state of affairs! Then, as now, they were the "twothirds majority," but then, as now, the "one-third minority" bossed them most beautifully and absolutely. Their ideal salvation was the emancipation proclamation, and armed power to enforce it. But then, as now, they failed-because their military force was less than that of their opponents, and indifference, treachery and betrayal ran riot.

A FEW INSTANCES IN QUESTION.

One evening, a few of the poor slaves of Damophilus, the rich Sicilian and modern Carnegie and Pullman, naked and shivering in the chill winds of the mountain, came to him and beseechingly implored for a few rags to cover their bodies and shut out the cold, which added to their sufferings. Their daring plea was met with the usual reply of to-day: "My family is in London and Paris, spending millions; I must buy a real "dook" for each of my daughters, and a seat in the United States senate for each of my sons; I must endow a few colleges and libraries; contribute a half million each to both the democratic and republican parties in the coming election, so that, no matter who wins, I will be strictly in it, and sustain a few damage suits, a la Breckenridge-Pollard; therefore, I cannot do any better by you just now." With that, Damophilus ordered the shivering wretches to be tied to the whipping post and warmed up with a sound flogging, then sent back, naked, to their work of tilling their master's fields and minding his flocks on a thousand hills.

Many of these workmen, then, as now, were as intelligent, or more so, than their masters. All over Syria, Greece, Palestine, Asia Minor and the Archipelago, then, as now, vast numbers of trade unions were in existence, all conditions and callings being literally honey-combed with them. But, alas! alas! alas! as even unto this day, they were improperly federatedthey had their spies and traitors.

Eunus, Achæus and Cleon, three branded slave socialist leaders, called a strike. We say "branded" because they were not only branded as the leaders of our present labor movement are branded with obloquy, the blacklist and stigma of men, but that they were literally and indelibly

BRANDED WITH HOT IRONS.

And the workers were not only branded on the forehead and limbs, but often on the body, and as they were obliged to go mostly naked, these awful disfigurations were, summer and winter, exposed to view, and not only was their disgrace thus stamped upon them forever, but their chances of escape from bondage utterly destroyed. The strike progressed, and the hugest slave insurrection up to date was soon in full blast. Eunus, the branded and half-naked slave, was declared dictator of Enna, then king of all Sicily and commander-in-chief of 200,000 slave and freedmen soldiers, and with this formidable force, faithful and true, defeated army after army of Syracuse and prouder Rome for years in succession. But the traitor and over-self-confidence finally got in their work, and an

awful martyrdom fell upon the proletarian outcasts, they being butchered upon the cross and gibbet in untold numbers.

REBELLION FOLLOWS REBELLION. Aristonicus raised the next standard of revolt in faroff Asia Minor, and Eunus' servile war burst out with renewed fury in Capua, and Rome was again excited to a high pitch by the noble Gracchus with his agrarian law. But Gracchus was mobbed upon the streets by the very deluded workmen he would serve; the labor army cut to pieces in the early spring, and the entire summer consumed in the horrible work of their crucifixion, their dangling corpses being left rotting on the gibbets of Stratonicæ and Carea.

Salvius and Athenion led the second Sicilian labor war with their slaves and tramps. Eight pitched battles were given the most powerful armies Rome could muster, but, finally, internecine jealousy and treason reared its hideous form, and their last battle was fought in the Roman amphitheater, with each other, as wild beasts—a ghastly mutual suicide-for a Roman holiday.

SPARTACUS, THE GLADIATOR.

Spartacus, a shepherd lad on the plains of Thracian Greece, afterwards the dreaded gladiator, the fox-witted labor leader and greatest military chieftain in history, who, by his valor, success, and the magnitude and purity of his undertakings, still shines the brightest star in the galaxy of human endeavor, led the last great and unsuccessful struggle for the emancipation of labor.

The Roman senate, as our present United States senate, was busy trying to suppress the right of organization among the workers. The public lands, which, in the happier days of the golden age of Rome, had been tilled by the labor unions, were now all gobbled up by the enormously rich and politically powerful few, and slaves had taken the place of organized labor in.these fields, delving for rapacious masters without remuneration, under the tyrannical lash of foreign mercenary drivers, forcing free labor to the cities in want and idleness.

Appius Claudius, the nauseating buzzard and raper of Virginia, elected to restore organized labor to its rights, as was Grover Cleveland by democracy to restore free silver and bring back prosperity, in an equally strange and surreptitious manner, became the arch enemy of the very measure he was elected to defend. The auspices were thus favorable for Spartacus and his fellow Thracian and Gallic gladiators to burst their prison cells and call the wage-slaves to battle, who, in their dire extremity, had no other friend to appeal to but their own right arms.

