The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28


ing jealousy of the various govern
ments. The cohesion that existed be
tween the guilds of separate town
. was destroyed for the masters but lef
intact for the men, and with the pow
er Of association gone, competition diC
the rest, and the masters were at thu
mercy of the unions. Unruly OPERATOR
were snapped up by their competitors
and often when the masters undertook
the lockout, the men deserted the towr
in body and started in business il
another place. Nurnburg was noted
in the fifteenth century as a centre o
bottle-making, and in a quarrel tina
broke out between masters and men
the latter left the city in a body, anC
out of 300 bottle factories only eigh
survived the strike. The trade wa:
extinguished in that city
But the turn of the unions was tc
come. The wars of the reformation
the colonization of America, the gen
eral political upheaval that ended witt
the French revolution, had in turn re
duced the old conditions to complete
anarchy, out of which a new society
was born. Individualism gradually
supplanted collectivism, because the
opening of new continents and the de-
struction of an old social system gave
vent and scope to the individual ener-
gy. Machinery came, and with it has
come an expdnSlVenesS and luxury OF
civilization that now has just passed
IFS blOssoning period and is going its
way into decrepitude. The genius of
/ competition has reached its lowest
terms, and the pendulum is beginning
/ to swing back again toward social col
4 lectivisIn- The individual / gao
The corporation survives. In Germany
/ all corporations are being swallowed
in the STATE. In Russia, Peat ce'st
moi''-the ego residing in the car or,
at least, as measured by our standard
of intense individualism it appears so.
But organically it is quite the reverse.
In no modern commonwealth is dem
ocracy SO intense or so radically pow
erful. She has her anarchists and nj
hiliSts, but they are drawn from the
class of the nobles-from the element
that is regarded in our western civil
ization as the conserving forces. The
prop of the empire is the agricultural
cCmnuneS. t9r 4ls:ie t0gstlle. n-il .lna
artel or trade guild that predominates
in the cities. The power of these pet
~ democracies is as absolute as that
of the ear, and the DEGREES of the vii
lage counsel are 50 absoIU',e that
the car would shake his empire into
ruin were ne to atten1rt ~ nuIlifv
them. Everyone, including the women,
vote. They elect CHIEF or elder
whenever they choose, whose author
ity is as complete and despotic as the
cars. No matter to what height of
dignity, in the army or the councils of
the empire, a citizen may rise, his
rights as a citizen can be exercised
alone in the commune where he was
born. The village may sentence a
citizen to exile in Siberia, may i'm
prison, or even condemn him to death.
but its decisions are absolute and
final. The "artel," or trade guild, is
an exponent of the same customs. If
one wants to build house, the artel
takes the contract. builds the house
and collects the money, leI'wing its dis
tribution to be settled by its individ- |
uals among themselves.
Germany is leaning her internal pol /
icy in a similar direction, but by a
different method France, in many
ways principally fiscal, has gone far
in the same direction. OF late years
the conservative, or Tory. party Of
England has been looking towards re-
turn to some modification of the clan
system, which was the ancient social
unit tlrousE5r'. Bri-Sf1 and has nav
er entirely died out The Duke of Ar
gyle, some years since. electrified the
house of lords by asserting that he did
not have the right to discharge an en-
ployee when the latter, by old age,
disease or accident became incapaci-
tated for further service. The en-
p1oyee, or servant, had helped to
sustain him and the estate upon which
he was born, and by his services had
obtained a title to support from that
estate precisely as he himself had" 1t
is needless to add that this view of
the mutual responsibility of labor and
capital will jar too harshly upon the
customs of the nineteenth century TO
be even theoretically practicable.
The modern trades union began life
n England, the birthplace of the fac
tory system. The laws and the courts
we're decidedly hostile, and severe re-
oressive legislation was enacted to
abate them. But the reverse happened.
The unions, if they did not thrive. at
east grew, and the bitterest contests
EVER recorded as between capital and
abor, were foght out during the de-
,ades of from 1880 to 1866 They were
both in the extent of damage
tccruing and in the numbers engaged.
n 1866 parliament seriously sought
ome solution, and If it did not cure,
1t least ameliorated the condition by
giving trades unions a legal existence,
dmitting contracts to be made with
he union as a body, leaving the unions
o settle their internal status as best
hey might.
In the United States. trades unions ]
,rior TO 1860 were more reflections
rom England than outgrowths of our
wn conditions. But after the civil
var, we found ourselves plunging head
1ng into stupendous enterpriss S, requir-
ng the hiring of armies Of men. The '
instinct of self-preservation resulted in
rapid development of trades unions,
hat were scarcely molested till after
he panic of 1873, when the general
istress. insane competition and other
auses conspired to bring about a col '
sion. The organization of the en-
loyers was on the American plan,
hat is. gigantic in scale and swift in !
xecution. The unions were speedily l
0uted, and as their enemies thought, {
But the spirit remained I
What was denied to the open meeting S
le Knights of Labor perfected an or '
anization that astonished the country p
1877, when the great Pittsburg strike a
ccurred; and from thence till 1885, the i
rowth of the trades union was pro- Z
ressive and striking in the numbers o
splayed, at least. The fiasco of the f
Martin Irons - strike followed by the Y
hicago Anarchist horror, stunned the f
ountry, including the trades unionists +
i'd capitalists, and a period of quiet r
Flowed; that is, no serious collisions =
etween labor and capital occurred !;
owever, there was a Simmering
ping on beneath. The organizati ton of :.
lie knights was found to be radically :,
Elective, consisting, as it did, of an = :,
yglomeration of artiZans of every II
ade, railroad men and common labor "
g. Matters as between Che printers =
the machinists and their employers q
light be in the SIN oothest possible re- s
ton, when suddenly they must begin z