value depends upon actual valoe, which it holds lepends upoi ir representsipresents, money must represent ac tual value, that is, tbe value of {uropeity ASSOCIATED LABOR PRESS. B. Boies, representing Louisville Union, No. 10. He dropped off to see his many friends here. Tbe new Oetman paper started by the striking printers will make its appear ance this week, and from tbe long list of subscribers that have already^ been handed is, it is safe to say success is assured. The furniture workers have settled leir difficulty with the bosses by accept- ig nine hours as a compromise. This -xn be considered a victory for tbe men, as they iormetly worked ten hours. A lbany , N. Y. The labor field in this district is re turning its wonted appearance for the season. In Albany tbe stone cutters who were denied an opportunity to coatinne work on the capitoI, after being kept , oints in search of employment. They naturally feel that a great wrong has been done them by the law-makers in denying tbem.emptoyment a t the last mo ment. Their families in many iiutaoces are rendered almost destitute, and tbe business interests of the city bare suf fered seriously in consequence of having nearly a thousand men thrown on the labor market after so long a period of idleness. They condemn tbe politicians on both sides for allowing a party dead lock to work such injury and steering. The stove mounters in the foundry of Perry & Co. are out on strike but hope to effect a settlement in a few days. The street railway men are enjoying the increase granted them by the com pany on condition that the five cent fare bill wonld n ot be passed by the legisla- trict at the Cleveland convention, Bro ther Freckelton has been kept busy at tending to differences arising in the trades. He has been able to anticipate and prevent some serious strikes, and has rendered most valuable services by his diplomacy and conservative counsel. The Knights in this city are discuss ing the expediency of purchasing a boildlng in which to hold meetings, and save rent paying. Tbe plan vrill undoubt edly be put in operation before many months. A NEW GOSPEL. The gospel of labor is now ai'out to be preached to the world, and (here are many who at the beginnlBg will listen and not understand; but he who hath ears to hear, let him hear. To any one who has studied tbe hbtory of tbe past, who knows something of common and statute laws, and who listens to the con versation of the people around him, it mnst be evident that almost an entire rev olution In thought must be broagfat about before labor shall receive the recognition which is its just due. The rights of the few over the many has been tbe spirit of past ages. It J0 still the spirit of the monarchical governments of Europe, and even our own government, though wisely planned, has modeled itself too much af ter the aristocratic stales of the old world* and property even here hag come, in many instances, to be regarded as greater than manhood. There are those—and theyarenot few in number—who believe that a property qualification should be required even here as it is in England, before a man should have the right of suffrage. Thus the men is ignored and the vote is given to the land. And as we listen to the talk about ua by people of all classes, save those who have already accepted and who understand the new gospel, we findthe general impression is, that those men who have wealth arc bet ter calculated not only to administer the affairs of tbe world, b ut to look after the working classes and can do it witb better results than the working people them selves. It is the old and oft-repeated story of the master who voted for his slave, sad the h'asbaud -who to this day votes for bis wife. “The working people are taking their affairs into their own hands, and it will be worse for them in the end!” indig nantly exclaimed a woman who was very much wrongiii up by the present labor troubles in Troy. But in th ' name of justice and common sense, in whose bands should their affairs be? Wbo is half so adequate to uaderstand their needs or to demand their rights? We admit they have been slow about it; but this \ derful nineteenth century, which has in- angnrated so many changes in every de partment of life, and which will leave the world SO much farther advanced than it found it,would leave a great work undone it it passed on aud gave its place to the twentieth century without an achieve* ment in the directioo of which we are speaking. It has seen the practical aboli tion of chattel slavery from the face of the earth, it will also see labor honored and instailed in its rights. The new gospel is simply this, thatev- ery human being, regardless of race, sex or “ previons condition of servitude\ is entitled to tbe rights for which our fore fathers fought, and which are supposed to be the fundamental principles of our gov- erumenl: The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These include all human rights, and no class can be de prived of any of them without i justice beiug done. Tbe rights of each- employer and employed—are exactly alike; each must pay due deference to the rights of tbe other. The n ght to live means tbe nght lo the means