The Labor enquirer., 1883-01-06

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the first number of THE ENQUIRER, pours
hot shot into some of our. esteemed con-
\temporaries> of the east. 1t comes out
fearlessly against the employment Of
cheap ads patent quits" and stereotyped
plates used by some of the pronounced
labor advocates. THE ENQUIRER may
have to double up its head or run an ad on
both sides, but will never resort to the
practice of having the inside columns an
EN- wider than the out. We thank the
Advertiser for its pertinent remarks, and,
to show our appreciation, will quote its
words:
1.-THE LABOR ENQUIRER, Volume l, No.
1, comes to US from Denver, Colorado. 1t
is a well edited, well printed 8-page
weekly, containing a large amount of in
teresting matter, 1t bears the secret, yet
visible stamp of a trades union publication,
the mark of the competent printer, on
every page. We wish it all success and
lis to remark upon the number of labor
papers which have come into existence
during the last year or two. And the style
and mental and moral characteristics of
these publications are worthy of note. The
labor papers"-it's good enough general
name for them-in existence at the close
of 1882, are quite numerous "a dozen or
more do us the honor of exchanging, and
there are others yet to hear from, and
most of them practice what they preach,
by having their own work done by union
men. 1t has been a grievance to US in the
past to see papers protesting to uphold the
rights and dignity Of labor, and bearing
the sign-manual of the "rat" or the incom-
petent on every column. We care not how
little it may be, or how poor and shabby it
may appear in the eyes of the multitude;
but a trades union or labor paper should
carry with it the proof easily recognized
by every competent printer, that the work
of getting it oat was done by skilled hands |
in "fairs Office. What would good
shoemaker OF tailor say of the anti Chinese
lecturer, who tshould demand two-bits or
four-bits from each auditor, under pretext
of warning the public against the evils of
.cooie competition and who should then
appear on the platform ins@Chinese- made
K A L H., e, @
They would call him a fraud, self-con-
vieted fraud Abject poverty would alone
furnish any extenuation for such gross
inconsistency and, even under that plea,
he could only be accepted as "frightful
example" of the debasing effects of Mon
gofian cheap labor. In sober truth, there
is no excuse. No man is compelled to pub
lish trades union paper. But if he does,
and appeals to trades and labor societies
for support, he , is bound, by self-respect
and by respect for the rules of those socie-
ties-if he is honest and sincere, and un-
derstands what he undertakes to talk or
write about-to conform in his own bus
mess transactions to the spirit of those
organizations and regulations which he
volunteers to uphold and undertakes to
explain. If his enterprise has not sufh-
eient support, if it cannot live without
subsidies from its supposed opponents, or
without assisting to degrade labor by en-
ploying rats" or indulging in other Gun
fair practices, then it ought to die Either
there is no demand for what it offers, or
the person in charge has mistaken his
vocation, or he is regarded as untrustworthy
and his work is fraudulent, by those who
know best what they want and are willing
to pay for those whom he addresses and
Invites to buy his wares. We
have been led onto these reflections while
looking over some eastern labor papers, and
observing therapid increase in their number
and the gratifying Improvement in style
and editorial ability which they, almost all
Of them display 1t is evident to us that
the live, original, thoroughly nnion papers,
. however small and poor the sheet, are
doing better work, gaining more influence,
and approaching a living business more
surely, than larger and mpgre pretentiou us
publications which are handicapped with
'spatent insides," second hand matter, cheap
standing or dead "ads," orany of the" "un-
fair and Objectionable" devices by which
the subscriber used to be deluded into
thinking thas he was getting great deal
for his money and the printer the type