The movement spread to New York, where a strike of the tailors
was in progress. The strikers were addressed at a great mass
meeting by Albert Brisbane, an ardent disciple of Fourier, the
French social economist, and were told that they must do away
with servitude to capital. "What we want to know," said Brisbane,
"is how to change, peacefully, the system of today. The first
great principle is combination." Another meeting was addressed by
a German, a follower of Karl Marx, who uttered in his native
tongue these words that sound like a modern I.W.W. prophet: "Many
of us have fought for liberty in the fatherland. We came here
because we were opposed, and what have we gained? Nothing but
misery, hunger, and treading down. But we are in a free country
and it is our fault if we do not get our rights.... Let those
who strike eat; the rest starve. Butchers and bakers must
withhold supplies. Yes, they must all strike, and then the
aristocrat will starve. We must have a revolution. We cannot
submit any longer." The cry of "Revolution! Revolution!" was
taken up by the throng.
In the midst of this agitation a New York branch of the New
England Protective Union was organized as an attempt at peaceful
revolution by cooperation. The New York Protective Union went a
step farther than the New England Union. Its members established
their own shops and so became their own employers. And in many
other cities striking workmen and eager reformers joined hands in
modest endeavors to change the face of things.
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