The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1893-08-16
powoERLy ON POLITICAL ACTION.

VO"OeuSS ON FOIltlOA1 ACTION.
He Believes That Trades Unions shou,d h
More Than Mere Defenders.
Mr.. Gompers is reported as saying.
''The trade unions are the product Of ex-
isting conditions and are the defenders
Of the interests Of the wageworkers."
That is just where the trouble lies.
They are the product of existing condi-
lions, and they are content to allow the
conditions to go on existing. Trade So
cieties have existed since Solomon's tenn
pie was built. They were then the prod
uct of existing conditions. Is it not high
time to take hand at molding the con-
ditions? Existing conditions make it
possible for those who control the gold
of the world to drive every other metal,
or money, practically out of competition.
In the desire tomake debtors pay on
single standard the debts that were con-
tracted under double one the wealthy
men are creating panic which throws
thousands of mechanics-not laborers
alone, mark you, but mechanics-out of
employment in a single day. Every
workman who is attempting to pay for
home will be likely to lose it before
next year shows buds on the trees, and
then, when the wealthy men have gained
ownership of these little homes through
the squeeze they are now forcing on us,
they will allow times to get better, and
men may again go to work, again
make contracts to own homes and again
be deluded into the hope that the trade
union will defend them.
If the trade union is the defender Of
the interests of the wageworkers, why
does it not defend them? Why is it that
day after day we see the circle of those
who work and own their own homes
narrowing and the mortgages going in
to the pockets of those who have the
money to lend that our government
should insist on forcing into circulation
among the people? Why are factories
closing, why so much distress if these
organizations are the defenders of the
wageworkers? The wageworker will
never be defended, never protected, until
he takes a hand in politics. Now don't
run mad because say politics. The
science of money should be understood
by all men, and the science of money is
q political science.
Every man, no matter how much he
may hate politics, has to handle money,
and his money is being juggled with by
politicians who know more about ward
caucuses than they do about national
fnanciering. Contraction of the curren-
cy forces employers to shut down, sus-
pend men or cut wages, and the trade
union takes issue with the employer
without even noticing the cause of his
misfortune. Contraction of the curren-
cy obliges men to mortgage their homes,
and when the mortgage is foreclosed the
earnings which were taken home under
the shield of the organization which is
defender of the interests of the wage
workers" are stolen away. Contraction
of the currency reduces wages, and we
follow the man who pays the wages to
his ruin with strike or boycott, while
the artful swindler who contracted the
currency goes away with broad smile
and full pocket. Contraction of the cur
rency makes paupers Of thousands who
have no trades as we'll as those who have,
and organized labor has it's hand eter-
nally in it's pocket paying the expenses
of it's cheated and robbed members,
while those who cheated and robbed
them through contracting the currency
are not required to pay back a cent of
their thievings.
All of this time the trade unions take
note only of existing conditions so far as
these existing conditions touch wages
and hours of labor. The organization
that will teach it's members to study the
currency question, the rise, progress and
fall of that agency of the devil-the
mortgage-and the ownership of the rail
and telegraph lines of the nation will be
the true defender of the interests of the
workers, and nothing better could hap
pen the industrial world than to have
Gompers, Debs, Arthur, Sargent, Nor
rissey, Wilkinson, Clarke and Powderly
sit down and agree with Loucks of the
Farmers Alliance and others who hold
Office in the ranks of labor organizations
to inaugurate movement which will
cause industrians to resolve to settle this
currency question on a basis Of equity,
this railroad problem on exactly the
same kind of basis and all other ''great"
questions in the same way.
feel that we would be doing great
deal more good than if we continue to
fight the evil when it grows big enough
to be visible. Let us dig for it, dig to
the roots, and when that is done we will
have demonstrated to the world that in
controlling the currency, the land and
the transportation of the nation we de-
fend, in all that the word implies, the
interests of wageworkers and all others.
What say you, gentlemen Of labor, will
we unite in doing this or will we con-
tinue to poultice the boil without look
ing for the cause of it's outbreak So far
as am concerned, believe that such
step should be taken.-T. V. Powderly.
Value Given by Law.
Monometallist newspapers will not find
among the skilled economists and statis-
ticians of their own faith scrap Of
writing in denial of the fact that the