The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-11-05

the brotherhoods. and could not dc
it sooner, is simply because itcopld
not be done I mean to say that
secret social organizations could
not be extinguished, nor can they
now. It can not be done. It never
will be done. Rome only broke
down their political, not their So
cial, power. The organizations re-
manned. They are here yet. She
only changed them from their no
BILE, political, voting manliness by
q hundred years of jealous oppres-
sion, and reduced them tc . lower
scale Of action-that Of begging in
stead of demanding. I am ashamed
to confess that in my own country
they still lie in this stifled condi-
ton. The German and English So
cialists and the English trade .un-
ions are getting back to the old
Roman status; but in America the
trade unions refuse to stir out Of
the traditional rut which marks the
feudal system"
At last labor is getting the vote
to stay, and now rears its head to
show its spiritual majesty as the saw
ing and divine force in the world.
1.-THE fact is the exercise Of the
votive franchise is that magic force
which ennobles the citizen. | have
not the least doubt that the ancient
idea of q nobleman as taught by
Plato and Aristotle was strictly
genuine and scientific. The an
cient man was no man at all, not
even citizen unless he could vote.
Lacking that franchise, he was even
denied a soul. In Greece there
were comparatively few citizens,
and also in Rome, until political
power rose on the shoulders of the
brotherhoods; and it was regarded
as intolerable effrontry and pre-
sumption, and resented as an in
suit by the nobility, who would not
conceive of our modern idea of the
equality of man, supposing them
selves derived from God. In short,
in the use of this ennobling instru-
ment of citizenship, the ballot, lay
all the difference between God and
man. To-day the opposition to
political action felt by the ruling
class is exactly the same as of old.
A great corporation can afford to
pay a Depew or an Atkinson a
colossal salary for exercising his
gift of cojolery and double-dealing,
which he knows how to use to
persuade or wheedle, browbeat or
intimidate the unions, and to subsi
die or tlatter their officers, and
head off their efforts to advance an
inch on lines of ennobling their
manhood and principle. They can
afford to expend even millions in
keeping our unions mixed up with
the intricate machinery Of old and
effete political parties. The Roman
workingman knew no political
party but his own. His was the true
third party. lie cast no votes ex-
cept for his own candidates. Let
no man seek his own, but his neigh
boris good" was his me-honored
maxim; for this really meant his
own, backed up by every member,
on the principle of each for all and
all for each.''
In England the unions never lost
their manhood or freedom as fully
as elsewhere, throughout the two
since the advent of
Christ, which two thousand years
of time has not yet taught some
men, debauched by unjust wealth,
the dignity, the divinity of work
and the worker.
"But in England, although many
great mercantile concerns were
built up by the labor of the guilds,
the brave members could never be
completely subdued. They worked
eight hours, as is known, during a.
great part of six centuries. They
themselves as trade
unions though not strictly political
ones. They were repeatedly sup
pressed, but as many times fought
themselves free and finally in 1924
they procured their right to organ
ize, which had been interdicted by
the law of Elizabeth. Since then
they have been rapidly drifting into
power and are to-day the most
trade unions in the
world and are beginning to show
signs of their ancient political
methods of demanding rather than
petitioning for justice. They have
the feudal system"
OLD AND New.