From the petty strike of the seventy-five gladiators, and the emancipation proclamation of Spartacus, soon rose a formidable revolution, and imperial Rome fast verged to dissolution. Honor, discipline and temperance were distilled into the workmen army, a coalition was formed with the organized labor of Italy, the use of gold and other ornaments forbidden, wine and strong drink banished from the labor camp, and vic

tory after victory followed. But alas! alas! alas! the demon of insubordination, sedition, treachery, betrayal and jealousy again burst upon the ignorant soldiers as usual, drunk unto madness by their never-failing successes. They would no longer submit to the leadership of their lion-hearted chief. He had “turned traitor;" had "sold out." Their ranks had swollen to 300,000 invincible fighters, who, for four years, had never lost a single battle-and the world was theirs. But, going into battle against the judgment of Spartacus, the fox, they were cut to pieces and annihilated, the few who escaped being hunted like wild beasts and murdered without mercy wherever found.

A similar fate had previously overtaken Drimakos, who had led a rebellion and established a success for thirty years in Chios, but whose head was finally sold by one of his fellows for a price, and of Viriathus, the Spanish workman, striker, anarchist and finally dictator and head of the Spanish government for twenty years, but who was assassinated while asleep by a "friend" for the gold of his enemies.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED.

The era known, sung and celebrated as the "golden age" was when the ancient trade unions were flourishing at their highest. It was not only the era of military, but pre-eminently of social and, in Greece, of intellectual prosperity. Hiram, of Tyre, the artificer and builder of King Solomon's temple, was a skilled mechanic and trade unionist, bossing 3,200 union foremen and 40,000 union workinen. Phidas, Ictinus and Callicrates, the designers and builders of the new Parthenon, that most magnificent of structures, under Pericles, were of the despised and enslaved working class, members of their unions, and of the 4,000 foremen and 40,000 mechanics and laborers employed upon the structure, all were in good standing in their respective unions.

Legitimate history cannot controvert these facts, and shows that the greater the organization of the working classes for mutual protection and resistance the higher the standard of enlightenment in the community they inhabit. In other words, civilization is accurately measured and compared by the numerical proportion of working people arrayed in organized resistance against ignorance aud oppression. Rome, Greece and all ancient civilization fell because of its oppression of the working people. The working classes, in all their struggles for better conditions, have failed for the want of proper organization and loyalty among their members.

If the errors of the past are to be avoided, and success ever to be attained, we must organize and federate and be true to the cause. We must go into politics and capture and administer the government. The present competitive system of wage slavery must be replaced by the co-operative commonwealth, all natural monopolies being owned and administered by the government-the people in common-for the welfare of all, and a pure democracy established by the abolishment of the United States supreme court and the

By statutory provision nearly all of the states have ordered the observance of Labor Day as a legal holiday.

Labor Day, so called, does not mean a day set apart for laborious toil, nor does it imply a day for recreation and enjoyment, but it was and is intended that upon that day our people shall turn their attention to labor, its interests and environments; a day when producers and consumers shall meet together for the purpose of establishing a more thorough and compre hensive understanding of those social, industrial and governmental systems which now crush the manly hopes of labor, trample humanity to death and make our republican form of government seem like a mockery to

our brave citizen laborers, who deserve the most, yet receive the least, consideration at its hands.

Labor Day gives to our working people an opportunity to commemorate the birth, progress and accomplishment of the labor movement in its efforts to perpetuate the great principle which it represents-the emancipation of wage earners from an unjust and oppressive industrial system which custom and years, together with their own indifference, have fastened upon them.

Labor Day, 1895, will be noted for the emphatic protest made by organized labor against the great judicial crime which sent Eugene V. Debs and his official associate members of the A. R. U. to jail without first giving them a trial by an impartial jury, as provided for by the constitution of the United States.

The past year has been a hard one upon wage earners and their families, but the dark clouds of sorrow and suffering are at least temporarily disappearing, and a brighter industrial outlook promises relief of a substantial character if workingmen and women will be true and steadfast in their allegiance to their trade and craft organizations, for upon the strength and success of the latter the future prosperity and happiness of our wage workers depend.

Labor Day each year should record the gradual advance of the labor movement toward the object for which it was founded and is being maintained the emancipation of our people from the cruelty and hardship of wage slavery.

