Workmen's advocate., 1889-12-21

uiu HOl lOlRet lb hdIuiJ "oItn ieHleih- bering in these days of rapid and pro- found economic changes. What they did not learn is essential to leadership under the new conditions. They belong to an age that is past-the age of the i Guilds-and dream of trade.unonism not as means but as the end of the la- bor movement. They do not even know that the Guilds were strong and free in those States alone where they had the political power; nor do they foresee that the time must come when the mo- dern trade unions, unable at last to ar rest the downward tendency of wages under the growing pressure of unem- ployed labor, will die of impOtency if the organized force which they repre-. sent is not used in time, politically, to effect the economic emancipation of the working class
 Again, there are some who grant, privately, that independent political action is desirable, and that no perma- nent improvement in the condition of | Labor can otherwise be secured, yet oppose it publicly because, in their opi- non, their respective constituencies are unfit to take such step, Of such leaders, so.calIed it may be said that they wantonly impute their own unfit ness to their constituents. They do not merely wait for the day of action; they delay it by their advocacy of inaction, Fostering prejudices which they have not the courage to oppose, they lead backward instead of forward and their "wise" caution, usually inspired by personal considerations of the meanest sort, is worse in it's effects than ignorant rashness could be.
 There is a third class of "labor lea, ders'', more contemptible even than the two just mentioned Of the first, as already stated, the chief characteristic is ignorance of the second, cowardice but in the third we have a mixed dis play of sweet hypocrisy and bra2en impotence Demagogues of the lowest order, they creep into leadership on their willy tongues, then sell out to p0- litCians. No honest man, no apostle of humanity can equal their denunciations of wrong and their proclamations of right. No servant of capital, no tool of oppression can match their bambOozling practices on election day. If taken to task for their duplcity, they boldly as sert their devotion to labor, claim to have advanced it's interests by corrupt bargains, and credit themselves with every measure, legislative or executive, bearing the false impress of economic l Il hn pleasant duty of introducing Mayors and | Governors to labor conventions, of heading labor committees to the City Hall of lobbying for labor legislation at the Capitol. At every step they kiss the Stars and Stripes, denounce flor egn agitators" and call themselves "true Americans" though they were born in hell.
 Of these three types of leaders, we re- gret to say, a number had secured seats in the Boston Convention. Sorry as we feel, we do not despair. The time is not long past when the Central Labor Union of this city was controlled by similar influences. Thanks chiefly to the per sistent efforts of unions imbued with the socialist spirit, a great change has taken place in that body, which is fast tending to become the head and front of the labor movement It is to the New York C. L. U., as now reorganized, that we must look in the future fer intelligent, comprehensive and patriotic initiative