Page:Carl Sandburg - You and Your Job (1910).pdf/23

Rh time to think it over! Don't wait till the works shut down and you're tramping the streets. Let your brain work now. Think about politics on pay day and between pay days. Think it over now!

Now, Bill, there's just about one more point, and then I'll make my exit for this time. Pay particular attention to this, and, in the words of Marc Antony, "Lend me your ear." This is important. The question is: What have the old parties done for the workingman? Do the Republicans and Democrats have any real, hearty interest in getting better living conditions for the working class? They say they want "justice to labor." But here are the facts, Bill. Neither the Republican nor Democratic parties has dared to say in its platform that it is opposed to child labor. Neither has dared to say a word commending the work of the trade unions. When Wall street cried out last year that money was needed to head off a panic, the secretary of the United States treasury brought them the funds they called for—and Republicans and Democrats assented to it and let it happen. But when labor bodies and Socialist organizations over America pleaded with Congress that it order the construction of needed public works, so that the millions of idle men might have jobs, Congress did nothing all winter except pass the Aldrich bill, giving the bankers of the country power to issue $500,000,000 more of currency. This is only one instance where the Republicans and Democrats showed that they are really one party