Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-09-06


does not specify what day the governor
shall designate, but it was left to the option
of the labor organizations.
The Day In Europe.
The list of May in Europe is usually set
apart as the time for the discussion of
labor questions, and so it has come to be
regarded there as Labor day. In the Unit
ed States there are many parades of trades
unions in the cities and towns. These do
not In the least interfere with the legal
Labor day holiday.
HENRY GEORGES VIEWS.
Labor Must Fight Systems, Not It's
Employers.
Henry George had in yesterdays New
York Journal an article on the labor situa-
ton. 1t was called 1.-The Great Battle of
Labor"
He says in part:
Il have neglected no opportunity of tell
ing workingmen that what they have to
fight in order to accomplish anything real
and lasting is not their immediate employ
ers. but the false and wrongful system
which. by depriving the masses of men CT
natural opportunities for employment eff
their labor, compels them to struggle with
one another for a chance to work. l have
constantly endeavored in every way l could
to induce men to revert to first principles,
and to think of these questions in a large
way; to convince them that the evils which
they feel are not due to the greed or wick
edness of individuals, but are the result Of
social EMBELLISHMENTS, for which the whole
community is responsible, and which can
only be righted by general action
Strikes and Fears of Strikes.
yet 1 realize that it is folly to tell work
ingu,en. as they frequently are told, that
they ought not to strike, because strikes
will injure them. Not only are there r.any
workingmen who have nothing to lose. but
it is a matter of fact that strikes and fear
of strikes have secured to large bodies of
them considerable increase of wages, con-
siderable reduction in working hours, much
mitigation of the petty tyrannies that
be practiced with impunity where one man
holds in his hands control of the livelihood
of another. and have largely promoted the
growth of fraternal feeling in the various
trades. The greater number of strikes fail,
but even the strikes that fail. though its
immediate object Is lost, generally leaves
the employer indisposed for another such
contest, and makes him more cautious of
provoking fresh difficulties
NOR is IT so strange, as some pretend,
that one body of workmen. without any
special grievance of their own, should
strike to help another. The immediate
purpose of a strike Is to inf1ict damage upon
opposing employers. and there are many
places in which employers who could defy
by pressure eXerted upon them through the
medium of other employers with whom
tney nave business relations. To be sure,
third parties, with no direct interest in the
quarrel. DO suffer. and frequently the great
est sufferers are the men who thus go out
10 help their fellows. But If the strike be
thus more costly, it's results, in causing
employers to hesitate before engaging in
ahother such contest. are likely to be more
decisive and more effective And mao NAV
stike- rs men fight, in quarrel not orig
inaily their own, either as a matter of
sentiment, or from the more selfish con.
sideration that they thus make alliances
that will lender them stronger in any quar-.
refs OF their own: or as is generally the
case, from the mingling of both motives.
Acts of HerOism.
Ana when men are willing to stop work
and submit to loss and suffering in the
ei1ort TO aid their fellows. does it not show
Herolsm OF the same kind as that which
lroinpts men to risk their lives in battle
Tor men weaker than themselves? Those
who would condemn a strike of railroad
men In aid of coal miners must If thew h.
ioS-cdl ana assume the standpoint of work
ilsnen condemn the aid which the French
gave 20 me struggling American republic
laforlte platitude. now finding wide
EXPRESSION In the American Dress is that
although men have an unquestioned right
10 stop work themselves thew have no
ai lsd 10 coerce others into stopping work,
THIS when they are on strike fs denounced
as net merely wicked in the highest degree
but as un-American. -
ms Is nonsense When our forefathe
struck against England they not merely
Struck Tor themselves but compelled eyerv
one else they could to join them first nv
moral suasion," which amounted to ostra
c-sih ana tnen by such measures as tarring
Gnu Gnu IeatlerlhS, marrying and shooting and
when they boycotted the East Indian Com
panys tea they were not content with
simply refusing to drink 1t themselves hut
a on,Im ~ mo the sea, so that nobody else
conio dflnk It, A strike can only amount
10 anything in SO far as it is coerciye and
Whatever Workingmen may say they must
CT necessity feel that it is only by exertina
Sole iorHi or pressure upon those disposed
10 go 10 work that they can succeed in a
strike. III q
ihe very worst the strikers do or think
OF ooing Is to prevent others from going to
WORK, IN order that they themselves NAV
"oTkImay earn a scant living by hard toll
III iaborers were to form societies which
si'e uio by force prevent any one from go
ing 10 work without their permission; were
10 chaIee the highest price for the priv
lie ge of going to work, which the necessi
ties OF otherr would compel them to nav
and were then TO sit down and live in
id'eness on this blackmail, they would only
De doing TO others what organized society
permits others to do to them.
True In the Abstract.
While it Is perfectly true, as an abstract
proposition, that no one ought to bs per-
mitted to interfere with the legitimate
business of another, or by going out of his
own right to infiict or threaten injury or
loss as means of coercion, yet it is also
true that, under existing conditions. il is
only by combining together to interfere
with the legitimate business of others.
and to coerce others by the fear of injury
or loss, that workmen are at all able to
resist the tendency to crowd wages down
TO the point of bare existence The great
facS that is ignored by those who talk SO
fippantly about the wickedness of coer-
cion in strikes is that all this coercion is
iii reality coercion against coercion the
attempt to use force in resistance to force
What labor unions are attempting to do
Is to secure for themselves a monopoly in
supplying labor, and the real cause and
only justification of this effort is the ex-
istence of rnonopolies in the things vitality
necessary to the use of labor.
Tine true line to follow for the emanci-
patton of labor is not the Emancipation of
restrictions-not the creation of new mo-
nopolies, but the abolition of all monop-
olies. And the fundamental and most i'm
IS Ill l., tt.n&