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number of mendicants living on charity, credit, etc. A large meeting gretted me at this place. For over two hours the most undivided attention was given to the presentation of the causes which make paupers of those whose industry creates all wealth.
Owing to the long-continued enforced idleness the "strike" trouble has been solved, viz: the workers no longer have a chance to "strike".
Here is located the celebrated Russell & Co. harvester and reaper factory and machine foundry, employing several hundred thousand men. Conspicuous on one of the folding doors at the entrance of the capitalistic pen of wage-slaves is posted a large bill, printed on very large letters, to-wit:
Vote for Garfield and Arthur, and our protective tariff and good wages. Hancock and English are pledged to support a low-revenue tariff, which means little work and low wages, and for the benefit of the cotton aristocrats of the Solid South and British manufacturers.
This electioneering bill is eight years old. But it tells its own story. The 1,000 American sovereigns, freemen, and voters at work in this capitalistic slave-pen "took the hint" and acted accordingly. Never was there better practical demonstration of the truth that patriotism is the greatest of all humbugs, a sentiment believed in only by fools and nurtured only by knaves. This factory is "the pride" of this little capitalistic town; it does a large business in steam engines and other machinery. This week two lately invented molding machines have been introduced into the foundry, each of which does the work of twenty molders, rendering their labor superfluous and reducing their wages to zero! Alas for the American sovereign, freeman, and voter, about whom our trades union and other conservative labor organizations prate so much! Right in this establishment I found "American freeman" who said they were afraid to attend a public meeting of working men for fear of discharge. Freemen indeed! Let me say that my readers must not imagine that Russell & Co.'s is the only "slave-pen." No, no. All capitalistic institutions are precisely alike in their operations. They all exploit and degrade the wealth-producers.
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