CHAPTER VII.
The Internationalists.
The Baltimore Mob Not Railroad Strikers—The Communistic Tendency in American Cities—Destructive Theories—Danger to the Country Threatened—An Element to be Feared—Some Account of the Origin of the Association.
The mob at Baltimore revealed the existence of an association in this country, which had hitherto been supposed to be confined to the old world. Taking advantage of the strikes of the railroad men, the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” suddenly revealed itself in almost every city in the Union, not only as an element in the general disturbance, but as the prompting power in all the movements made subsequent to the transfer of the seat of trouble from Martinsburg to the larger centers of population. The riot at Baltimore showed them behind the scenes, manipulating the populace, and organizing the rioters. Henceforth they appear inseparably connected with every movement made by the strikers, or mobs. The name “Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” had a certain charm for a large class of American laborers, who without examination, or much reflection, suffered themselves to be drawn into apparent affiliation with an association which holds views directly antagonistic to all sound principles of government, and wholly subversive of the doctrines which underlie the foundations of social order.
This so-called “Party” is neither more nor less than the organization known in Europe as “The International Association of Workingmen,” which has cost almost every government on that continent no little uneasiness. The evidence of the conspicuous part played by the Internationalists in bringing about the bloody catastrophe at Baltimore, and in every subsequent collision between the authorities and the populace, is a justification for breaking off the narrative concerning events at this point, and devoting a chapter to that element in our political life, which, for the first time in our history, comes to the front and presents itself as formidable and dangerous.
The germ of the organization is apparently to be found in a visit made, in 1862, by a delegation of French workmen to the Universal Exhibition in London. This delegation travelled under the sanction, if not at the charge of the imperial government of Napoleon III. The keen foresight of the Prefect of Police could discover no good to come of this journey of artisans, and he would have interfered to prevent it, had not the express sanction of the Emperor induced him to countenance the proceeding. The acquaintance formed on that occasion, led to a correspondence, and that to a second meeting in 1863. On this occasion the imperial sanction was neither sought nor desired. The plan of International combination had taken form; and in the language of one of the earliest actors, in the matter, “there was no time to organize; but the idea was thrown out, and it would already have been difficult to prevent its development.”
After another year of preliminary action, a meeting was finally held in St. Martin’s Hall, London, September 28th, 1864, at which the Association was fairly launched on the social sea. It is important to observe that no political influence appears to have prompted this combination. Both the English and French leaders in the organization were strongly democratic in their views. George Odger, the English leader, was a liberal, and Lucien Tolain, was a member of the Left in the French National Assembly after the days of the Commune in 1871. But it is clear that in the St. Martin’s Hall meeting, politics was not the subject which engrossed their chief attention.
Between the Association at St. Martin’s Hall and the Leicester Square Colony of political exiles, there was in fact a marked coolness from the very first. The exiles were, after all, bourgeois in the eyes of the French members of the International, and neither had nor desired a share in a movement which had for its object, “the emancipation of the workingmen,” and not the interests of Jacobinism; while on the other hand the French founders of the International, were long distrusted by republicans, and charged with Bonapartist tendencies. What else could men expect who professed to represent the toiling masses, and to be republicans, who nevertheless stood aloof from political conspiracy?
The form of organization adopted at St. Martin’s Hall is simple but efficient. The business of the Association as managed by a General Council, which has its seat in London. This body, with the aid of Secretaries for the different languages spoken by the Internationalists, conducts the correspondence with the various Boards of Supervision in every country where the Association has an existence; watches all events which affect the general interests; shapes the business to be laid before the annual Congress; collects and gives information, and in every way performs the functions of a living bond of Union between the organized workingmen of different countries. The International has no President, that office having been abolished by a solemn vote of the Congress, held at Brussels, in 1868, as a relict of monarchism, even though but an honorary position divested of all power.
The Council at London is appointed by the Congress composed of delegates from all the branches of the International, and is therefore a sort of legislative body, which is supposed to represent the will of the mass.
The Congress itself is a peculiar body, drawn as it is from nearly all the countries in Europe and America. Its business is transacted in the English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Polish and Bohemian languages.