EIGHT-HOUR WORKDAY IN 1896. At the Denver convention, President Gompers, in his annual address, said:

"It may be true that we have not been entirely successful in the past to generally establish the eight-hour workday. We should bear in mind, however, that no real great reform or improvement was ever attained. by the first or even the second attempt. The questions with us should be: Is the eight-hour workday a rightful demand? Is it worth striving for? Will it prove advantageous to the workers and the people generally? If we answer either or all affirmatively we should take up this great question of an eight-hour workday and make it the rallying cry, and the trade unions the rallying ground, for its achievement in 1896.

We

"If this convention should approve this recommendation--and to me both it and the time seem opportune -let it make the declaration openly and boldly. can and will secure it both on the economic and political field.

"We can prepare for and insist upon

"I. The preparation for a universal demand for an eight-hour workday for all labor, or, if it be regarded as more practical, one or more trades may be selected (with the consent of the organizations interested), and at the proper time make the demand, our entire organizations and their resources being pledged to the support of the movement.

"2. We should demand the enforcement of the

eight-hour law and its extension to all government employes.

3. That all work for the government shall be performed by the government, without the intervention of contractors.

"4. The enactment of a law by the general government and by the several states prohibiting the employment of women and children in factories, shops, mills, or mines, for a longer period than eight hours a day.'

The committee on president's report, after carefully considering the subject of the shorthour day, submitted the following, which was approved by the unanimous vote of the convention:

"Your committee heartily approves of the suggestion to revive the agitation looking to the establishment of an eight-hour day, and would recommend that this convention select May 1, 1896, for its enforcement, the details thereof to be arranged at the next convention."

The action taken by the Denver convention requires that our affiliated organizations give careful and proper attention to this matter, so that all can be prepared to act decisively at the New York convention in December next.

The primary cause of trouble and suffering among our people is to be found in the unequal and unjust distribution of the products of labor, and this wrong will not only continue until there is an adjustment of the hours of labor to the requirements of production, but will become more aggravated and intense as the inventive genius of man increases the productive capacity of the laborer; hence, there should be such a diminuition of the hours of labor as would afford every man employment at a living wage.

The right of all men to the fruits of their labor is so absolutely manifest as to need only to be stated to be universally acknowledged and approved, yet, while there is an excessive supply of everything that is needful for the maintenance and comfort of mankind in the markets of our country, the producers of these necessaries and comforts are themselves almost continually in want. This is an anomaly so glaring that the wrong it illustrates should be carefully considered by all who have any regard for their fellow-men and the perpetuity of free institutions.

We need a system of labor and compensation therefor that is based upon the principles of philosophical truth, and equal and exact justice between man and man.

A workday of eight hours, or less, will secure such a system, because it will give more days' work and employ more workers; give more leisure and less idleness, and will force production by making more consumers, or stimulating consumption by providing the means of purchase.

No one will deny that the increased producing power of labor, aided by machinery, has decreased the number of-persons required to keep up the supply of any manufacture in

which machinery is used, and, as a result, leaves a large number unemployed.

It is easily demonstrated that labor has not received a fair share of the benefits springing from invention and machinery, either in increased wages, increased purchasing power of wages, or in a decrease of the hours of labor required for a day's pay.

Members of all organizations agree that a shorter workday is needed to ameliorate the condition of wage earners; hence, all should join in the work of agitating for the inaugu rating of a general movement to establish the eight-hour workday, in all branches of industry, May 1, 1896.

POSTAL SAVING BANKS.

Postal saving banks, in connection with our postoffice system, would be the safest and best form of banking for our people. The popularity and success of this system in Great Britain is well known, and is strengthened materially by its practical operation in Canada during the last twenty-five years, as shown in the following table taken from the Montreal Gazette: No. of Accounts.

Amount Deposited.

Total of Deposits. $ 1,588,848 2,926,090 3,945,669 15,090,540

That the system is a safe one no one will question. That it can be operated economically is evidenced by the fact that the total cost of its management last year in Canada was only $57,116, which included salaries, compensation to postmasters, inspection, printing, etc., while the cost of each deposit or withdrawal was less than one-fourth of one cent, and the percentage of cost of management to balance due to depositors was only elevenfiftieths of one per cent per annum.

Prior to October 1, 1889, interest at the rate of four per cent was paid upon deposits, and since that date three and one-half per cent is allowed. There are no high-salaried bank presidents in this system.

No one person is allowed to deposit more than $1,000, and the average amount to the credit of depositors was $222.

