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CHAPTER V.
AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW.
THE HON. ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS, VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY, DECLARES HIMSELF A COMMUNIST -- A.R. PARSONS MEETS THE GEORGIA STATESMAN WHILE IN WASHINGTON AS A DELEGATE OF THE EIGHT-HOUR LEAGUE -- THE RELATIONS OF THE LABOR PROBLEM TO THE FUTURE OF AMERICA -- CONTRASTING THE CONDITION OF THE SOUTH BEFORE AND AFTER THE AWAR -- WAE-LABOR CHEAPER THAN SLAVE LABOR -- HALF OF THE WAGES TAKEN BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR TAXES.
Taken from the "Chicago Daily Telegraph" of January 20, 1880.
Mr. Albert R. Parsons, a delegate from the Eight-Hour League, of this city, to the conference in regard to land reform and the labor movement held at Washington, D.C., last week, returned a day or two since and was this morning interviewed by a Telegraph reporter relative to an interview held by that gentleman with the Hon. Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the dead Confederacy.
Mr. Parsons was introduced to Mr. Stephens as a "Communist," and was not a little surprised to hear that gentleman announce that he himself was not only a Communist but an agrarian. "No to words," said the ex-President, "express so much, in my opinion, as these two words, for as Communism has developed in France, Spain, and other countries during the past few years, and as it related to the sovereignty of local Government, and the nature and functions f State rue, it develops a marvelous bearing on the future of America. I can conceive of no characters in history more interesting that the Gracchi brothers, of Rome. The problems of labor and Communism will yet be dominant themes in Congress, and, although
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