The San Francisco call., 1896-09-08

children of the same God, and that he is no
respector OF persons. True, his kingdom has
been placed above the skies, yet we pray, ''Thy
kingdom come on earth" We have been told
thatour bodies are the temples of the living
God, until the lash, if not abolished, has be-
come disreputable, and the selling of that
temple by others is practically abolished, yet,
by their control OF the means of living, we are
forced to sell ourselves.
Men have felt and reasoned that when there
is equality before God anv inequality before
man must be wrong, And so. as l said, we
have at least a pTetense of equality before the
law and in the State, and organization-politi
cal organization-hasg given us so much thereof
as we have, and as we have been able to keep,
inspite of registration laws, educational and
property qualifications.
Now, friends, as religious organization based
upon religious discomfort gave us religious
liberty in spite of the stake, as political organI-
cation gave us such political equality as we
have in spite of the seaffold and the prison, so
will industrial democracy come through in
dustrial organization, hostile employers, hos
tile legislation, apOstate churches, cowardly
and selfish workmen Notwithstanding.
1t is therefor we organize into trade unions
and why we brand the nnafiiliated workman
as a scab. This is why we strike against reduc-
tion in the standard of living or to improve it !;
this is why we hear with JOY OF progress made
during the past year. And, friends, there has
been progress, both in this and other countries.
The trade-union movement is growing in num-
bers, in knowledge and in consciousness of its
mission, and It is proud OF the Endorsement of
such men as Engels, Mark, Thorald Rogers,
Ruskin, Carlyle and Ely and can afford to
listen in kindness to the criticism of some of
the socialists, whose fundamental principles
are the motive power OF the practical move
ment, though we disagree with them in some
things, and especially in methods.
The trade-union movement can look with
pity upon such movements as the EMPLOYERS
Association, organized in 1892 to crush labor
and then to stimulate 'home industry" The
unions suffered and thereby were purified and
had their horizon enlarged, but what of home
industry? Eastern shoes, Eastern cigars, East
ern castings, Eastern almost everything, until
our manufacturers are but the agents OF East
erh firms selling Eastern goods, while Califor-
mia machinery is rusting. Molding shops are
idle, while such eminent ana loyal members
of the Home Manufacturers Association as
Holbrook, Merrill Stetson are selling Oregon
Eastern prison goods fill the market And
yet they cannot see that their methods are
destructive. True, labor also suffers, but then
labor is used 10 that and besides, men may
move while buildings stay, ana while the
Half-MiIlion Club is talking work workers go
East in Coxey's armies or otherwise, and the
half-million comes not to the city divided
against itself
efforts made through the press now and then
to have laws enacted to punish what it pleases
them TO call "conspiracies in restraint of
trade" while under the name OF arbitration
they offer US laws to forbid organization, and
even men who think themselves friends call
out from the very housetops that trade union
ism is failure and the strike WEAKNESS of the
flesh" To talk OF the equality OF Huntington
employing $4,000 men, and his section-hand
is well enough as sedative. but we must be
awake to the danger ahead. Employing rs 900
men, having the power to say what our earn
ings shall be- what hours we shall work, to de-
termine our standard of life, TO say when we
shall see our families, what the chiIdren's
education shall be, power to regulate the
daily life of some 100000 men, women and
children, and TO bring this power home to us
INCREASINGLY every hour of the day, when the
overseer looks at our work or at us when we
straighten our backs, at every evening, when
we may be told, ''You are not wanted here any
more"; every morning at the factory gate
waiting Tor that sign which to the worker
means so much that around 1t centers almost
every thought, and this daily need, this daily
dependence, is sent along with us even to the
ballot-box. In the history of the Saxon or
Gotho-Germanic races was ever such power
given to individual man?
The struggle, therefore, to-day is between
religious and political equality seeking to ex-
tend and complete itself by occupying the
industrial field and industrial absolutism
seeking to stop the progress OF the ages and
turn the march backward. This danger is
real,an it expresses itself by gradually chang.
ing our very Government from one OF speeiffc
delegated powers TO one in which the powers
are to be inherent.