The fairly high rate of interest paid by, and the absolute safety of, this system of banking makes it a model depository for wage earners' savings, and to this end it tends to encourage a spirit of thrift not only among wage earners but all people with small means.

The postal banking system would bring the people and the government into closer touch, and in doing so would materially lessen the power of capitalists to financially throttle the government at will.

COAL MINERS' EARNINGS.

The United Mine Workers Journal, in its issue of August 15, gives an able and interesting review of the Ohio State Mine Inspector's report for 1894. The review shows that the average time worked by the miners was 168 days, while the average annual earnings for the 21,503 miners was $182.67, or $15.20 per miner per month, a sum equal to fifty cents for each calendar day in the year. In view of the fact that a majority of the miners live in company houses and pay rent of from $4.50 to $9 per month, we need not wonder that the governor of the state was called upon to issue an appeal to the people to contribute money, food and clothing to prevent miners and their families from starving to death.

The forthcoming report of the Indiana. Bureau of Mineral Statistics, for 1894, places the number of days worked by the miners in 1894 at 149 days, as compared to 201 days in 1893. This decrease in the number of working days would in itself be bad enough, but when it is known that miners are paid by the ton, and that the price per ton was less in 1894 than it was in 1893, the falling off in earnings is made more apparent.

Everything considered, the coal miners have had more than their share of hardship and suffering during the past three years, and, as usual in their case, they were the first to feel the effect of industrial stagnation and the last to experience relief.

MAN AND MONEY.

George K. Holmes, who was a special agent on mortgage statistics during the taking of our last census, in treating upon the distribution of our country's wealth of $60,000,000,000, states that 4,000 families are millionaires and own $12,000,000,000, the rich number 1,139,000 families and own $30,600,000,000, while the poor number 12,700,000 families and own only $17,400,000,000.

The eminent English statistician, Mulhall, divides the 6,814,000 families owning the wealth of Great Britain as follows: Millionaires, 700; very rich, 9,650; rich, 138,250; middle, 730,500; struggling, 2,008,000, and poor, 3,916,900.

Mr. Mulhall does not give the wealth of Great Britain, but a comparison of families, from the standpoint of millionaires, rich and poor, in the two countries, does not reflect much credit upon our system of distributing labor's products among our people. This is the more startling, too, when we consider that this is "the land of the free and home of the brave," while the other is the leading monarchial government of the world. Relatively,

class distinction is rapidly becoming more marked in the United States than it is in any European country-in fact, it is decreasing in Europe, while increasing here. This should not be true, considering the great advantage our people possess in the way of the ballot, as compared to the poorer classes in Europe, and it will not be true when our people, particularly our wage-earning people, learn to act concertedly in using the ballot to promote and protect their own interests, instead of allowing indifference and neglect to advance the interests of capital, as it has during the past thirty years in this country.

Mr. Eltweed Pomeroy, in the July issue of the AMERICAN FEDERATIONIST, said:

"Noah Webster, one of the fathers of the republic, wrote over a century ago: 'An equal distribution of property is the foundation of the republic;' and, later, his namesake, Daniel Webster, said: 'Liberty can not long endure in a country where the tendency is to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few.' Such is the testimony of the wisest of mankind, from the days of the Mosaic law down through the Grecian and Roman law-givers to the thinkers of modern times. Such is the lesson of history, emphasized in the downfall of Egypt, when 2 per cent of its people owned 97 per cent of its wealth; of Persia, when I per cent owned all the land; of Babylon, when 2 per cent owned all the wealth; of Greece and of Rome, when 1,800 persons owned the then known world; emphasized in the sack of Constantinople, in the slow drying up of Spain's magnificent empire, in the lurid fires of the French revolution."

In view of the above, and the fact that 1.4 per cent of our familes own 70 per cent of all our wealth, we might well ask, whither are we drifting by the force of labor's political indifference?

COMPLIMENT TO OUR DELEGATES.

One of the greatest and grandest labor demonstrations witnessed for years in New York City was that given by the organizations of New York and vicinity on August 14 in honor of the departure of Samuel Gompers and P. J. McGuire, our fraternal delegates to the British Trade Union Congress, which meets in Cardiff, Wales, September 2. The demonstration was in the nature of a testimonial to the worth and ability of our delegates and to the cause which they represent.

ORGANIZERS, ATTENTION.

A number of organizers have reported to this office since our last issue, but a large number are yet to hear from. We now desire to notify those holding commissions, the term f which has expired, that they must act quickly in returning the old and securing a new com mission, or be dropped from our list of organizers, which we are about to print.

SUBSCRIBE for the FEDERATIONIST,