St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-09-08


| public Is listening as a jury to its plea. When
| America was discovered laborers had no vote
| except in the little republic of Switzerland;
| little to eat save barley bread that our dogs
would spurn slept in houses that were really
| kennels or stables OH literal ground floors, )"
| in Tushes or straw. like cattle, with a
| log of wood for a Observation-Disclosures them
| selves, without aspiration, not knowing
| enough to ache when they were hurt to re-
| volt when oppressed. They were dumb.
! driven CATTLE The ioilers of our age are
sometimes driven" but they are no longer
| dumb" Their drums are heard to-day
across the land in their peaceful march of
progress. 1t Will be
A TriuinpIAaI March
some Labor day of this closing century.
| Even now long march has been made from
the old silence of labor to Its present self
| assertion of aspiration.
| The first sign of the progress of labor re-
form, first both in time and in significance,
is the recent growth of Its discomfort. This
| discomfort is only another name for aspira-
| ton. There is a conteDtment that is better
| tn an wealth. and there is a contentment that
| is worse than poverty and the cause of it.
| In ancient times EtnaS volcano fires
and earthquakes were attributed to
the mighty STRINGS of giant
who had been unjustly imprisoned beneath
the mountain, and, after a silence that
seemed like death, had awaked in resistless
power for his own deliverance. The social
upheavals of our day, the strikes and boy
COILS, even lle volcanic HreS OF anarchy.
though all of them troublesome and some of
them wrong, are nevertheless encouraging
signs that The giant of labor is at last aWak-
ing, however clumsily. to throw off justice.
A mother. whose child has been comatose,
neither dead nor alive, rejoices when he
awakes to activity, even though it is mixed
with mischief. Even anarchy is better than
lethergy. The red flags are not the flames OF
o burning world, but the crimson sunrise of
labors new day.
Anarchy and the Labor
were wisely voted out by the recent social
istic congress in Brussels. and investigation
and.agitation elected instead to be the calm
leaders of labor. Labor should thus mix pa
thence in the study of methods of redress
with its Impotence at injustice. The labor
problem is not an easy one" multitude
who believes labor has real grievance do
not yet see that ii has discovered n real
remedy. An eight-hour day is believed in by
many who do not see how trade can
achieve il in one city when a rival city pays
the same price TO the same trade for ten
hours work. But while we commend pa
thence i'll solving the problem, let us not be
surprised, not even impatient, at labor's i'm
patience. These breakers, with all their
wreckage, mark q rising tide. Labor trou-
bles are painful, but they are growing
pains"
A second sign of progress is that labors
hot and nebulous discomfort is already solidi-
tying into definite and seasoned schemes of
reform that give orderly shape TO the new
social world that is forming.
Never before were so many reforms com
ing to BIRTH When Jacobs wife had for
several years presented her husband baby
a year. at the coming of Il new annual she
exclaimed, cad. troop cometh!' the
womb Of our age is big with reform. troop
cometh. To change the figure, the tree of re-
forms never before had so much ripe and
half-ripe fruit, never SO many blossoms as
now. On the train the other day L wrote il
my note book brief statement of
los Reforms Now in the Air,
that is, in the tree. The evils at which
nearly all of these are aimed to grow out of
the one root of selfshness, and the reforms
themselves nearly all branch out of the one
great trunk of brotherhood, aiming TO secure
TO men better environment. which Is the
mission of all reforms in distinction
from religion, which aims to better
character as well rs condition. One of the
largest limbs OH this prolific tree of reform is
the limb of labor reform, with It's many
branches Any labor reformer who has
buried his nest SO deeply on the one branch
of single tax or nat!onaliSm, or the eight-hour
day. that he can see only his one branch,
needs to fly ont and taste the fruits of the
other branches Let us make a harvest re-
mort as to the condition of the branches of
labor reform. One cluster OF branches means
more leisure for labor-the eighthour day,
early closing, the Saturday half-holiday and
Sunday rest The fruit on three of these
branches is ripe enough to be harvested in
merce did not waste time i'll the Implications
Of competition, labor might easily have
shorter hours. Modern machinery in farm
and mill and train and bakery can supply
one mans bread for year by four
day labor. Another four days labor will
provide his lodging for a year-dividing the
days spent i'll building house Icy the years it
lasts and the number of persons who occupy
it, Five days more, with modern machinery,
will provide years clothing. This makes
thirteen days. leaving, besides the fifty-two
Sabbaths, 800 days of the year for leisure and
luxury days lost because eleven milkmen
serve the twelve houses i'll block instead of
one, and because of like wastefulness of the
time. which is more than money, III almost
every other department of our Arab industry,
iii which every mans hand is against his
fellows III competition instead of being
linked with his nelghbor's in wise co opera
ton. Labor has right to more leisure as a
part of its heritage from invenuon-more
leisure for self-culture and also for needed
recreation.
A caller at professors house said to the
servant: "Shall l find The professor in his
study?' NO" said the servant. you will
find him in the parlor at the piano playing
'Tiddly Winks'" Naughter.)
Another group of labor reforms almost
ripe in popular favor, in some places fully
so, includes tenement house reform, factory
inspection, legal protection of women wage
earners, prevention OF child labor, compul-
sorry education and manual education.
faSt-ripening group is the national owner
ship of telegraphs and railroads, the munich
pal ownership of gas works. water works
and street cars. Profit-sharing and co-opera
ton are also being gathered joyfully here
and there. Farmers institutes" suggest
labor reform institutes and conference for
instruction and discussion IN connection
with labor questions.
These questions are not so easy that busy
toiler can solve them at sight without
thought or study Ballot reform is labor re-
form. itself victorious aud the key to victory
for many other reforms. Nothing except
character is more important than the pro-
lection of the voter against direct or indirect
intimidation and fraud. Such protection
ballot reform affords, and so gives new issues
chance when they have won convictions to
Win elections also. What am emphasizing
is that labor has seasoned reforms TO offer for
public consideration, and can no longer be
said not to know what it wants. Such argu-
menIs as Powderly's for the eight-hour law,
and Henry George S for single tax and Bell
amy's speech (not book, are at least method,
and not madness, and are worthy of the care
full study Of ali.
third sign of progress is the increase of
public interest in labor reform. Last week
and this thousands of platforms. religious
and political, thousands of papers, secular
and religious, have needed the challenge of
Labor day to discussion of the labor prob
lem. Social science congresses and religious
conferences alike are voting urgency for
| the labor issue. 1t is much to have so won
| public attention. 1t is the first movement
| toward improvement. Attention! Right
! about face! March! Applause In legisla:
! tive bodies it is much when the advocate of
a reform can catch the eye of the speaker
and Win hearing from the members. Labor
has caught the public eye and ear.
A fourth sign of progress is the increased
respect paid to labor and, especially, its in
creased self respect He who honors idle
ness and dishonors labor gives the lie to God
Even workingmen sometimes speak of LABOR
! as "a curse" 1t is not labor itself put labor
for too many hours day, or too many days
q week, that is a curse. God gave man
labor as an Edenic blessing before the fall
lie put Adam into the garden to dress it and
keep ii. to work six days a week with rest OF
the seventh. when Adam delved and Eve