The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-05-23
A LABORER ON LABOR,

A subject that is engrossing much of
the study and attention of the civilized
world ought, with view to it's proper
comprehension, to be regarded from
every possible standpoint and through
every possible medium. A part of this
study the latest number of the Nine
teenth Century enables us to accom-
plish by the perusal of thoughtful ar
tlcle from the pen of Tom Mann, the
president of the Dockers' union, on the
labor movement in Great Britain. No
one who has not failed to note the mod
GRAFTON, good sense and steady and
rational methods Of procedure that &C.
tuate the trade unionists Of the old
country will be surprised to find these
same admirable qualities pervading
every page and every sentence of this
labor contribution to the literature of
the labor question. OF the fiery rant
and fierce braggadocio of continental
socialism and trade unionism there is
not trace. Mr.. Mann enlists the sym
pathy of every thinking man by his tenn
perate discussion of the demands of the
working man and the methods by which
his success may best be gained.
It is easy to prove, Mr.. Mann finds,
that in many Of the trades in England
wages are terribly near the starvation
point. We may instance the chain
makers of one district who work the
whole week through for $3.50 or So.
Less still is the weekly wage of the gun
lock tilers of Staffordshire. In towns
like Bolton, in Lancashire, there are
thousands of workmen drawing no more
than 1915 week, while in the agricul
t,lral counties of the east there are many
who have to 10 content with a pittance
of 1915 and s., out of which they pay
nearly 81 for rent and 371s cents for q
hundredweight of coal.
For the remedy of this pitiable state
of matters Mr.. Mann has plan to pro-
pose. 1t is the systematic inclusion of
nskilled laborers in the combinations
that have existed for long time among
skilled workmen. The failure of the
latter to reap the fair advantage the.
have expected from combination he at.
tributes to the men who have never
been admitted to labor organizations
They are unskilled in the sense thai
they have never served regular appren
ticeship; but they are handy fellows
who have picked up some knowledge OF
one trade or another, and whose services
have always been in request by employ
ers at emergency times, wher
some labor organization had organ
lied a strike which the employer
determined to resist. Frequently thi
combination of employers and unskille,
workmen has resulted in the total col
lapse of the strike and the loss OF tn
objects it was desired to secure. Conse
quently the course Of action that MI
Mann recommends appeals not only I,
the sympathy of working man for work
ing man, but to that most potent of al
arguments, self-interest.
The persons in this country who hay
been declaiming against "trusts" o
combinations of employers will be sur
prised to learn that this accred.te,
spokesman OF English labor is prepare,
10 welcome such combinations. Nj
Mann sees, and sees clearly, that as
result of the union Of workmen the fire
play OF open composition is at IN en-,
and that corresponding action on II
part Of capital becomes inevitable. II