your favor. I think the Police Commissioners did well and wisely in permitting this meeting to take place, and Mayor Ely has won an imperishable laurel by saying there was no power in the constitution to prevent a meeting like this from taking place. I speak to you in presence of eight thousand rifles and eight hundred clubs that cover you. And now (here the speaker raised his voice to its loudest tones) what is this social volcano that has brought us here together-this power. that has 100,000 Americans and $1,000,000,000 within its mercy?". Here there was an interruption by Conroy, who said that the speaker was getting too sensational. "On one side," continued the speaker, "we see the movement of workingmen, anxious only to restore the rate of wages to which they are justly entitled, put back to where it was before the 1st of last July, and on the other hand we see the steady and relentless disposition on the part of capital to cut men's wages down so low as to make life a choice between starvation and suicide. Glory to the militia who refused to fire on the strikers! [Great applause.] Glory to the 16th Pennsylvania, that refused to be the accomplices of the murderers of the innocent men, women and children of Pittsburgh!" Mr. Conroy, who continued to act as chairman, then introduced Mr. Leander Thompson, who read the following resolutions to the meeting: The Resolutions. Resolved, That the workingmen's party of the city and county of New York tender their heartfelt sympathies to the railroad men now on strike in different localities in the country. Resolved, That we consider all legalized chartered corporations, such as railroad, bankin manu facturing, gas, etc., under the prese tion, as the most despotic and heartless enemies of the working classes. Resolved, That their acts of tyranny and oppression have been the cause of demoralizing thousands of honest workingmen, thereby driving them to acts of madness, desperation and crime that they would not otherwise have been guilty of had they been justly dealt by. Resolved, That as these chartered companies have been the primal cause of their employés' miseries and of their consequences, we hold them morally responsible for all acts of violence that proceed from and are the legitimate results of their tyranny and oppression. Resolved, That we view with alarm the growing influence and power of these corporations over the legislation of the State and nation, and believe if that influence continues, the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of the government will become totally demoralized, the rights of the masses destroyed, and, instead of the voice of the people, the power of the almighty dollar will become absolute and supreme. Resolved, That we do earnestly request and advise all the working classes throughout the country to unite as speedily as possible for the purpose of forming a political party, based on the natural rights of labor. Let us make common cause against a common enemy. Resolved, That nothing short of a political revolution through the ballot box on the part of the working classes will remedy the evils under which they suffer. Resolved, That it is the purpose of the workingmen's party to confiscate, through legislation, the unjustlygotten wealth of these legalized and chartered corporation thieves that are backed by the Shylocks and moneyed syndicates of Europe and of this country. Resolved, That we love law and order, peace and tranquillity, justice and righteousness above all else, and deprecate anything and everything that will pervert them, and that we are ever ready to give our lives in defence of the inherent rights of man. Address to President Hayes. TO RUTHERFORD B. HAYES, President of the United States: SIR:-We, the workingmen of the city of New York, in mass-meeting assembled, acting from a sense of duty, and prompted by true feelings of humanity and a sincere desire for peace and harmony in society, do earnestly and respectfully call your attention to the serious condition of affairs now existing, and which have existed for some time past between the operatives and the officials of the mining and railroad corporations in several States of the Union. The crimson tide of the life-blood of citizens, soldiers, and hardy workmen have already mingled in sanguinary strife. The heavens have been lit up with the lurid glare of incendiary fires that have reduced to ashes millions of property. Men have fallen beneath deadly blows dealt by unseen and unknown hands, until it seems as if evil days had fallen upon us as a nation. Three millions of the bone and sinew of the country converted into wandering vagabonds, and a large portion of those employed on the verge of starvation. Do these evils that have assumed such magnitude and proportions as to necessitate the issuance of a proclamation on your part to preserve the peace, come within the scope or jurisdiction of national legislation? Whatever may be the cause of these evils, the only remedy applied so far has been the hangman's rope and the soldier's bullet. Think you, Mr. President, these are effectual and permanent remedies that will insure henceforth peace and good order in society? We think not. Whatever cause produces these antagonistic relations between employer and employé must be sought out and removed. We address you, Mr. President, because you are one having great power and authority conferred upon you by the Constitution. You are commander-in-chief of the armed forces of these United States, and during the recess of Congress they are at your absolute disposition Need we suggest to you the wisdom of extreme caution in the exercise of your national military power, lest the breach of the peace be widened, class feeling intensified, and public safety more endangered? We think, Mr. President, that the situation of affairs is of such an important and alarming character that they justify on your part the immediate calling of an extra session of Congress. These terrible occurrences and disturbances between the employers and employés of mining and railroad companies that have startled and shocked the community of late involve, as you well know, what is termed the relations between labor and capital. Many are of the opinion that any interference or action on the part of the government to adjust these relations are contrary and inimical to the genius and spirit of modern civilization and republican institutions; that the function of the government is simply to prevent any violent collisions in society resulting from the antagonistic relations of these two elements performing such important functions in the affairs of human society, and that throughout the history of the world so far have been eternally at sword's points with each other. Those who take this view of the matter seem to overlook the great fact that legislation has always dealt with at least one of these factors-namely, capital; and has almost entirely ignored the othernamely, labor; which is, in our opinion, the primal cause of the present difficulties. Had legislation afforded the same opportunities and guaranteed the same rights and privileges to labor that it has to capital these evil days would not have befallen us. When railroad kings can build palaces to live in, costing millions, and others die bequeathing hundreds of millions to their children, and boast while living that they never troubled themselves about the election of representatives, but bought them up after they were elected, and used them as a means to enrich themselves at the expense of their employés and the general public, it |