|
At the hour named several hundred men and women has assembled at the corner of Washington and Market streets, where a large red flag wavered from the top of a pile of salt-barrels which covered the sidewalk. By the time the meeting was called to order some 2,000 persons stood in the mud and slush, and cold, piercing wind which was the ideal of a raw, chilly November day.
William Holmes read the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted:
Whereas, The President of the United States has issued his annual proclamation, calling upon the people as a whole to give thanks for prosperity, of which but a few of them have a share, and reiterating the lies so often repeated about the well-being of the nation; and
Whereas, The existence of a vast army of homeless wanderers, scarcity of employment, business depression, and the poverty and wretchedness of a large majority of the people give the lie to the statement that abundant prosperity prevails. No nation can be prosperous and contented where, in the banquet of life, a small number monopolize the general product, while the many are denied a place at nature's table; therefore
Resolved, By this mass-meeting of all classes of citizens, that we vote our vigorous protest against the above-named proclamation at this time; that it is a lie--a stupid, hollowy mockery-- a sop thrown out by the ruling classes to tickle the palates of their ignorant dupes and slaves that they may with better security continue to rob them. We reiterate the statement that only when the people shall have come to their own -- when land and the natural resources of the earth shall have become free; when liberty shall have become a practical reality, and when the beast of private property in the means of life shall have ceased to sap the energies of the people; when poverty and the fear of want shall have been abolished from the face of the earth-- then, and not until then, shall we have cause, as a people, to give thanks four our abundant prosperity.
A.R. Parsons mounted a pile of the salt-barrels, and, using them as a stand, was introduces as the first speaker. Referring to the proclamation of the President calling upon the people to return thanks, Mr. Parsons asked to whom should the wage-workers offer thanks, and for what? Were they to be thankful for the hard times which makes the life of the wage-worker an intense struggle for bread, and often times unable to procure even that, were they to be thankful for pauper wages and the miseries which follow a life of drudgery and poverty, and resign themselves and contentedly ac-
|
