The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-09-01
THE RIGHTS OF LABOR AND
THE LAWS OFTHE LAND.


The laws of this country are the
fairest. the most reasonaoie an"
the nost lust laws that history re-
cords The principles which they
embody are those which have been
racoonized as tair and just by all
civilized nations III all ages, by the
best and ablest men in those ma
ttons. and also by the great rellglous
leaders and organizations OF tue
world The liberty CT the indlvIds
nal and the welfare of the state are
the two chief interests of all Just
laws and all good COVERT mfnts.
These twain are cared Tor IN
this country more carefully ana IN
telIigently than they have beer or
are in any other. This IS proved
by the fact that to get an anafca'st
we have to import him ready made.
The Sunshine of our laws and Gus
toms il too genial Ior Their breed
inc here. It's also proved by the
fac that hundreds Vt thousands. yes,
millions of men, since we became
a nation. have uoder our laws De-
yelnped their lives from low be.
ginning in ignorance, poverty ana
obscucity into intelligence, uSelhi-
ness and prosperity. 1t Is not un~
der bad laws that such things can
be done. 1t IS only reasonable,
therefore. that labor organizations
should be urged to obey the laws OF
the lard. but to teach their adher-
ents that to obey these laws Is Their
first and most important duty. The
weakness of these organizations
has been, and is today, that they
claim-not in words, perhaps, but IN
acts-that the organization OF wage
workers into unions gives them GER
tain 3rightsn not before possessed.
The leaders OF labor unions cen
engage IN no better work than to-
teach their followers that whatso-
ever claim of "rlghts' cannot be
enforced under the law is not light,
and must be abandoned. Ii this
had Oeen done by labor union lea
ders, the twelve men who were re-
Gently shot to death at Homestead
would be alive TO day, and the req
smear OF murder would not appear
on so many pages of the history OF
labor unions.
One Of the facts which organized
labor wonld do well 10 understand
i. that under the laws of this country
a man NAV work for whom he plea
SEES and for any price hat may be
agreed on between hln and bis en-
ployer. and that the employer may
vt any time cease to employ him and
h're eGme one else in his place.
and employers have pres
cisely equal rights in these matters.
Another fact equally important is
that the law Will punish the man
who, by ply force, prevents an
other from working. 10 do so is Il
lawless act, ard that is done by or
for the benefit # organized labor
makes no difference. The law does
not take cognizapce of organized la
Dor any more than 1t does of reds
haired or temperance. or Catholic |
OF Protestant labor. And not only /
the law of the land, but also the !
sentiment of rght-thinking people |
everywhere makes 1t an evil ana an
ineXcusable act to prevent the man
who needs work and wants to work
from doing so. How much sympa.
thy for labor is there in the senti-
ment which beats Il man black and
blue when he applies tor the work
he wages Of which his hungry family
he does not belong
to union ? What sort of charity
would that be which would refuse
help to a starving child unless it
was enrolled in some SUNDAY
school mission class
Still another point TO b. learned
by comb nstious OF labor is that
they cannot claim from the law the
same recognition which it gives to
employers until they become equal
" responsible before the law. AS
it is now the employer can be com
PEELED TO make coed any Violations
OF contract with his employees But
il h 5 employee, acting through Il
labor UNION, S gu a contract today
and break it greatly to his pecu~
mary injury, tomorrow he has no
redress. This has recently hap
pened at P,t'sburg, where seyela!
hdndred employees, alter signing an
agreement to work, broke their
agreement without any lawful rea-
son, leaving The works lille. la
snch a case the employer has no
remedy. The labor union insists
on beng "recornized," ard uses all /
lawful and even many unlawful
means To secure recognition, and /
Yet has nothing Of that responsible. /.
ity before the law upon which. on.