Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 August 1877 — RADICALISM AND LABOR. [ARTICLE]

RADICALISM AND LABOR.

The contraction policy ot the Radical party has caused more than fifty thousand failures, and the loss of more than a billion of dollars. The resumption act should be repealed, contraction cease, and John .Sherman A Co. indicted and convicted as accessories to ths Louisiana Returning Board infamy. Then will their power for mischief suddenly end. We are pleased to notice that our old friend and acquaintance Hon. C. A. Mayer, of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, is a prominent candidate before the Democratic Convention of that Commonwealth for the Supreme Court Judgeship. Twenty-one years ago, we had control of The Clinton Democrat, published in said town and knew Charley as promising member of the bar, Aim and zealous in the Democratic faith. Since then he has filled (and for au’t we know still occupies) the Judicial bench in that district, with ditinction. We candidly believe the Democracy of our native State will do well to accept him as a candidate for the position for which he has been named.

Ths Cincinnati Enquirer thus presents the issues as they appear in the OMo canvass : “Just as the panic of 1873 flung the currency full in the faces of the voters of Ohio, so the recent strike, which has left its trail in blood and in the loss of millions, flings the labor question irresistably upon this great October State. It is really the Mime question in a different shape. Then the banks stopped. This time the Laborers stopped. Both stoppage■» earn be traced to the same cause,— They were also like in their effects, each calling a halt upon business. The corwiitions in 1877 are different to those in 1873. The panic of 1873 came after both parties had placed their tickets in the field and announced their platforms of principles. This strike fell upon the countryjbefore eithcr'politieal party in Ohio had held its convention, and each party has taken an attitude toward it and the question involved in it. It is, therefore, in issue from the beginning of (he canvass. We took occasion some days ago to point out the position the Demo-, <Tats of Ohio occupy in this matter. What is the attitude of the Republican party touching this great question? A peculiar responsibility is thrown upon that party in this ,business. The legislation of the country has been theirs for half a generation

of men. For all the conditions prece dent to this state of thing the Republican party is justly responsible. In a land on which Providence has ponied blessings with Divine generosity where there are men willing to work and able, energetic, executive men to employ, if there is a lack of prosperity it is the fault of the government. It can only be attributable to wicked legislation. It, therefore, specially behooves the Republican party to jight the wrongs it has done. Hundreds of thousands of laboring men in Ohio are pleading for relief,for better things. What does the Republican party offer them? Does it offer to undo the wickedness it has committed? Not at all. It ‘Sqeovs with alarm the disturbed condition of the country,” but does it desire to repeal the legistion that has brought it about? Not at all.

The Republicans say in their platform that they “most heartily sympathize with the condition of the honest and industrious laborers, who are willing to work, butremain unemploy< d;” but how do they show their sympathy ? Labor begs for bread, and the Republican party give it a stone. What is ‘.he sop thrown to Ceberus? What is the gift it wouldgive to labor? What is the remedy it would apply to the condition of affairs it laments? Labor lifts up its pleading hands and cries : “Permit a govenimei t policy that will make it possible for willing hands to earn bread.” And the Republican party answers: First, we will give you a “Bureau of Industry.” And the laboring man asks: “Whatgood will that Bureau of Industry do?” “Why, you can write to it,” says the leading exponent of this plank. “What good will that do?” is the next question. “You can suggest, something,” is the reply of an Ohio Senator. “And what then?” "Your

suggestion will go to Congress and receive consideration.” And the Ohio laborer lifts up his manly, intelligent voice and says: “Threehundred thousand men in Ohio, most of them laborers, have already suggested io Congress to repeal the Resumption Act, to give us back the old silver dollar, to save for us the greenback, to stop contraction, and you gentlemen who offer us this ‘Bureau of Industry’ need not this suggestion.” This, naturally, would end the controversy. This Bureau of Industry is a sham, a humbug, a cunning device to deceive the laboring man, and keep him still in the ranks of the Republican party. It would be powerless to act, and there is already a “Bureau of Industry” at Washington with power to act for the relief of labor. Men call it a Congress, and a part of the business of its members is to receive suggestions. Every voter in the land has a semi-acquaintance with two members of this board, a Senator and a member of the House, and is at liberty to address them. If the voters of Ohio are Intelligent they will not fall, down and worship this false god; they will not be cheated by this ridiculous device. The Republican party of Ohio pre - poses, secondly, for the relief o* box, to’constitute itself president and board of directors of all the railroads in the country. Merciful havings!

i Nut all the railroad officials in the ! United States have inflicted so much injury upon working men since our railroads were bui|t as Republican Congresses inflicted in six years. If, by the wrath wf God, there should be another Congress Republican in both brunches, the workingmen would regret having jumped from the fryingpan into the fire. Besides, that Con- ' gress has authority to run all the railroads in the country is a monstrous proposition. If it can do this, it can run all the blacksmiths’ shops and grocery stores. Quoting from the I Republican platform, how Can ConI gress “secure fair returns” to capital, when, by its financial policy, it mak< s fair returns impossible? How can Congress “secure fair wages to employes” when its legislation has made it impossible to pay “fair wages?”— How can Congress stalk into a rail- ' road office and “prevent mismanage- ■ merit” and “improper discriminations” ! any more than it can walk into a dry ' goods store on the same errand?— j Congress has as good a right to enter the family circle and “prevent mismanagement” and “improper discriminations.” The third measure of relief which the Ohio Republicans offer to the laj boring men is that Congress should i constitute itself a supreme Board cf Arbitration to settle all differences of opinion between the employers and the employed in the United States, or should appoint other boards of inferior jurisdiction. “Statutory arbitration” is the phrase used in the platform We have to say concerning this that when Congress steps in uninvited to arbitrate between the employers and the employed in this country the underpinning will be taken away trim I Congress. It will be more dangerous ■ than for Smith to volunteer to settle . a quarrel between Jones and his wife. I And this is ull the relief, or hope, or | promise of relief which the Republican party in Ohio offer® to the workingmen. It is the active capital of She country—not the capital of the mau who sits and lends, and who could not suffer under any policy—wedded to its labor, that makes the business and the prosperity of the land. Together they hum, and hammer, and plow, and delve, and sell. Together they touch wildernesses and make them cities. Together th y should walk hand in hand. Together they would walk hand in hand but for the legislation of the Republican party which has been dictated by the man who sits and ia »its and lends and lends, and which has been such as to oppress them both. The Democratic party of this State goes before the people asking for legislation which will lift the burdens from them both, and which will permit both willing labor and active capital to recive their just reward.