360 LAND AND LABOR. 



of such comparisons may be easily made up. Nor in 

 the matter of cheapness is England always in the lead. 



Nevertheless it is true that the general condition of 

 those who find work in England is far worse than the 

 same class with us. But it is equally true that we 

 are fast closing the gap that lies between the two. 

 How vast have been our strides within the past eigh- 

 teen years ! Unfortunately, we have in our midst a 

 large number of persons, composed mostly of popular 

 political economists, in and out of college professor- 

 ships, and politicians of all grades, from the halls of 

 Congress, up and down, who join with the foreign 

 trader, and insist that our only path to prosperity is 

 to be found by treading in the trail that England has 

 made by competing with the slaves of the world, 

 and sinking our people to a depth of degradation from 

 which there can be no resurrection. 



Workingmen of America ! You have an absolute 

 power of control in this whole matter. It is the first 

 time in the history of the world that the people have 

 so completely held their destinies in their own hands. 

 Shall the good that we have be preserved and trans- 

 mitted to our children, purified from the evils which 

 now so heavily press, with labor made respectable, 

 and all our industries preserved from all possible for- 

 eign competition, not one lost or injured, but passed 

 on to our children as a sure guarantee of long life and 

 prosperity to our country ? or shall we continue to 

 drift on as we have been, until anarchy and misery 

 are swallowed up in destruction ? You only can an- 

 swer. What shall we do ? 



