The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-08

Some Sober, Sensible Reflections for All Peo-
pie, Workingmen as Well as Employers.

Some Sober, Sensible Reflections for All PeO-
pie, Workingmen as Well as Employers.
Washington GLADDEN.. in August Century.
The present appears to be critical time in the
history of labor. Within the past few months
our worklngmen have suddenly come to the con-
seriousness of great power Their moro compact
organization. their more effective weapons of
war, have given them ADVANTAGES that they never
had before. The question of the hour is whether
they can use this power temporarily and wisely.
There are ominous signs of a disposition to en-
ploy it passionately and vindictively Men who
speak in the interests of selfish capital heard
to express the confident hope that the working
men will soon overstep the bounds Of prudence
and justice and ruin their own prospects. That
is the real danger. Doubtless, it is hard for
those who are smarting under sense of injus-
tice TO be always temperate and judicous. but
the welfare of these men depends On keeping
their heads cool. Vengeance does not belong to
them. and they are strong enough now to be mag
unanimous.
1t is easy for the organizations Of labor to
cripple by unreasonable demands the industries
of whole sections They have done this thing
already more than once. In the stoppages and
readjustments thus occurring, great suffering is
caused and no advantage is gained. An unjust
demand, even if it be temporarily enforced, al
ways reacts on those who make it. The working
classes have now tremendous power they may
easily employ it for self-destruction. 1t is quite
possible for them to use their power tyranicaly;
ranny of mob no more than the tyranny of an
autocrat This weapon of the boycott with
which the labor unions have lately armed them
selves is pretty sure to prove boomerang. Ii
they it recklessly there may easily arise q
consumers union, to fight them with their own
fre-to patronize those whom they prescribe.
Already the popular indignation at the unscrup-
ulous use of this weapon is so strong that the
publication of boycott has proved, in several
cases, an excellent advertisement Of the boy
cotted dealer.
With all the improved enginery of war the
labor unions are sure TO And that war is danger
Gus business. 1t is all the more dangerous be-
cause of these improved weapons 1t can never
be anything else but perilous and destructive
business. Let not these combatants on either
side suppose that they can hurt and MAIN their
antagonists and get no harm themselves
Over all this wretched strife one can imagine
those "better angels of our nature" whose min
istry Abraham Lincoln once pathetically but
vainiy invoked, bending with divine compassion
and crying to the embartled hosts with solemn
rebuke and benignantappeal SIS it we'll. brother
men, is it we'll to fght2 Is it not better to be
friendsl Are you not all children of one Father
members one of another9 Your war is not only
wholesale fratricide, it is social suicide It
is little to say that you cannot afford to fght
you cannot live apart; you must live for one an
another. That Is the way you were made to
live; and you will never have anything but trou
BILE and sorrow till you learn that way and walk
in it. The stars In their courses will fight
against you until you make peace with one an
other Have we not had more than enough OF
war and its dismal noises. and its spectral train
of woes: more than enough of silent looms and
fireless FORCES; of childrens faces pale with hun
ger, and women's sunken eyes: of hearts made
fierce and hard by long-cherished enmlties; Of
class arrayed against class and neighbor against
nsighbor9 Oh, put it all away from you--the
hate. the suspicion, the scorn; stand here to-
gether. brethren as you are, helpers Of one an
other as you must be, and promise one another
that you will do what you can, every one of you,
to bring the day when between labor and capital
there shall be no longer war, but peace for ever
more"