Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-07-07

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like to say it again and sgain, that the
morale of the men who compose the work
ing force of the Southern Pacific and the
associated companies is as high as, and,
believe, higher than that which distinguishes
any other railroad corporation in the world.
But think we can raise it even above its
present standard, not so much for the pay
it might bring as for the greater oppor-
tunities it would present for doing good to
those below you in the scale of work and
wages.
OF course, all honest work is honorable,
but the good workman does not stop at
mere honesty, for to him that is but the
natural accompaniment of his labor. 1t is
what workman does with his time and his
money after hi, days work is done that
counts for the future. | would like TO see
sitting at these tables tonight all of those
whose heads and hands are busy in the
common interest that We serve, but this
army of employees is too great for any sin
gle roof to cover. What an army it is,
gentlemen, in the command of which you
share As look back at the many railroad
properties that have at one time or an
other controlled, feel quite sure that there
have been at least million and a half of
/ men who have worked with or for me, and
out of all this asst aggregation the number
of those who have deceived or wronged me
is too small to mention. have been ready
to trust them all, and | am proud to say
that, in refusing to give any preference to
race, creed or labor organizations, have
not been disappointed.
! In my shipyard at Newport News, Va,
there are now employed about eight hun
dred negroes, and the last time was there,
while standing by the side of one of the
| ponderous machines used in the building of
ships, the colored workman in charge of it
said: "Mr. Huntingdon, you have trusted
us; we shall not disappoint you" Then
he turned to his machine, as much as to
say, mo words of mine can speak so well
as this" Men want for their Indictment
the encouragement, not so much of better
wages, as of the faith and trust and conf
dence that promotion and better pay imply.
Some years ago we opened some coal mines
in Mexico, and when it came to the ques-
ton of employing labor to work them,
told the superintendent to give the prefer
ence to native Mesicans. At the end of the
| first year he reported to me that he had
tried the native labor thoroughly and found
them wanting; that, in short, they
would not do. l replied: "Have pa
tience with them; show them our ways and
try them twenty years longer" Two years
later the vice president paid visit to the
mines, and, as he was about to leave, the
superintendent said to him: "Tell Mr..
Huntington that have not yet tried the
Mexicans twenty years, but that have tried
them long enough to find, at last, that they
are among the best workmen in our mines"
You can understand with what sense of
qualification Ireceived this good report; for,
in my opinion, there is no better material
out of which to build up great nation than
the native races of Mexico, and believe it
will be brought to that successful develop
ment, if it shall be the good fortune of that
country to have the present admin, trstive
head of the government, General Diaz,
continue at the helm for the power of his
genius, the wise and conservative policy
that he has consistently maintained, and his
sincere desire to advance the interest Of his
people, will be the nations guaranty.
| think there is not enough sympathy be-
tween the employer and the employe, and
for this unfortunate situation neither is
wholly at fault. There is often great in
difference on the one side, and, perhaps, as
first place, the man of stronger nerve and
energy and self confidence is almost certain
to forge ahead of his fellows, and, in his
esgerness to press forward, scarce drops
his eyes to see whether there may be, per-
chance, some trampled from beneath his
feet. And on the other hand, too often he
who is distanced in the race stiles his ad-
miration IN his disappointment at his own
;poo nd hah I'll
Out of the former are produced, in their
rule of Caesars, and almost the first out
growth of the latter is tradesunionisms.
~ LABOR UNIONS.
do not share the belief of some that the
labor union, in the abstract, is mistake,
for on its legitimate platform the conscien-
tlous workingman may confidently ask for
justice and his individual rights. Does he
get them today through his paternal society,
whose avowed object is to better the coudi-
ton of the workingman? l think not.
Take any 100 men gathered together in
labor; pick out from their midst the spec
tally skilful, the most industrious, the ones
who seek, By utilizing the hours that do not
belong to their employers, to gain self.im-
proNeIueut, WHICH snail I'LL tnSm TO higher
plane of thought and action. What re-
ward does the labor, union offer them,
except the assurance that the least
efficient laborers of their class, who
work by their side, and who, perhaps,
spend their wages and their spare hours in
the devices and hsunts of idleness, are just
as good as they are, and entitled to equal
privileges and equal pay? 1t seems to me
that the labor union goes only half way
when it instructs its members regarding
their rights and wrongs as body, and has
nothing to offer in furtherance of what
should be the principal and proper object
of its creation and existence, namely, the
education and advancement of its indivi-
duals. Its tendency seems to me always to
bring its strongest elements down to a level
with its weakest ones, instead of reversing
the process and lifting up the lowest. The
walking delegate has developed into the
master instead of the servant of bis people,
and his mission appears to be to stop the
wheels of industry, rather than to set more
to rolling. The labor union is mighty
power, and, if it could be exerted in the
direction of the greatest good, how many
happy homes would replace the novels of
want and misery.
1t is a comment that has often been made