the truth.

Affectation! Affectation! It is the nauseating disease of the day! If
a thinking man, a sincere philanthropist, takes into consideration the
condition of the working classes and endeavors to lay bare their
necessities, scarcely has his work made an impression before it is
greedily seized upon by the crowd of reformers, who turn, twist,
examine, quote, exaggerate it, until it becomes ridiculous; and then,
as sole compensation, you are overwhelmed with such big words as:
Organization, Association; you are flattered and fawned upon until
you become ashamed of publicly defending the cause of the working man;
for how can it be possible to introduce sensible ideas in the midst of
these sickening affectations?

But we must put aside this cowardly indifference, which the
affectation that provokes it is not enough to justify.

Working men, your situation is singular! You are robbed, as I will
presently prove to you. But no: I retract the word; we must avoid an
expression which is violent; perhaps, indeed, incorrect; inasmuch as
this spoliation, wrapped in the sophisms which disguise it, is
practised, we must believe, without the intention of the spoiler, and
with the consent of the spoiled. But it is nevertheless true that you
are deprived of the just remuneration of your labor, while no one
thinks of causing _justice_ to be rendered to you. If you could be
consoled by the noisy appeals of your champions to philanthropy, to
powerless charity, to degrading almsgiving, or if the high-sounding
words of Voice of the People, Rights of Labor, &c., would relieve
you--these indeed you can have in abundance. But _justice_, simple
_justice_--this nobody thinks of rendering you. For would it not be
_just_ that after a long day's labor, when you have received your
wages, you should be permitted to exchange them for the largest
possible sum of comforts you can obtain voluntarily from any man upon
the face of the earth?

I too, perhaps, may some day speak to you of the Voice of the People,
the Rights of Labor, &c., and may perhaps be able to show you what you
have to expect from the chimeras by which you allow yourselves to be
led astray.

In the meantime let us examine if _injustice_ is not done to you by
the legislative limitation of the number of persons from whom you are
allowed to buy those things which you need; as iron, coal, cotton and
woollen cloths, &c.; thus artificially fixing (so to express myself)
the price w