Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-28
LETTER BAG.
The Lessons of HON 8 stead.

The Lessons of Homestead.
EDITORS HEBALD: It is possibly as
well that strikes should be crushed, as
they usually are. l say this not be-
cause | am opposed to the cause of la
Dor, but because am in sympathy with
1t In the broadcast sense. l say it be-
| cause l believe that strikes are not an
efectual nor satisfactory means of solv-
ing the labor problem. I want to see
the labor problem settled satisfactorily,
by law. in manner that will do justice
TO ell classes of labor.
Suppose the Homestead strikers, as
they are called, OF any other strikers +
should be successful, it does not settle
the labor problem at all; it merely
means better wages for few men. 1t
Goes not mean employment for the un-
employed, nor any improvement in the
condition of the great mass of laborers
all over the country.
| A labor union, when well organized so
| as to be able to dictate terms, becomes
sort OF monopoly or combine in itself
and has not necessarily any sympathy
with unorganized labor. The union Of
locomotive engineers, for instance, be-
lieve it to be sort OF monopoly, and l
| do not know that the president of that
| organization has any more sympathy
with labor in general outside of his own
circle than Gould or Carnegie has.
What want to see, and what claim
to be the only final settlement, is an ar
| rangement which will secure to all
classes of labor the right to employment
and the full value that their labor is
worth. We hear great deal of rubbish
about organized labor. We must not
forget that unorganized labor has rights,
and any attempt to settle this problem
without providing for unorganized labor
will necessarily and properly fail.
Any attempt to patch up the existing
system of inequality and injustice by
giving few better job is only adding
to the injustice and increasing the in
equality. We must get to foundation
principles and learn that the public, the
community as whole, pays all wages
ultimately. An increase in the wages
of coal miners is added to the price of
coal, and the public paysit just as much
| as it pays the increase in the salary of
government official. The profits Of the
Carnegie company, or any other mo-
nopoly, the rents of landlords, the in
comes of Shylocks, as well as the wages
VI ORCldtlfOo arc Palu Dy buC puUllVs
The wealth of the Carnegies and Stan
fords and all the rest of the class is
based on the gullibility of the public
and their capacity to work like slaves to
pay taxes imposed upon them to enrich
these people; l don't mean merely
tariff taxes, but all indirect taxes, in
arbitrary prices and wages. For coal
or lumber or railroad monopoly to fix q
itarif of prices or rates is simply to as
f,sume the power of indirect taxation,
Iof legislating themselves rich. 1t is
taxation without representation, the
same old outrage that caused the first
revolution, and will always cause reyo.
lutions as long as there is any spirit of
liberty or justice among the people.
What would we think if government
officials should raise their own salaries
to any point in the thousands or mil
lions that they pleased? Why, we would
have revolution at once. And yet this
is just as reasonable as for railroad cor
porations or coal companies or money
Leaders or doctors or lawyers or dentists
or trade unionists to fix their own prices
or wages at any point they please.
Landlords, money lenders, doctors,
lawyers, and all that class of labor
unions have been doing this all along
without any opposition. but when the
| people who do the actual hard work
commence to do the same thing, then
the United States army is called out to
| euppress them. This is the kind of
labor legislation we get.
Now / say none of these unions have
any right to fix their own wages or
| prices without the consent of the others,
or if one has, then all have, and how
are you going to settle it?
| / say that this matter can only be set
tied by social and industrial legislation,
fixing unity of values of all kinds of
labor and regulating hours and condi-
4 tions of labor, and if necessary, estab.
| fishing minimum rate of wages by fur
4 nishing employment to all who are de-
sirous of working. II private capitalists
| are unable or unwilling to furnish en-
j ployment at decent rates of wages and
! living, then let the government take it
in hand and protect the people from
4 their inefficiency.
If this be paternalism, then make the
most of it. We have kind of paternal-
| ism now that makes millionaires and
4 slaves and leads to starvation and blood
| shed. If the people will not learn Justice
and equality any other way than by
starvation and bloodshed, then they
must learn that way. If the working
classes are SO dull and stupid that moth
ing but starvation will open their eyes,
then by all means let them starve. And
| if capitalists are so thick in their hides
! and skulls. like Frick, that bullets will
scarcely perforate them. and no other
argument will reach them, then don't
think the public will mourn very much
| if soRae of them are cut short in their
career of legalized robbery and murder
do not wish to be understood as OPP
| posing unioniem. recognize the utili
| ty of the work that has been done by
unions. But the time has come for
broader and more comprehensive union.
Partial union is disunion; partial JUS
tice is injustice. Unions must unite,
| and all labor must be brought within
the fold-that is, all legitimate, produc-
| tive labor. We must have the rights OF
labor and capital defined by law. Sta
tistics show that every days productive
labor produces SO worth OF wealth. The
| laf orer gets one or two of this. Who