No. 395.
Mr. Birney
to Mr. Evarts.
The Hague , October 11, 1877. (Received October 26.)
Sir: As among the current events of which it may be well to make some mention, I give you in this note memoranda of assemblies recently gathered in this vicinity under the name of “International Workingmen’s Association,” and “The Socialist Congress.”
The contest between capital and labor, as it is called, having recently attracted so much attention in the United States, it may not be amiss that the government should be apprised that there exists on the continent of Europe an earnest set of energetic men, exhibiting much talent in their discussions, whose plans are revolutionary, seeking the overthrow of existing governments, the subversion of property, and who are in constant correspondence and in sympathy with a similar set of men in the United States.
In 1872, the first-named association, having been refused the privilege of meeting in convention, by several governments, within their respective boundaries, obtained the consent of authorities in the Netherlands to hold sessions at the Hague. The government here entertained no apprehension in regard to them, so long as they confined their labors to talk and discussions. The meeting here was not very harmonious, and resulted in a division in their ranks. The portion retaining the name of International Association of Workingmen” met at Verviers, on the 6th, 7th, and 8th of September ultimo, and those who assumed the title of the Socialist Congress met at Ghent, both in Belgium, on the 10th, 11th, and 12th of same month.
Delegates were in attendance from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, and England, some of whom were present at both meetings. Their numbers were not large, but their views in the main seemed to accord.
Leon Frankel, who presided at most of the sessions at Ghent, having expressed extreme revolutionary sentiments, and it being ascertained that he had been active as a member of the commune in Paris, the Belgian police called upon him at his hotel, and attended him over the line.
Their meetings were not all public, but from what has been published [Page 695] of their proceedings, and from what they have openly and distinctly avowed, the following may be safely stated as composing the planks of their platform:
“The expropriation of the owners of all capital.”
“The abolition of individual property.”
“Groups of laborers to hold collectively all soil, buildings, capital, and fabrics.”
“The abolition of each kind of state and of every form of representative government.
“The organization of society into a net of federations of laborers, united for the special needs and purposes they propose to reach.”
This scheme is to be realized by a series of revolutions, each to accomplish a part of the programme on the field of its action.
The meeting at Verviers passed a vote of sympathy for what they called “the insurrection of the people of the United States during the last railway strike.”
As to the organization of trades societies, discussion was had, and a resolution passed recommending them, at the same time expressing the opinion that those of them which occupy themselves exclusively with questions of wages have had their time, and they must necessarily have to be, and will be, transformed into revolutionary organizations aiming at the complete abolition of the system of wages.
The association also proclaimed itself in union with all workingmen whenever they protest by any acts against the actual organization of society.
The congress at Ghent appeared to be in full sympathy with the association at Verviers, and as a declaration of its views passed the following:
The congress declares that in the economical struggle of the working class against the “classes which possess,” the trades-unions must form international federations, and engages its members to use all their efforts in this direction.
Considering that so long as the land and the other instruments of production, which are the means of life, are held and appropriated by individuals or sections, the economical subjection of the mass of the people, with all its attendant misery and starvation, must continue, the congress declares it is necessary that the state or the commune, representing and comprising the whole of the people, should possess the land and other instruments of labor.
This congress received a long communication, elaborately prepared, from the executive committee of the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” written from 103½ Wells street, Chicago, dated August 20, and signed by Philip Van Putten, corresponding secretary, containing an account of the United States railway strike. The executive committee in this letter explained that owing to financial obligations they had been unable to send delegates to that congress, but forwarded instead a review of the labor movement in the United States, tracing it from the war to the railway strike.
This letter states, among other things, that while the trades-unions were yet flourishing a few of their earnest men introduced the principles of the “International Association”; that the unfortunate events in Paris in 1871 had been so misrepresented by the press in America that the entire movement was regarded as a war upon property, religion, and the family relations; that the success of the International was then impossible. It further says:
Believing it to be a more practical method of reaching the desired end, to unite the working classes for present demands, upon the same principle as the International, without, however, hindering our progress by explaining all the eventual results which will attend our success, the “Social Democratic” party was organized.
The letter further refers to the formation of a new party called the “Workingmen’s Party of the United States,” and says that its platform is to build up trades-unions and to aim at the passing of laws in the direct interest of labor. A portion of this letter has been published, and from it I add the following extract:
The railroad workmen had been so reduced in wages through the reckless competition of the various speculative directors that human nature could stand no more. An organized strike had been contemplated by all the locomotive engineers in the land, which, had not the premature outbreak among the firemen and switchmen occurred, would have stopped for an indefinite length of time all the railroads of the country. But the minor laborers would wait no longer. The first signal of action was followed by an immediate stoppage of work upon hundreds of miles of railroad. The news spread like wild-fire among the railroad workmen everywhere, and although no preparations had been made, all railroad freight traffic between Saint Louis, Chicago, and the East was stopped as if by general consent. In all the large cities the workingmen through pure sympathy held great mass-meetings, and nearly all the factories were closed.
Among the manufacturing establishments there was no positive demand for higher wages, but the men simply went home and refused to work for several days. In many cases the employers themselves closed their factories in fear of the mob. The business men arid the clerks enrolled as special police in order to guard their property against the common enemy. Workingmen’s meetings, even in secluded halls, were forbidden and broken up. The only violence that occurred, however, was provoked by the military.
Since the strike the discussions of social questions have been very lively, and the workingmen are now prepared to hear the truth. In Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Missouri organization for labor politics is going on very rapidly, and it is hoped before many months to report a strong party throughout the United States.
Great changes are proceeding in public opinion. It is evident to all that the false republic cannot long exist in its present form. Unless the socialistic movement shall reform it, a monarchy, or rather an oligarchy, will be established in a very few years. Therefore there is need of vigorous agitation, and the best speakers and the greatest resources that can possibly be obtained.
The remainder of the letter was occupied with some account of a fruitless appeal for co-operation from Europe, and with an estimate of the popularity of the movement from the number of journals it supports.
In September last year an address was issued to all the labor organizations throughout the world, inviting correspondence and the establishment of proper connections. Only one reply was received, and that was a communication from the campaign committee in Altona, Germany, asking for money to help their elections. Socialist newspapers are established in several places. In Milwaukee there is a daily paper, the Milwaukee Socialist. In Chicago, a tri-weekly German paper is making rapid headway and will soon appear every day. The Labor Standard of New York, and the Emancipator, of Milwaukee and Cincinnati, are weekly papers, in English. In Cincinnati and in Newark there are German weekly papers, and in Cleveland the Delmické Listy, a Bohemian journal. These papers are published by members of the party, but other journals are in sympathy with the movement. The party is pushing an agitation for a national bureau of labor statistics. The news of political successes in Germany last spring was received with joy.
I have, &c.,