Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1886-08-14
THE INDUSTRIAL CRISIS.

! AhC PACoCAI oppcdTS u De B CRITICAL
time in the history of labor. Within
the past few months our workingmen
have suddenly come to the conscious
ness OF great power. Their more COM
pact organization, their more effective
weapons of war, have given them ad-
vantages that they never had before
The question OF the hour is whether
they can use this power temper.
ately and wisely. There are omlnous
signs Of disposition to employ it pas.
sionately and vindictively. Men who
speak in the interests OF selfish capital
are heard to express the confident hope
that the workingmen will soon over
step the bounds of prudence and JUS
tice and ruin their own prospects,. That
Is the real danger. Doubtless, it is
hard for those who are smarting under
a sense OF injustice to be always tenn
perate and judicious; but the welfare
OF these men depends on keeping their
heads cool. Vengeance does not be.
long to them; and they are strong
enough now to be magnanimOus.
1t is easy for the organization 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 readjust-
ments thus occurring, great suffering is
caused and no advantage is gained.
An unjust demand, evenif it be tenn.
porarily enforced, always reacts on
those who make it. The working
classes have now tremendous power:
they may easily employ il for self-de.
struction. 1t is quite possible for them
to use their power tyrannically; and
tyranny will not thrive in this day. the
tyranny of a 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 q boomerang. If
they use 1t reckIessly, there may easily
arlse consumers union, to fight them
with their own fire-to pstronize those
whom they prescribe. Already the
popular indignation at the unscrupu-
lous use of this weapon is so strong
that the publication of boycott has
proven, in several cases, an excellent
advertisement OF the boycotted dealer.
With all tho improved enginery of
war the labor unions are sure; to find
that war is dangerous business. 1t is
all the more dangerous because OF
these improved weapons. 1t can never
be anything else but perilous and
destructive business. Let not these
on either side suppose that
they can hurt and main themselves!
Over all this wretched strife one can
imagine those "better angels of our
nature" whose ministry Abraham
Lincoln one pathetically but vainly in
voked, bending with divine compassion
and crying to the embattled hosts with
solemn rebuke and benignant appeal:
'sIs it wei, brother men, is it well to
fight2 1t Is not better to be friends !?
Are you not children of one FstherpI
Nay, are you not, a. the great apostle
said, members one of another? Yourl
war is not only wholesale fratricide, it
s social suicide. 1t is little to say that
you cannot afford to fight; you cannot
i've apart; You must live for one anoth-
Or. That is the way you were made to II
i've; and you will never have anything
Dut trouble and sorrow till you Learnt
hat way and walk in it. The stars inil
heir courses will fight against youi
Until you make peace with one anther
Have we not had more than enough all
var and it's dismal noises and its spec-l
raj train of woes; more than enouchl
II silent looms and fireless, torgcs; oil
'hildren's faces pale with hunger, and 4
vomen's sunken eyes; of hearts made
ierce and hard by long-cherished |
'nmities; of class arrayed against class
md neighbor against neighbor? Oh,
mt it all away from yon-the hate, the
uspicion, the sc0rn; stand here togeth-
r, brethren as you are, helpers of one
nother as you must be, and promise :
ne another that you will do what Won ,
an, every one of you, to bring the day
Vhen between labor and capital there !.
hall be no longer war, but peace for
verinore. Washington GLADDEN., in !.
he Century for August. Il.