The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-08-07
Labor's New Danger.

Labor's New Danger.
1t is becoming more and more ap-
parent that organized labor in this
country can expect no permanent and
general betterment Of its condition
until it goes at the task of self-lmprove-
ment in rational and scientific man.
ner, and ceases to go at 1t In the man
ner pointed out to it by professional
agitatorS who make harvests of its
turmoil and reap good livings at the
expense of its deception and enslave-
ment. There Is reason to fear that
organized labor just now is drawing
near to another of its most serious
crises, a crisis In which its conduct
will make or destroy its future for
many years to come. So long as labor
was led by its Soverelgns and its
Debses into the paths Of lawlessness
and crime, 1t was bound to be unsuc-
cessful III its quest for self-improve-
ment. Not only that, 1t was bound to
be of small importance In the adjust
ment OF wage disputes, inasmuch as
the moment it resorted to violence
and disorder, 1t sacrificed public SYM
pathy and had arrrayed against 1t not
alone the capital of the country, but
the invincible forces of law-inforce-
ment and social self-preservation-an
opposition before which labor inevi-
tably becomes almost pitiable in its
powerlessness.
But now labor Is told to resort to the
polls. The man Debs, who failed to
pilot 1t to victory along the lines of
revolution and anarchy, is urging it to
lay aside the rifle and the torch and
grasp in Its hand instead the peaceful
ballot. And President John Mcbride,
Of the United Mine workers, In his
call for labor convention to be held
in Columbus, O., one week from
Thursday, for the purpose Of taking
political action, gives clew
to what this new movement
is intended to be when, In the
course of a rambling preamble, he
claims that corporate power, when aided
and abetted by the executive, Judicial aud
military arm Of the government, state aud
national, can override the rights of wage
workers, despite the efforts Of organized
labor to prevent it, and that tho strike
heretofore recognized as o legitimate
method OF industrial warfare, Is by the
laws, as at present construed and ap piled,
declared unlawful, and thoas who advise
it punished by fine and imprisonment, an
embargo being placed upon thought and a
restraint upon free speech. Believing that
there is no hope Of relief from the Ropub
llcan or Democratic parties, he indorses
the expressions Of the American Fedora
tion OF Labor, the Knights of Labor, and
the st. Louis conventions In favor of inde.
pendent political action, and suggests that
the Peoples party Of Ohio, which meets
in convention on the same day, can be in.
duced to insert in its platform the pledges
of reform demanded by the laboring peo
pie Of the United States, and thus win to
Its support the $50, 600 voters in the labor
organizations OF the Buckeye state.
From the very outset, therefore, II
appears that labor Is to be dragooned in
to political warfare for the benefit O
its ofiice-seeking commanders, Just al
1t used to be dragooned into strikes anG
boycotts, to the glorifcation and prof
of Its walking delegates. What course
could be more hopelessly short-sightet
and suicidal? Cannot labor realize tha
1t will never prosper along the lines O
class legislation; that it has and car
have no special and exclusive right,
not appertaining to every other citi.
zen Of this republic; and that ther,
cannot, In the nature of the case, b,
one scale in which to weigh out JUS
tice to the men who work under tn,
rules of trades unions and another anC
different scale for those who do not
The new danger toward which labo
is being led blindfolded Is not so palp
able as was that from which it has re
Gently been rescued by the armed inter
vention of the federal troops; but 1t 1
none the less real. Labor must burs
the bandages that interested and un
scrupulous leaders keep tightly abou
its temples, or 1t will inevitably fall In
to pit, That Is what its parasite
are now working for, to lure 1t into
skillfully-dug political pit and ther
proceed to plunder it and fatten off
as they have plundered 1t and fattene,
off 1t In the old and now discredite,
pits known as the strike and boycott
Let us hope that the intelligence AM
the common sense represented in tn
labor organizations of the country, al
though frequently inert, will In thi
emergency yet awaken In time to pei
ceive this subtle danger and avert 1t.
The POSITION Of the Hawaiian roy
alist ENJOYS, succinctly stated, Is tina
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