But what is the purpose of this Association? The statutes, framed in 1864, declare that the Association is founded in order “to procure a central medium of communication and co-operation between workingmen’s societies existing in different countries, and aiming toward the same end, viz: the protection and advancement, the complete emancipation of the working classes.” The preamble recites that the subjection of workingmen to capital is the source of all political, moral, and material servitude; that their enfranchisement is not a local or national problem, but concerns all civilized nations; and that their efforts in this direction ought not to tend to the establishment of class privileges, but to secure the same rights and duties for all. The design is to unite all societies of workingmen in every country into one great national society, subject always to the laws of the nation. “We wish,” said the Secretaries of the organization in Paris, “to found an association which by study, may bring on by degrees the emancipation of labor.” “It is a Society for study, and not a new Carbonari,” exclaimed Fribourg, one of their ablest orators at the Congress of Basle, in 1865. It is evident that the founders of the International were profoundly imbued with the conviction that capital now holds labor in subjection, and it is probable they all inclined to socialistic arrangements of some sort. Still, there is no evidence upon which a charge can be brought against them of entertaining designs of forcibly overturning existing society. But like thousands of schemers before, they have found it easier to arouse popular forces to activity, than to control them afterwards. There were men of learning and depth of thought in the earlier stages of the Internationals. Fribourg, Dr. Paepe, of Brussels, Garibaldi, Dr. Karl Marx, a man of remarkable erudition, and others. There was a rupture in the Congress of Lausanne, in 1867. The Socialists had gained an ascendency. The roll of the Association at that time contained the names of men and women, little known for the most part except in the obscure history of that seething radicalism of which Brussels and Geneva are the foci. In the eyes of these men, Louis Blanc was a reactionary, Mazzini a friend of oppressors, and Garibaldi himself little better than an aristocrat in his ideas and opinions.
“The League of Peace and Liberty,” met at Berne, in 1868. To this body the Congress of the Internationals, then in session at Brussels, sent a resolution of unexampled frankness, informing “the League,” that its presence in the world was unnecessary, and recommending it to dissolve and inviting its members to join sections of the Internationals. To a portion of the League this proposition was not unwelcome; and when, upon the introduction of resolutions favoring the equalization of classes and individuals, the extreme communist party finding itself in the minority, it withdrew in wrath, formed the “International Alliance of the Socialist Democracy,” and declared itself a branch of the International.
This Alliance proclaimed itself atheistic, and demanded the political and economical equalization of all classes and both sexes, together with the ownership in common, not only of land, but of all instruments of labor and all other capital; and it even called for the uniform education of children from their birth, in order to remove all individual inequalities.
The adhesion of these rabid radicals was accepted by the International, and the alliance continued in existence for some years, when it was dissolved, August 1871, and “the incident of the socialist democracy,” was declared by the London Congress of the International, to be “finished.”
In this country, the Internationals were organized as early as 1865, but it does not appear that the Association grew very rapidly. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the first missionaries in the cause of this new phase of socialism, only sought to accomplish one of the objects of the International—viz, the fraternization and practical unity of all the workingmen’s societies in the United States.
Accordingly we find Mr. W. H. Sylvis, President of “The National Workingmen’s Union,” in correspondence with the Congress of Basle. The letter breathes the true spirit of International sentiment.
“Our cause,” says Mr. Sylvis, “is a common one; it is a war between poverty and wealth. * * * * Our late war resulted in the building up of the most infamous moneyed aristocracy on the face of the earth. This moneyed power is fast eating up the substance of the people. We have made war upon it, and we mean to win. If we can, we will win through the ballot box; if not—then we will resort to sterner means. A little blood letting is sometimes necessary in desperate cases.” This was written long before the panic and the date of “hard times.” The purpose was then felt to do what we have seen attempted.
Mr. Sylvis died in 1868, but his mantle has fallen on other shoulders. The ill-odor of “the incident of the Social Democracy,” the close alliance between the International and the people who overthrew the Column Vendome, and applied the torch to the Louvre in 1871, made the name distasteful to the masses of the people in this country. This fact induced a change of name to that of the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” without, however, modifying a single principle held by the Internationals in Europe, except in so far as modification was necessary in order to adapt it to the conditions of government and social organization here.
The policy of bringing all the workingmen’s societies into harmonious relations, has been sedulously pursued, and with a degree of success attending the effort well calculated to startle the conservative publicist. Perhaps in no country in Europe is the International in a more prosperous condition, as an organization, than in this country; perhaps in no region is their relative numerical strength greater than in America. Fifteen weekly publications serve as a medium of communication, and as a propaganda of their principles. Since 1873, particularly, they have increased with amazing rapidity, and now have Sections in nearly all the States. The whole numbers of these Sections at present are three hundred and sixty, and the number of persons in organic affiliation is claimed to be more than six hundred thousand.
Nor are they destitute of leaders of culture and capacity. Mr. John Swinton, a capable journalist on the editorial staff of the New York Sun, newspaper, is an able champion of their principles.
The Board of Supervision is located at New Haven, Connecticut, with M. K. Goldsmith, as Secretary. The Executive Committee has its headquarters at Chicago, Illinois, Philip Van Patten, Corresponding Secretary, and George Schilling, Financial Secretary.
