The World's Fair

Unsigned Article

[A Report by Single Taxers at the 1893 World's Fair;
Excerpts from the Book of the Fair / Chapter 26]

At another session Samuel Gompers, in answer to the self-proposed question, "What does labor want?" said that it wanted the earth and the fullness thereof; and first of all an immediate advance in wages and reduction in time - eight hours a day, with fewer tomorrow and fewer still the next day. But while there was other nonsense of this kind, the discussions of the labor parliament were for the most part of a rational and instructive character, as at times were even the remarks of Samuel Gompers. Edwin McGlynn discoursed on the destiny of the labor movement, advocating the single tax doctrine as one that would improve the laborer's condition. On the latter question spoke also Henry George, who explained the meaning of the phrase and how the idea was suggested to him by the so-called land boom in California, which carried the price of what before were almost worthless tracts to $1,000 an acre. General Weaver, Mary E. Lease, and others stated their views in this connection, and a single tax platform was adopted, the final clause in which, recommending public control of common ways, as for transportation and the furnishing of gas and water, was amended on the motion of Hamlin Garland.

The labor congresses closed on labor day, the 4th of September, on the Sabbath preceding which, clergymen representing several denominations met in Washington hall before an audience of 2,500 persons, assembled to hear from the churches their messages of hope and cheer. After a brief address from Henry D. Lloyd, who acted as chairman, Archbishop Ireland spoke on the Catholic church and the labor question, touching at length on the encyclical relating to the condition of labor from Leo XIII. Speaking for the protestant denominations, John P. Coyle stated that the church owed a duty to labor, and if that duty were done the labor problem would not exist. Representing the Hebrew faith, Emil G. Hirsch remarked that there was no Jewish pulpit but felt the thrill of the prophet's words, that he who planted the vine should eat of the fruits thereof. The age to preach the resignation of the weak was past. The law was often made a fetich, and charity a makeshift. Had we more justice, we should not need charity. In a paper written by George E. M. McNeill was recommended an increased tax on land to give work to the unemployed, and Herbert Burrows outlined the attitude of socialism toward labor and the church.

At the congress on municipal government Mrs. Alice Lincoln read a paper on tenement houses and the people who live in them, with valuable suggestions as to the erection and care of such houses, especially in New York, where 1,250,000 people lived in flats. As an experiment she had purchased, arranged, and fitted up a tenement block in Boston, and had trained the tenants to ways of cleanliness and morality, with most satisfactory results. The poor should be helped, and above all should be taught to help themselves, to which end she offered many practical hints. Mrs. Florence Kelley spoke on the relations of the municipality to the sweating system, and Mrs. Ralph Trautmann on the sanitary reforms effected by women in New York. At this congress also was considered the subject of commercial arbitration, with other methods of adjusting differences between men and between employers and employed.