Page:The Commonweal (IA 0544678.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/10

Rh

Saturday, 24th January, three explosions within less than ten spread destruction and terror in London, and what is worse,  a considerable number of absolutely harmless people. The frenzy against the perpetrators knows no bounds: if any one had been caught in the act he would have been torn to pieces.

But who are the perpetrators? The Fenians, it is said. May be. It is likely enough that Irish hands laid down the dynamite and lighted the fuse. Still, all allowance made for a fanaticism kindled by the British treatment of Ireland and of Irish political prisoners, the probability is that this peculiar form of fanaticism would have died out long since, in consequence of the ridiculous disproportion between the effects of the conspirators and the effect of their deeds—unless there is some one behind them, who follows up a deliberate aim in these otherwise aimless explosions. Is it likely that people will be found who risk over and over again penal servitude for life, or even hanging, for the pleasure of blowing up a portion of a railway tunnel, or of inflicting damage to the value of a flea-bite on London Bridge, unless these people are the conscious or unconscious tools of other people, who use them for purposes of their own?

We all know that for years Russia has been bombarding the British Government with notes, memoirs, memorandums, and the like, with the view of obtaining a treaty for the extradition of political refugees, so-called regicides, &c. Now the present state of this affair is as follows. On the 15th January, Madame Olga Novikoff, in the Pall Mall Gazette, calls upon England to deliver up to Russia all those people like Hartmann, Kropotkine, and Stepniak, who were sheltered in England “all the while they plotted murder against us” (whoever that may be) “in Russia.” If England were to hand them over to Russia, she would only do what she now must ask America to do for her, namely, to hand over the Irish dynamiters.

On the morning of the 24th January the London papers published the purport of an agreement arrived at between Russia and Prussia for the extradition of political criminals—the very agreement Russia would give almost anything to get out of England.

On the afternoon of the same 24th January, at two o'clock, the explosionur, at the very moment they ought to have occurred if some one or  interest of Russia. The good the morning, and  appropriate warning of the  in the noon—surely that  John Bull round!

Now, we merely mark these coincidences. We recall at the same time that Russian diplomacy is well known to be the most unscrupulous of all, having always a band of subordinate agents at its beck and call, ready to commit any infamy, and at the same time held in such a position that they can be sacrificed, when necessary, with the utmost equanimity—agents, too, who often exceed their precise order, and do little jobs on speculation. And regarding the strange coincidence as above, is there, indeed, no shadow of a suspicion falling upon such hangers-on, recognised or, perhaps, unrecognised, of Russian diplomacy?

“The detection of the dynamites is. . . really a matter which can only be satisfactorily dealt with by international action.” Thus the Daily News, the most Governmentally-inspired organ, of January 2th. Our notes were written the day before.

Laundries are not under the factory Acts. As a consequence the masters squeeze six days' work out of four days' time. The masters are paid by the piece, the hands by the.

the Press generally the murder of the Egyptian  English mercenaries ing  every  the English soldiers who,, do to dee done to death by, the  people. But your sorrow for murdered patriots ought to be.

As to the officers. They ought to have known better than the rank and file. They have come at least within the of contact with the better tendencies of to-day. The better sort among English officers must feel something of the wickedness of the business.

Sympathising, we believe, as deeply as the sufferings of those English families in which an eternal  been made by war, we yet protest most strongly against the Press in demi-deifying our countrymen who have fallen,  word of the brave defenders of their native land who peri

When this high falutin' is to the fore, let ember that every ish soldier that dies in Egypt is, as the position of a  is killed in an attempt

deal has been said and written on the East End of London by Penny Soup Ticket ph advocates of temperature and thrift, each with his spon for th a remedy for the same. I it is about time we,  workers  on the matter. Now, with regard to the poverty and death any idea of it from newspaper articles, or from the Return told there is not any large amount of distress, or we should  but we know they do not represent the condition of the  middle class have made the conditions such in their work than prisons. The poor have to pick great quantities of house, break stones, and everything is done to make them dread  diet is as bad as or worse than prison fare; man and wife are p door relief refused. This is what the workers come to after a life wonder they prefer starvation in the streets, suicide, or even prison under the control of these Guardians of the Poor?

If you want to know the condition of the workers you must live a their home life, and see them in their search for work. Go to the do there by thousands. No pen can describe their condition, their pinch faces. They have scarcely a rag to cover them as they wait shivering from eight o'clock till three or four, on the chance of an hour's work,  and tearing one another like wild beasts when the gates are opened for  hands; and this for a pittance of 3d. to 4d. per hour. Here is our beautiful competition in full force, and as a result we see our fellow-men reduced to  of a pack of wolves.

