The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1886-07-27
The Scabs OF Labor.

From Puck.
Mr.. Dennis y. Nitroglycerinely,
General Boss Workman of the Indi.
pendent Order of Scabs of Labor OF
America, furnishes for publication
the following statement:
The Scabs OF Labor number some
ten millions OF able-bodied working.
men in this country. Taking Mr..
Powderly's recent estimate that the
membership of the Knights of Labor
does not exceed five hundred thousand,
it will be seen that We have twenty
times as many Scabs as they have
Knights. Thus, as long as We stand
firm and keep our muscles hard, we
have very little to fear from the threats
aud hard words of our knighted and
benighted brethren Of toll.
What is Scab? Well, to use a
figure of stump-speech, >cab is a man
who carries his sovereignty under his
own hat. Every Scab is a General
Boss Workman in his own right.
Look at Scab, aud you find loyal
American citizen, who thinks too
much of his country and her institu-
tons to be beguiled by the siren-voice
of the hannel-mouthed agltator, and
who has too much tender solicitude
for his stOmachic comfort and that of
his family TO engage in strike which
is more likely to end in starvation
than triumph. And so, through all
the turmoil and upheaval of the past
mad months, when it has seemed rs
though Jay and Terrence must certain,
ly come to blows, and the nation 90
down to ruin in a food of gore, the
Scab has stuck to his work and kept
the wheels of industry on the whirl.
All honor to the humble Scab.
By this independent course the Scab
has made many bitter enemies, as, IL
these DAYS of pure craftsmanship in a
horn, and Tariff Reform over the left,
a man who tries to act on a common
sense basis must make enemies. He
has been beset on his way TO and from
work every day, by hordes of drunk
en- knights, sober knights, Irish
Knights, and Negro Knights, Knights,
of all ages. sizes, trades and -ay, even
women Knights, Shade of King Ar
thur, keep shady y who have publicly
assailed him with scornful and abusive
words in the lalduable endeavor to
bring him to a sense of his own shame
and of their most chivalric puissance.
1t is to them he owes the title of Scab.
They probably wanted ,mething very
insulting and contemptuous to apply
to him, and concluded that Scab
would answer the purpose better than
Saracen-or perhaps they didn't know
that it was Saracens with whom the
Knights of the Olden time had so
much trouble.
But Scab can work just as well I'M
der that name as any other. He cares
not what they call him, so that he
gets called to the counting-roOm every
payday to receive his wages. He
KNOWS that be has the best of the sit
uation, and that is satisfaction enough
for him. The striker suffers from de-
privation the capitalist suffers from
loss of business; but the joyous Scab
keeps right on with his work with a
clear conscience, and his credit at the
grocer's unimpaired. Happy the lot
of the Scab.
In conclusion, Mr.. Nitroglycerine
writes: Now that they have failed
to obtain higher pay and shorter hours.
the knights announce themselves
ready to return to work if their en-
ployers will discharge all the Scabs in
their shops. The obstinate employers
reply'that before they do this the wealth
er In Sheol will change so that the
burning lake can be used as a profita-
bic field o: speculation for an iceman.
As way out of this deadlock, l cor
daily invite every knight of Labor
to become a Scab. All he will have
to do will be to stop going to assem-
blies and listening to the foolish talk
of ignorant leaders; stop paying as
sessments for striking-funds, which go,
the Lord only knows where (see
Puck's Letters to John SMITH and to
recognize the fact that this is a work
ten-hours-a-day world, and no amount
of striking, arbitrating and boycotting
can make it anything else at present.
Come up and be Scab!
Exc YOU'VE