NO. VIII.
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION—NEW PARTIES AND NEW ISSUES—PEOPLE’S EYES
OPEN—DETERMINATION TO TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS—WILL THEY MAKE
JUDICIOUS MOVEMENTS?—THE RIGHTS OF LABOR—SHALL THEY BE IGNORED?—OUR
POSITION REGARDING THE LABOR MOVEMENT.
The National Labor Convention lately held in Cincinnati was called for
the special purpose of beginning an organization having in view the next
Presidential canvass. It had taken the means of obtaining the views of a
number of the most prominent public men, letters enunciating which views
were duly presented before the convention. That of Governor Geary, of
Pennsylvania, appears to have occupied the position of most prominency,
and to have been regarded with peculiar and unanimous favor. The views
presented by him are such as were sure to find favor with the
representatives of labor, and so far he stands A No. 1 as the
prospective candidate for the Presidency of the National Labor party.
It has been very evident for the last year that the old parties had lost
their power of inspiration over the people. The Democratic party sold
itself out to slavery and virtually died when slavery died. A party may
exist called Democratic, but it will be upon new issues and must take
new departures. The hard conservatism that attaches to it from its
former practices does not suit the spirit of the eighth decade of the
nineteenth century. The rank and file that have so long blindly followed
wherever their leaders commanded are becoming imbued with this spirit,
and they begin to realize that they have been mere automatons that have
been moved with no acquiescent will of their own. Newspapers have become
too commonly read. That the blind should be led necessitates the
continuous condition of blindness. So, too, with, the understanding.
What have the masses known of the essence of the issues that have formed
the platform of the political parties for the last fifty years? When war
came, as the result of a blind course on the part of politicians, the
masses began to open their eyes to the fact that they had been
unwittingly betrayed into a most dangerous and fearful condition,
wherein it became necessary to cut each other’s throats. Since the close
of the war they have not only kept their eyes open to the full extent
the war opened them, but they have also opened their understanding and
for the first time fully realize that they are indeed freemen; and to
become conscious that heretofore they have been so only in name. Awaking
as they have from the delusion so long hugged to their hearts, it will
not be strange if they do some inconsiderate and short-sighted things.
It is the duty of all who have the true interest of the whole people at
heart to warn them of all the extremes they are likely to contend for,
and to suggest permanent practical methods, which shall spring from
principles that will apply at all times to all men—and women. The
Republican party being composed of somewhat different elements is
disintegrated from different action of the same causes; with the
destruction of slavery and the reconstruction of the country its
strength was expended. All people who were opposed to slavery had
concentrated in the Republican party, because of the similarity of
sentiment upon this single question; this settled, they find themselves
without a common rallying idea; they differ as widely upon the old and
common topics among themselves as they differ from those who do not
belong to the party and never did. Place and power are the sole things
that hold the Republican party together at all; these gone it will be
gone.
It is just at this time that new parties are demanded, and they are sure
to arise. The conditions are all favorable. It remains for wise counsels
to prevail in the formation and departure of these, to insure them
something more than death with the accomplishment of one of their
central ideas, which destiny fell to the lot of the Republican party.
Unquestionably there will be a Labor party in the next canvass. We are
sorry it is denominated the Labor party, because it should be something
more than a Labor party, and because this is a direct challenge to
capital, and it will very probably result in arraying these two
interests in an antagonism which will be but a repetition of the slavery
antagonism. No party built upon a specific idea, looking in a single
direction, can ever attain to even the promise of permanency; and it is
for this reason we say we are sorry to see a party sectionalizing itself
at the very outset of its attempting a general movement toward
organization.
It seems, also, a little premature that an organization calling itself a
Labor organization, should at the outset put itself upon the record
against the freedom of labor, let it come from whence it may, and be of
whatever nature it may. This policy is short-sighted, and will prove a
stumbling-block to the party, though for the time Chinese emigration may
serve for a rallying-cry. All assertions that the Chinese emigrants can
be reduced to a system of slavery among us are humbuggery of the first
water. There is no law to prevent a person contracting with a hundred
American workmen at the best terms he can. It is quite certain there is
no law to prevent him from employing Irishmen, Germans or even Chinese
upon the same terms. And if it is done, and labor is thereby obtained
cheaper than the citizens of this country desire to furnish it, the
laboring class must not lay the charge to the capitalist who
accomplishes it, but to the imperfections of our social and financial
systems which make such resorts possible. Then, instead of committing
this new national organization against any form of legal labor, its
managers should have proposed remedies for the existing imperfections in
our systems.
We are no special advocate of the introduction of Chinese or any other
labor into this country; neither are we desirous of advocating any
policy that will conflict with the interests of any laborer, but we are
advocates, and always expect to be, of justice and equity to all people
everywhere, because the time has come in the ages when we must begin to
remember that we are all brothers under the sun, and that he or she who
does not recognize and act upon this universal truth will, sooner or
later, be obliged to learn it at the cost of dear experience. We expect
to be found advocating very many of the principles laid down in the
platform of the Labor party, and could wish that we may find nothing
there adverse to the principles which are of general application. We
desire to see the Labor interest advanced to the right and position of
equality with capital, and we shall put forth our best endeavors to
assist in this most just movement. At the same time we shall not commit
ourselves to sustain or advocate anything that we conceive will be
ultimately injurious to the true interests of humanity, or any part of
it, therefore we shall at all times point out what we regard as errors
in whatsoever this new party may endeavor to carry out. At the same time
we shall, perhaps, be among its firmest and truest advocates. The best
friends are those who show us our faults and sustain us in the right.
NEW YORK, September 3, 1870.