The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-21
The Industrial Crisis.

time in the history of labor. Within
tine past few months our workingmen |
have suddenly come to the conscious
ness of great power. Their more COM
pact organization, their more effec-
tive weapons of war, have given them
advantages that they never had be-
fore. The question of the hour is
whether they can use this power TEN
perately and wisely. There are omi-
nous signs of disposition to employ
it passionately and vindictiveIy. Men
who speak in the interests of selfish
capital are heard to express the con-
fident hope that the workingmen will
soon overstep the bounds of prudence
and justice and ruin their own pros
poets. That is the real danger. Doubt
less, it is hard for those who are
smarting under sense of injustice
to be ealw9ys temperate and judicious;
but the welfare of these men depends
on keeping their heads cool. Ven
geance does not belong to them and
they are strong enough now to be
magnmimous.
1t is easy for the organizations of
labor to cripple by unreasonable de-
mands the industries of whole Sec
tiOns. They have done this thing
already more than once. In the stop
pages and readiustments thus occur
ing, great suffering is caused and no
advantage is gained. An unjust de-
mand, even if it be temporarily en-
forced, always 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 tyrannically and tyran-
ny will not thrive in this day, the
tyranny of mob no more than the
tyranny of an autocrat. This weapon
of the boycott with which the labor
unions have lately armed themselves
is pretty sure to prove a boomerang.
ff they use it recklessly, there may
arise a consumers union, to fight
them with their own fire-to patron
ize those whom they prescribe. AL
ready the popular Indignation at the
INSCRIPTIONS use of this weapon is
so strong that the publication of a
boycott has proved, in several cases,
an excellent advertisement of the
boycOtted dealer.
With all the improved enginery of
war the labor unions are sure to find
that war is dangerous business. lis
all the more dangerous because of
these improved weapons. 1t can
never be anything else but perilous
and destructive. Let not these COM
batants on either side suppose that
they can hurt and MAIN their antag-
onists and get no harm themselves.
Over all this wretched strife one
can imagine those "better angels of
our nature" whose ministry A bra
ham Lincoln once pathetically but
vainly invoked, bending with divine
compassion and crying to the embat-
tied hosts with solemn rebuke and
benignant appeal: ut is well, broth
er men, is it well to fight 2 Is it
not better to be friends ? Are
you not all children of one Faith
er? Nay, are you not, as the great
apostle said, members one of another.
Your war is not only wholesale frat
ricide, it is social suicide. L is little
to say that you cannot afford to fight:
you cannot live apart you must live
for one another. This is the way you
were made to live; and you will new
er have anything but trouble 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 another. Have you
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 forges; of childreu's
faces pale with hunger and women's
sunken eyes; of hearts made fierce
and hard by long cherished enmities;
of class arrayed against class and
neighbor against neighbor Oh, put
it all away from you-the hate, the
suspicion, the scorn; stand here to-
gether, brethren as you are, helpers
of one another 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 he no longer
war, but peace for evermore." y
Washington GLADDEN. in the Century.
"Do you hire college dudes to wait
on the table at this house ?" asked an
elderly gentleman as he stepped Up to