Again, the cabinet-makers compete one against the other, working day and and in return getting just sufficient to keep body and soul together. The making their goods at home, take them to the so-called manufacturers at the week to sell, and perhaps, after going all round the shops, will have  for less than the material cost them, so that they may get the necessa It is a well-known fact that wages in the trade have been reduced w few years at least 25 per cent. In the boot trade, notwithstanding Unions, men are making boots for 2s. 6d. per dozen, and finding their At the present time about 25 per cent. of the bootmakers are out In the tailoring trade, by large firms in Whitechapel, coats are given  at 6d. each; vests, 3d. each; trousers, 4$1⁄2$d.; and this to contractors again sublet the work at even lower prices, leaving the workers  linen-thread at a cost of coats, 1d.; vests, $1⁄2$d.; trousers, 1$1⁄4$d. statement the names and addresses can be furnished. Policemen's or about 8$1⁄2$d. per day of sixteen hours; men's shirts, 10d. per dozen; sockmaking, $1⁄4$d. each. We find one of our great land nations d trade; his women at their work packed in an underground cellar like ing  barrel, and poor wretched creatures they look. We have all heard of the ma makers getting 2$3⁄4$d. per gross, finding their own string and something more than Royal Commissions or even Land Nation to put a to this misery. It would do the economists goof to have e life of thse workers for a time; they would soon find that wag trades did not average anything approaching 32s. per week, and reasing, they have been reduced from 25 to 30 per cent. And what Profits, rents, and interest to the idlers; to the workers misery, adation.

Well might the Telegraph say, a few years ago, that people at the East End looked as though they were fed on gine and  But this  have been used as a reproach against the nst the capital  their system of production. There is no the fact that the  surroundings have  themselves on their  until some of the  but a few. The children are in the d this is getting  from dat to  from  to  their bones are set  (notwithstanding the ry Acts  establishment of School Boards), so that we, the  the  the  towns are betting a generation of cripple paupers, criminals and prostitutes, caused, not by any  our surroundings.

Another result of this competitive system, this producing for p use, is a tremendous amount of useless toil in the making of these goods. The workers having their wages reduced over and over again are not able to take any pride in their work or do good work. The shoddy clothes, cardboard boots, matchwood furniture, and jerry-built ether so that they may last until they are sold, and then drop to p then we are told things are so much cheaper than in our forefathers' times  what is the remedy for all this misery and poverty? We are told thrift, temperance, and industry. With all due respect for the advocates of these that under the present capitalist system, in which we are all competing  against the other, they would be useless to the workers as a body.

Last, but not least, we have the so-called leaders of the working class, with th Fair Trade Leagues, Industrial conferences, and working men representatives Parliament. The workers should be aware of these wolves in sheep's cloth prepared to advocate Free Trade or Fair Trade, tunnels or railways or, or even to the moon, if they can get money for so doing. forward to the so-called working men candidates for Parliament is on a more effectually fill their own pockets while professing to be the frie of the workers. We workers should look upon every one as enemy and tr who to get a position for himself, Parliamentary or otherwise, by pol. We as workers believe that this chronic state of misery, starvation, degradation for us, the producers of all wealth, is caused by the monopoly of  land in the hands of a few used for sport and pleasure instead of gro food for the people, and by the monopoly of the means of production  exchange, and that until these monopolies are overthrown our misery  servitude to the capitalists will continue. This is the social question—one effects every one of us, man, woman, and child. It is a duty we owe to the present, and future generations, that we should, by our united efforts masyer problem; that we should hand in hand as brothers, with a fixed and bitter detenation, band ourselves together to put an end to this misery, to make better ditions for our children, leaving the politicians to fight over their politics  we may rest assured that our cause will have to be fought and won by and wi people themselves, and not by either House of Parliament. Leaving the philanthropists to organise their charity, we, not asking for their charity, ster and fea demand justice. JOSEPH.

the morning of the 16th August, 1819, the reformers began respective rendezvous in Manchester. In the course of the fore processions enter the town from Oldham, Rochdale, Ashton, Sta districts. The people marched five abreast. There were many years, haggard and careworn; but the majority were young pe many women and children. The females were placed for the cessions. In the front of the Middleton branch were twelve y holding in each hand a branch of laurel “as a sign of unity and peace” were banners with mottoes in gilt letters: “Unity is Strength,” “ Fraternity,” “Parliaments Annual, Suffrage Universal,” “No Com L

It was an impressive sight to see these toilers, to the number of 60 around the platform in Petersfield. There were banners  of the  a platform,  100 yards