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strong to be resisted. For this gloomy Behold how brethren do not dwell period of our national annals was together in unity, and yet thesemarked by a sinister alliance between the men of learning and themen of money and the greedy manufacturers found I measure of freedom.brethren, each of them, is unwilling to allow the Fbee Flag some smallinvaluable allies in the arrogant and supercilious disciples of Adam Smith.The laborers who ventured to remon-trate were spoken of as “poor deluded wretches. ” The abolition of all restraint was said to be called for by the “true principles of commerce,” which it had been left for that enlightened age to apprehend. The liberal economical doctrines were madeuse of against the workmen very much as at present the so-called German culture is made use of the Catholics of Prussia. But further: to understand the full significance of this legislative revolution, we must remember that at this time by various laws, especialiy those of 1799 and 1800, all combinations among laborers were forbidden, and thus competition in its completest sense prevailed and the individual workman stood face to face with the individual employer. Practically for most trades there was no longer any restriction as to who might be an employer and who might be a workman, nor as to the employment of women and children, nor as to the terms of thelabor contract, the length of the engagement, and the hours of work, and the arrangement of the factory or the amount of wages.The victory of the masters, was complete. Not indeed of the old masters, such as had themselves gone through an apprenticeship, and worked with five or six journeymen and apprentices; for they had rather supported than opposed tho old laws and customs, and had now themselves, in company with many who had once worked independently with their families at home, sunk into hired workmen, or else they had abandoned their trade. The victory more truly belonged to the new masters, who were altogether unlike the old steady-going, hereditary race, and were rich, speculative merchants, or talented, versatile, energetic, unscrupulous, self-made men. Let us see how this new race of masters used their victory. Let us look at the condition of the manufacturing laborers, which was the result. ”Hereafter “let us study the things that make for peace,” and labor tofind some common basis of effort.EXPLANATIONS.“Philanthropic Unbeliever? If you can give light on the dark problems of pauperism, intemperance and prostitution, the ‘f ree Flag’ has space for you, and asks your help. — FreeFlag.That is the voice of an earnest true advocate of a great cause. We opine that ‘Rankin’ has read.“Seize on truth where ever foundOn Christian or on heathen ground.Amoner vour friends, among vour foesThe plant’s divine wheLong live the Free Flag.grows—The Emancipator.“We opine” that our friend the Emancipator does us nothing more than justice. We take great pleasure in honoring such men as the benevolent Bobert Owen, the earnest ihilanthrop-“Benbow,” in the Cincinnati Emancipator, says:The time has come for the govern -ment to be moving and show its ability to protect the people’s rights. The people are on the advance march, and must elect representatives that will keep pace with the progressive ideas of the age. When thousands of working people are out of employment, and in want of the common necessaries of life, it is a useless waste of time and words for a mushroom aristocracy to cooly tell them, “Go west and grow up with thecountry.” These rich people are for • getful of what circumstances hadto do with placing them in an exalted position, and that it was the toil and privation of the workingman that gave them leisure and means. They should strive to implant more hnman ideas in their bosoms, and not too hastily throw their ignorant sarcasms at needy people who have been in-voluantarily locked out of employment. What stupid, nonsensical talk for men in affluence, rolling in luxuries, to say that poor, down-trodden workmen could go on the land without means, while almost in a state of nudity.How could they pay railway fare to their destination ?From whence could they obtain money to pay the first instalment required under the present law ?How are they to plow, sow and work the land, if without agricultural implements, seed, teams, cows, etc.Let those who make these hasty suggestions reflect before giving such advice to people steeped In poverty. Such people need an immediate remedy—not charity. Charity is a stigma on the working class. Then while so many thousands are rambling about in a state of destitution, it is the duty of government, tofurnish means of employment. ThAn what, permit me to ask, is to prevent the government from immediately abolishing the sale of land, and to establish a National Bureau of Credit, for the purpose of assisting willing toilers to form Co-operative Colonies on an extensive scale and bring ourwaste lands into a superior state of cultivation, furnishing twelve months’ provisions, all the necessary agricultural implements, seeds, etc.— granting the colonists a legal right to hold such land at a reasonable nominal rent, and to allow ample time for the payment of such accommodation given out on credit.We can come very near to a full agreement with “Benbow.” We shall favor his law,—we believe thegovernment can wisely help peopleto get on our uncultivated lands; can do so in as full accordance with the constitution as it could grant lands to railroads to open up those lands for cultivation, and that necessity will soon force some action in that direction.But we shall petition for a law that will permit a score or a hundred offamilies to take up their allotmentsunder the homestead law, and to unite them into one body, living in a vil -lage, in the center, instead of on eachpic John Stuart Mill and other similar separate 160 acre tract, with permis-men of liberal or infidel opinions.sion to use the land as security toCan the editor of the Emancipator the State, or to individuals, for meanssay the same in regard to his willing- to plough, build and plant, ness to give honor to Christian phil- That will assist multitudes whoanthropists and laborers in the causeof humanity?could go, and benefit theleft behind.ultitudes“Do not rob the laborer, no matter in what department he is working, is he makes baskets, or cleans knives and forks, or even lower still writef editorials for a labor journal, do not appropriate his articles without giving due credit, it aint the fair thing.” —Cincinnati Emancipator.“Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” We plead guilty, for that hit us. We did get an excellent article from the Western Advance ofFor the Free Flag.OUB POPULATION OCCUPIES TOO MUCH SURFACE.Syracuse, New York, May 16,1877.Eeitor Free Flag.Dear Sir:—I have received two or three numbers of your paper, and do not flatter when I say it is the most sensible industrial advocate that I have seen. I like its tone. It doesnot propose to occupy a narrow plat-Bloomington 111., entitled “A Higher ,orm and then quarrel with every laStandard of Morality,” which by aeoi- bor journal and writer that doe3 not dent was not credited to that journal, conform to the same Procrustean dim-and we now take pleasure in making the amende honorable. We shall here after do our share in making known as widely as possible the merits of our co-laborers in the cause of hu-Lanity. And now we must be permitted to inquire, Is the conscience of our Cincinnati contemporary entirely clear ?Has he not made use of some material that should have been acknowledged? “Let us confess over faults one to another” andcultivatebrotherly love.ft’rom the Cincinnati Emancipator. ]“The first plank in the platform of the Wor ngmen’s Party demands an eight hoar workday. For this measure let os raise our oices from one end of the land to the other.—Labor Standard.The above is incorrect; the article referred to in the platform is enumerated as one of the means to obtain temporary relief; but the only realplank in the platform is the followingclip from it:“We demand that all the means of labor, (land, machinery, railroads, telegraph, canals,eta,) become the common property of the whole the wagesplace oo-oper £ive production ith a just distribution of its rewards. ”graph perrypeople, for the purpose of abolishing ges By stem, and substituting in itsensions. You ought to be .sustained,and I hope you will get a Sivi.ig support. My experience with the Weekly Worker was not of an encouraging kind; and I was compelled to suspend publication or starve. It is doubtful if I shall be able to resume its publication. In the West, perhaps the industrial classes are more alive to theimportance of having an organ devoted to their interests. It was there that the first great stand against monopolists, was taken, and the agriculturalists in your section are probably more aroused than they are here. They can and they ought to sustain you.I see you encourage immigration to the west. I would advise the people to stop where they are and make a conquest of what belongs to them, instead of scattering their energies over more surface. Permit me to express a thought through your journal.Under our present monopoly system, less than one-half of the occupied land is brought under any sort of cultivation. The less than a moiety brought under cultivation, amounts
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Minneapolis Free Flag
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Thu, May 31, 1877
Page 2
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USA 04 Apr 2022
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