of living; i( means the right to labor and receive just remuneration. The right to liberty means fbat each man shall have tbe management of his own affairs, and that no class shall unjustly encroach on another. Tbe right to the pursuit of happiness can only mean that the hours of labor shall not be so prolonged, that a man shall have no time ioriecrestloQ and for self improvement; that life shall not be to bim a treadmill, a continuous, never-ending drudgery. We mnst unlearn the lesson which has been so persistently taught ns, that capita is doing Isbor a great favor in furnishing it employment. Tbe favor is quite as much on the one side as the other. The benefits bestowed upon one another are mutual, and tbe attitude of employer and employed toward one another should be courteous and gentlemanly, neither that of master and slave, nor the other ex treme of bailied and bullies. “I need your labor,” says the capital. 1st. “I need your money,” returns the la borer, One need is as honest and as honorable as the other. ’.Fhere is neither superiority ot inferiority in their relative positions; each has rights which must be respected; each has duties which must be performed ; each has interests which must be consulted; each must not scruple sometimes lo make conces'ions for the advantage or convenience of the other; and each most le.irn not only to respect himself but to respect one an- Aod .his is tbe new gospel of labor as it is understood by tbe U nknown K hioht . POLITICS FOR LABOR. Tbe chief foe to all taxed industry, and every wageworker, is not theeuc that he supposes, or at least, attacks. The real enemy is working secretly. No strike can touch that mighty enemy which has enveloped the whole nation in its coils. No taxation can control it. It laughs at “an income tax,” against which it is guaranteed by the United States, Eight hours, or ten, are all the same to this taskmaster; for j t never ceases grind ing, night or day. Sundays or holidays are unknown to its winnings. While every laborer is paid in dollars of ten dimes, it demands twelve dimes in its own dollar, and says: ‘*Tbe silver dollar 18 (Hily worth 80 cents; give me gold.’’ It controls politics. The privileges of this uniaxed extor tioner are so enormous that when it lends money it receives full interest on its loans, ' although the tax borrower returns nine- teaths of the monrj a t one per cent, per anoum for twenty yeais to bank on. It makes a contract and breaks it, and tben pleads the \sanctity of contracts” to protect its own extortious. Worse than all, to secure a larger measure ih-i. laws decree, it changes tbe general meas ure of value to a larger one, thus disturb ing all business and swedging more taxed labor into the “dollar,” Its footsteps for nearly twenty years have been marked by rums of industry. When men, who laid down their lives by thousands, were pmd in depreciated greenbacks worth 36 cents, this extor tioner demanded gold dollars for lending money. To secore this gold by custom duties it debased the poor soldier’s wages. To secure “coin” for the principal of its loan in direct violation of the contract of 1862 it added one-third to the burden of every debt in tbe United States, and beg gared the nation from 1873 to 1879. To secure gold instead of “coin,” which means either gold or silver, it is now try ing to change tbe contract of 1889 and add on^flftb to tne bullion valne of t ie general standard of every debt It de ceives labor by pretending that a dollar of greater power to purchase everything that labor has to sell is an advantage to the producer. It deceives no one, how ever, when it objects to tbe cumbrous size of the :‘cart wheel silver dollar,” but desires to have it made bigger to equalize it witb gold. Its pleas are pretenses. The name of this extortioner is “The Untaxed Public Debt’’—the ‘U. 8. bonds’ —on which the national banks 're based. If labor neglects politice a cunning at tempt will be made, through international bimetalism, to so change tbe weight of the eilvec dollar as to compel payment of the bonds in gold. It is folly to strike for eight hoars instead of ten, and 500,000,000 of money ii for taxed labor to { it must, i twelve dimes in stead of ten. By law of 1870 and resolution of Con gress in 1878, tbe silver dollar at present weight only, can pay the nubiic debt. A change of weight is fatal to the right. Labor may tear up every railroad, bht the UQtazed bondholders will still gather in the lost dollar left, and langh in their sleeyes at the tearing up of tbe railroads. The vital importance of politice to labor is shown by this appalling fact Under apolitical agreement of principal bond holders in both parties to unite on one Presidential candidate in 1868, the so- called “Credit-Strengthening act” of March, 1868, which beggared all industry from 1873 to 1879 by pledging the faith of the United States to add 30 cents to tbe value of the greenback, that measured all property and $1,200,000,000 of debt, was hurried through all its stages in both bouses of Congress in fourteen days, and signed by a President profoundly igno rant of a Wall street’s ways. One stroke of “ politics” beggare<l labor.—Working men’s Journal.
