Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-05-03
LABOR STRIKES" IN THE RIGHT
DIRECTION.

We confess having greater interest
in the present labor troubles than at
any period in the past.
They differ in their motive and in
sDiration from any labor strikes that
have occurred since the war.
They have more meaning. They have
higher, grander purpose. We recog-
nize in them the kindling fires ola labor
revolution that must come sooner or
later, and We bid it God.speed.
The labor strikes during the late bus
mess depression were mostly for money.
They were demands Tor money which
capitalists, as rule, could not afford to
pay 1t wss difficult, then, to deter
mine which side ought to yield. Capt.
tai and labor, both, were suffering.
But now the demand of the laborer is
not for money but for manhood. 1t is a
demand that he shall be treated by his
employers with at least, as much mercy
and consideration as the horse. 1t is Il
demand that he shall be recognized as
something more than a machine, il not
more than q mere animal.
In the II. Louis strikes the simple de-
mand was that hrsirS hours should BE-
considered days ir0rt
In other words il was a demand for
deliyerance from the most abject slay-
cry. 1t was a demand that the la
borer might be accorded the same num-
Der of hours for rest that is allowed the
horse and the OK.
There is today more dehumanizing
system OF slavery among employees OF
corporations and large manufactures
than even existed among negroes in the
cotton States OF the South.
There is as much real slavery among
the men OF our mills today as there was
among negroes at any time before the
war.
Men live only to eat and sleep. They
eat that they may have strength for
their work. They sleep that they may
be rested for their work. They work
that they may merely have something
to eat and place to sleep. So does
the horse.
They have no leisure nor liberty that
the horse does not have. They have no
home but the workshop. They have no
society. no Sabbath; no hours chat with
the wife; no rOmp with the children;
no communion with books; no mo,
ment's time or strength to think Of
destiny that is not bounded by the linn
its OF few, short, weary years in the
workshop.
We wonder that more men DO not
blow their brains cut. Ii they had time
to get a view OF their condition, per-
haps they would. They have no time
to prepare for death, even for suicide.
Work has deadened their sensibilities
till their souls are almost as callous rs
their hands. They have been trained
down till their aspirations are but little
higher than the average animal.
1t is such conditions as these that
gradually reduce a people to the rude
and savage state eli heaihendom. Slavery
and ignorance are synonymous
terms. And just in proportion
to the degree OF ignorance
is the man lowered in the scale OF hu-
mainly. The large and increasing ele-
mVpt OF this kind in our population is
endansering our free institutions and
the PerP"rity of republican govern
ment. 1t Wil'.acome too formidable to
control after time xcept by the stern
dictum Of the bayone'. II ;s a class Of
population that is not reS- Al hv The
irae schools, nor by the chufo. -,
NV any other humanizing Influences.
more than this, it is a dark blot on
the civilization Of the age. Between
,h;ssystem and the enlightened progress
- the world there is an irrepressible
conflict in which the strike Of the labor
inc man for his liberty will some day
.uceeed-and ii ought to succeed.