496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



part representative trade unionists." The Congress of 1870 also 

 authorized the appointment of a committee to issue a call for a national 

 convention. It was issued soon after a meeting of the committee, held 

 January 17, 1871. 



This call is worthy of brief notice. It confidently asserted that 

 capital was master in the United States. The instrumentalities which 

 gave capital its favorable and dominating position were enumerated 

 under five heads : 



1. Banking and moneyed monopolies. 



2. Consolidated railways and other traction monopolies. 



3. Manufacturing monopolies which crushed the small operators 

 and determined the wages of the workers. 



4. Land monopolies — the result of the absorption of the public 

 domain by a few corporations. 



5. Commercial and grain monopolies which indulge in speculation. 

 The first and fourth points were not new or especially significant. The 

 outcry against banks dates back to the time of Jackson or before that 

 era. During the forties and fifties much opposition was manifested 

 against land monopoly. 27 This call was, however, directed specifically 

 against the policy of giving land to railways. But the remaining three 

 points are of more significance; new foes are now feared by the wage 

 earners of the country. Consolidated railways, manufacturing, com- 

 mercial and grain monopolies are represented as inimical to the interests 

 of the wage earners ; and the call favored the regulation or abolishment 

 of corporate monopolies. The editor of The Working man's Advocate 26 

 asserted that " centralization and labor " are two antagonistic elements. 



A labor-reform party was organized in Massachusetts in 1869; and 

 in that year it elected twenty-one representatives to the State Assembly 

 and one state senator. The state ticket polled 13,000 votes. In the 

 following year, Wendell Phillips was nominated for governor. The 

 party advocated the separation of industrial from political questions. 

 Two new and significant demands are found in the platform : the regu- 

 lation of railway rates and the abolition of the importation of laborers, 

 particularly from China, under contract. In 1871, the resolutions 

 presented by Phillips and adopted by the labor-reform party were tinged 

 with socialism. It was affirmed that labor is the creator of all wealth; 

 the abolition of special privileges was demanded; and it was asserted 

 that the capitalistic system was making the rich richer and the poor 

 poorer. 29 



An attempt was made, in 1872, to put a national ticket in the field. 



27 See article by the writer in Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 

 1910. 



28 July 35, 1871. 



20 Carlton, "The History and Problems of Organized Labor," p. 61. 



