UNITED STATES. 



751 



not far removed from the class called profes- 

 sional politicians. In Ohio a workingman's 

 State ticket was nominated upon a platform of 

 a decided socialistic character. Here, again, 

 their candidates were not workingmen proper. 

 The platforms of the older parties in this State 

 demanded innovations, which the press of the 

 country criticised as being of a similar revolu- 

 tionary tendency. A clause in the Republican 

 manifesto reads : 



We recommend, first, that Congress establish a 

 national bureau of industry ; second, that Congress 

 exert its authority overall national highways of trade 

 by prescribing and enforcing such reasonable regu- 

 lations as will tend to promote safety of travel, secure 

 fair returns for capital invested and fair wages to 

 employes, preventing mismanagement, improper 

 discriminations, and the aggrandizement of offi- 

 cials at the expense of stockholders and shippers 

 and employe's ; third, that provision be made for 

 statutory arbitrations between employers and em- 

 ploye's, to adjust controversies, reconcile inter- 

 ests, and establish justice and equality between 

 them. 



the two classes which made the hardest re- 

 proaches against the managers of the railways 

 were the two most nearly affected by their 

 acts, their employes and the farmers. Thirdly, 

 there was a general desire among the mechan- 

 ical class that their order should be heard and 

 felt in politics, though in what cause and for 

 what ends they had formed no definite concep- 

 tion. Fourthly, there were the social demo- 

 crats, of whom every city contains a coterie ; 

 they are nearly all foreigners, Germans, Bo- 

 hemians, Poles, Frenchmen, Italians, active 

 minds, thoroughly imbued with the doctrines 

 of the French commune and the German social 

 democracy. Revolutionists from principle, 

 they seize every opportunity to bring their 

 ideas before the people. In the meetings and 

 conventions held with reference to the politi- 

 cal combination of the industrial classes, those 

 who were most earnest in the matter were the 

 least in haste to proceed to action. The so- 

 cialists were the earliest to attribute to the 

 strikes a politico-social 

 character ; but from 

 the first to the last 

 they evolved nothing 

 but speeches and mani- 

 festoes, possessing nei- 

 ther the material nor 

 the skill for party or- 

 ganization : they, as a 

 rule, are not less unpop- 

 ular among the work- 

 ingmen of the country 

 than they are among 

 other classes; and 

 where sometimes their 

 principles were in- 

 dorsed and adopted in 

 the programmes of the 

 meetings, they, the ori- 

 ginal authors, were un- 

 recognized and con- 

 demned. In Louisville 

 a workingman's party 

 under the guidance of 

 skilled politicians elect- 

 ed several members to the Legislature. Their The Bread-Winners' League of New York, a 

 platform renounced both the existing parties, yt/osi-political association, issued a call for an 

 and proclaimed the formation of a party to be independent labor party in the following tenor : 

 composed of the industrial classes, which should Citizens of the State of New York, Members and 

 reform the financial policy of the Government, Friends of the Independent Party and of the " Bread- 

 establish the eight-hour law, erect courts of nr- Winners' League : " You are requested to immedi 

 bitration to defide in disputes between capital ^f^i W*3A&3ffV&S 

 and labor, forbid private contracts for prison 



TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON. 



products, stop the employment of children un- 

 der 14 years of age in factories or elsewhere, 

 establish compulsory education and the liberal 

 pecuniary support of public schools, reduce 

 taxes and economize in Governmental, State, 



ganize on our platform 

 the following: 



1. That the Government immediately ti 

 trol, own, and operate the^railroads.^ 







bUc improveme nts, with Government funds and 



f or tne pu bii c benefit. , 



and municipal expenses, raise the imposts on 4. Repeal of all national-bank charters and 



necessaries, oppose class legislation, refuse to sue of greenbacks in their stond. 

 snpport pr^onal politician,, and nom in.ts 

 no one who is not a laborer. Their plattorm 



to the contrary notwithstanding, the elected B ave e naon. - . . 



3ndidates were not workingmen, and were to the people to see that Congreu A 



est - a ri Organization and the ballot can 

 B ave the nation. Thf Bread- Win n*r' Ltaw / . <. 



