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LABOUR DAY
(An undelivered address, published in FREE SOCIETY, Sept. 1902)
Copy supplied by Fred P. Young of Springfield, Mo.

This is one of the days, fellow-laborers, on which politicians and priests -- Pillars
of Plutocratic Society -- think it worth while to flatter, cajole and humbug us:
in short to bunko us in their customary manner.

The politician -- especially the labor politician -- will assure us that we are the
very salt of the earth, and that here, in "our" "free country" our august and irresistable
Will expressed at the ballot box (that palladium of our liberties -- whatever that
may mean) and translated into Law by our humble and obedient servants and legislators,
and enforced by our other humble and obedient servants -- "our" judges, policemen,
jailors and hangmen -- alone rules this "free land."

These slick and oily manipulators of men will suggest to us certain reforms (?) that
are devised solely for our benefit; and they offer, in the fullness of their love for
and devotion to our interests and to us, to assume the burdens of office in order to
procure for us all good things.

And we all know that these are liars and swindlers; that they will sell us out for
spot cash, for preferment, or even give us away for a bit of social recognition from
their aristocratic masters.

All this we know, and we do not hesitate to say so in private conversation; and we
also know that if by any strange chance an honest man is elected to office, he is wholly
powerless, and soon becomes disgusted and disheartened -- yields to temptation perhaps
and becomes as bad as the rest.

But in spite of this knowledge we will applaud the speeches we hear to-day,
and very likely elect to office men in whom, down in our hearts, we distrust. When, in
due time and unusual fashion he has sold us out or given us away we have no sense of
disappointment, for we knew what he would do when we voted for him.

And when the twin bother of the politician -- the Priest -- addresses us in the name
of God, the All-wise and Beneficent Ruler of the Universe, and promises us our eternal
heritage of happiness in another world, in recompense for quiet and resigned suffering
here on earth, we know that he, too, is a liar and a swindler, who preaches self-denial
to us while he takes extraordinary good care of himself right here and now.

We know that he and his kind are only a sort of auxiliary police, paid to keep us
placid while our masters are skinning us. We don't believe in his fables about the
good God any more than we believe in the nursery tales of "Jack the Giant-Killer" or
"Little Red Riding Hood." And yet we will listen attentively, put on a solemn air of
deep conviction, and treat this swindler with profound respect.

And finally, if some benevolent little capitalist condescends to address us as "men
and brothers," and repeats a few conventional lies about "the dignity of labor" or explains
once more that the interests of capital and labor are identical, and raises a
warning voice against "the wicked agitator" who seeks to disturb the beautiful harmony
that naturally exists between employers and employed, we will, as usual, pretend that
we do not know that he is either a liar or a fool. We won't resent his insulting condescencion;
on the contrary we will treat him will servile deference, and quite confirm
him in his belief that he is rendering us an appreciated service by sweating our
life's blood out of us for his own benefit.

Of course you won't like all this. We never like a disagreeable truth however much
we may admit the truth of it. We prefer an agreeable lie though we know it to be a lie.
But the time has come when we must face the naked truth!

Why do we continue to uphold and applaud a set of lying swindlers and bloodsuckers,
knowing them to do such? Perhaps because we don't realize the true significance of
our own knowledge, and still more because we believe that Government, Religion and
Private Property are necessary evils anyway; and our own institutions are no worse than
others. Indeed the belief still prevails that our political machinery is so admirable
that it will turn out a pretty fair sort of administrative and legislative consummation,
even though manipulated by a set of self-seeking scoundrels in their our inter-