The Labor enquirer., 1886-12-18
The MAcHINIsTs.
Address Delivered at Their
Annual Convention by q
President Hall.
LaborSaying Machines Made
LabOr-RObbing and Labor
Killing Machines.
HS Warns His Organization Not to be
hisled By Side Issues Raised
by the Masters.

At the recent national convention o.
the machinists which was held in Gin
cinnati, President J. E. Hall made th'
following speech. He said:
BROTHERS AND FELLOW DELEGATES =
In opening this convention do 30 will
the deepest consciousness that whateve
action We may take will eventually hav'
very decided influence upon the labol
movement and upon the Knights o.
Labor IN particular. At the same time
| am not unmindful of the fact that but
for the Knights of Labor We perhaps
should not have been able to have had
national convention of our industry at
all at the present time; for, strange as
it may seem, our industry-the domi.
nant industry of all, not even excepting
agriculture has for the last fifteen years
been dragged along by the example OF
friction of other trade or industrial or.
ganiEations,
But it Is not to my purpose in this
brief address to point out the causes
that have produced this abnormal con.
dition. Rather shall I endeavor to
show the true condition that our indus
try occupies in social activity, and the
necessity. and also the possibility, of so
perfecting our organization that we and
our fellow toilers in other industries
may reap some benefit from our skill in
organizing matters and when that time
will have come the fruits of our toll
shall no longer be labor-driving ma
chimes, labor-robbing machines and
labor-killing machines, but that which
the Infinite God intended them to be-
real, genuine labor-saving, labor-elevat-
ing and notwithstanding machines.
Of all the forces that enter into the
activities of modern civilization ma
Chlnery is the dominsnt force of all.
1t is true that it is a dependent, more
or less, upon other sciences, arts and
trades, but there is no science, art or
trade 30 intimately associated with the
general welfare as the construction and
repair Of machinery it is the important
and deciding factor in every sphere Of
human activity. Agriculture, mining,
nspOrtation-both land and water
manufacture, education, finance, sani-
tarY science and war, all seek 10 pos
sess or control this great umpire in the
struggle for supremacy.
We may safely say that without ma
chinery, education, freedom, democracy
would have renamed mere ldealisms in
so far as the masses of the people are
concerned, and its influence in conserv-
ing public morals is incalculable, for ma
chinery has made possible those oppor-
tunities whereby human beings NAV be
something higher than mere animals
whose daily routine of drudgery and toll
but scantilY administer to their physical
necessities.
and not only has machinery made
such condition possible, but it has also
made it necessary as well, for either the
workers must own and con troll these In
struments of production, or else these
very machines, that have embodied
within themselves the lotentialities for
so much that is good, will Like whips
Of scorpions, pursue their lingerlngs un-
I'll strange horror seize them. and pangs
unfelt before
We to day, as a craft, are constantly
producing these instruments Of econ
OmY; yet neither our condition, eco
nomically considered, nor the condition
Of our fellow toilers has been benefited
thereby. 1t is but necessary, in order
to prove this, for any person working at
our industry for the last fifteen years to
compare the difference in wages, the
difference in treatment, and the differ
ence in the security Of employment If
tesn years ago with the conditions We
abOr under to-day. 1t is safe to say
that had the capitalists in 1870 at
tempted to have imposed within few
weeks or months the same conditions
under which we labor so contentedly
to-day there would have been such an
organised md forcible protest that they
would never have dared to enforce their
schemes to increase dividends by de-
creasinG wages.
And herein lies the danger to our
selves, and to all who work for indus
trial masters, that we gradually and al
most unconIcioudy accustom ourselves
10 accept the conditions imposed upon
u by the avarice Of capitalists, because
It comes in the form of a small reduc'
ton alta time, with promise thrown
IN Of a future restL ration when the
trade shall revive; consequently there
MslwaYs that element of false hops
lor a good time coming" first engend
cred bv the bosses, and then promul
gated and ke:t alive by the prostituted
press IN order that it may act as mora
narcotic upon the truer sensibilitiss o.
the workers.
But let US be sensible men and uss
The brains as well IS the Drawn witt
which nature has endowed Us, to fret
ourselves from the thralldom imposed
upon u, NOT because we are slotkful, fol