That “The Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” is the same in principle and purpose as “The International Association of Workingmen” in Europe, is sufficiently proved by comparing the platform of principles with the statutes of St. Martin’s Hall, framed in 1864, and subsequently, in the main, re-affirmed by the Congress at Basle.
The following are their acknowledged formulæ of doctrines:—
The emancipation of the working classes must be achieved by the working classes themselves, independent of all political parties of the propertied class.
The struggle for the emancipation of the working classes means not a struggle for class privileges and monopolies, but for equal rights and duties, and the abolition of all class rule.
The economical subjection of the man of labor to the monopolizer of the means of labor, the sources of life lies at the bottom of servitude in all its forms, of all social misery, mental degradation, and political dependence.
The economical emancipation of the working classes is therefore the great end to which every political movement ought to be subordinate as a means.
All efforts aiming at that great end have hitherto failed from want of solidarity between the manifold divisions of labor in each country, and from the absence of concerted action between the workingmen of all countries.
The emancipation of labor is neither a local nor a national, but a social problem, embracing all countries in which modern society exists, and depending for its solution upon the practical and theoretical concurrence and co-operation of the most advanced countries.
For these reasons, the Workingmen’s Party of the United States has been founded.
It enters into proper relation and connection with the workingmen of other countries.
Whereas, Political liberty without economical freedom is but an empty phrase; therefore, we will in the first place direct our efforts to the economical question. We repudiate entire connection with all political parties of the propertied classes without regard to their name.
We demand that all the means of labor, (land, machinery, railroads, telegraphs, canals, etc.) become the common property of the whole people, for the purpose of abolishing the wages system, and substituting in its place co-operative production with a just distribution of its rewards.
The political action of the party is confined generally to obtaining legislative acts in the interests of the working class proper. It will not enter into a political campaign before being strong enough to exercise a perceptible influence, and then in the first place locally in the towns or cities, when demands of a purely local character may be presented, providing they are not in conflict with the platform and principles of the Party.
We work for the organization of the Trades Unions upon a national and international basis, to ameliorate the condition of the working people and seek to spread therein the above principles.
The Workingmen’s Party of the United States proposes to introduce the following measures, as a means to improve the condition of the working classes:
1. Eight hours for the present as a normal working day, and legal punishment of all violators.
2. Sanitary inspection of all conditions of labor, means of subsistence and dwellings included.
3. Establishment of bureaus of labor statistics in all States as well as by the National Government; the officers of these bureaus to be taken from the ranks of the labor organizations and elected by them.
4. Prohibition of the use of prison labor by private employers.
5. Prohibitory laws against the employment of children under fourteen years of age in industrial establishments.
6. Gratuitous instruction in all educational institutions.
7. Strict laws making employers liable for all accidents to the injury of their employes.
8. Gratuitous administration of justice in all courts of law.
9. Abolition of all conspiracy laws.
10. Railroads, telegraphs, and all means of transportation to be taken hold of and operated by the Government.
11. All industrial enterprises to be placed under the control of the Government as fast as practicable and operated by free co-operative trades unions for the good of the whole people.
Such are the Utopian schemes of the organization, which stood behind the strikes; which prompted the mobs, and brought victims to death at Baltimore, at Pittsburgh, at Chicago, and Reading, and for a time threatened the institutions of the country with disaster and ruin.
Still, there is no just cause for alarm. The Internationalists are wanting in the coolness necessary to plan, and the faculty essential in effecting organization. Until men rise much higher, or fall much lower than they now are, community of property will not long command the support of any large body, except under the influence of religious fervor; and of that quality the Internationalists could not well have less. To collect a loose body of followers by exciting mere hatred of what exists is easy; but to direct the whole towards some specific substitute is not only difficult, but we may predict, impossible. The International draws its strength from agitation, created by an impression now universally pervading the laboring classes of the civilized world, that of the results of the progress of modern society labor does not enjoy its due share. That there is, right or wrong, a general uneasiness and sense of injustice; that there is, in truth, something to be righted, is undeniable. That a body like the Internationalists will ever discover what this is that needs to be righted, still more that it will ever right the wrong, we do not believe. The work both of investigation and of remedy must be done by cooler heads, by more instructed minds, and by men who will arrogate neither for capital, nor for labor, any unjust advantage. This work has been too long neglected, but it is a service which must be performed. And if properly performed, with sincere purpose, and conscientious resolution, we hope to find the means of ending the present conflict of naturally harmonious interests, and of avoiding the chief danger which now threatens modern civilization. This done we shall hear no more of the International, except as it may continue to alarm and torment those who are not yet, just enough or sufficiently bold and strong to rise to the dignity of demanding equal justice to all.
The causes which make it possible for the Internationalists to exist in this country must be removed. They can only exist in an element of social unrest. They came forth recently only to pull down, they cannot build.