The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-06-23


s high but from cause that is no credit
our SO called ciYllization, since it is
hacaRse the g-eatmass calAot afford the
edncation which would enable them to
do skilled work. The other cases where
wages are Sufficiently high is due to the
uniions, which brings us to the third
question, Are unions guilty of as much
jjnstlce as that they are fghtings Do.
! their mistakes so overbalance the good
they are dong as to forbid their exist
erce OF is IS only that the injustice now
punches somewhere else?
Where Injustice Falls.
This injustice falls in two places
upon the public at large and upon labor
itsaH The public at large has always
/ hid weapon of defense which only
needed sharpening for use-that is, 1t
S has always been possible tocreate pub
Tic opinion which would have evolved q
way 80 protects labor without injustice
! 50 any factor. All progress is due to the
act Of thinking. Why, then, has Ia
shcr given the thinker his better environ
ment, If not that be shall pay back this
great gift by being ready IL season and
scEt OF season to protect the rights OF
sttI,is helpless being, who, III the sweat
Of his brow, carries ell the world upon
his shoulders? And yet during that fear
ful summers experience at Homestead
there appeared at Intervals from those
warkmen three most pathetic CARDS IN
the papers asking FOR this one hccn-
that the thinkers should seek some way
ouf Of their distress. But ttecarGs were
printed IN the daest type, and the think
Gers were taking their vacation. Does not
labor Beed vacation also?
The injustice dore by unions to labor
lis not so easily disposed cf, since it bears
upon that nost helpless of alltEe fac
tors, the nonunian man. But just ke-
cause the case is SO extreme should tho
exact truth ke known about * before
one hastecs to ccnplicate 1t by an IN
digested opinion.
In what, then, does this outrage to-
ward the nonunioa man consist? Ir de-
priving him OF work.
OF what does work consist?
It is the housing, feeding, training
and amusing Of humanity, with all the
multitudinous accessories necessary to
this, in accordance with every conceiy-
able need. Every human being brings
with him into the world the need cf a
certain amount Of work to be done. for
him, Il he is to live as a anineteenth cen
tury being should live.
is work, then, scarce2 On the con-
trary, if all should be done that ought
to be done every human being would
be kept busy.
What makes it scarce, thena
vindicating tho Unions. .5!
Not the unions, whatever their other
mistakes may be. After work had been
decreased the unions simply pooled
what is left and divided it among the
few in order to prevent a still further
decrease. Unions, then, are not the worst
enemy Of the nonunion man, but the
power which diminishes work. And the
unions are the only bulwark which
stands between them and this irresisti.
Bile power, before which the nonunion
nan would long ego have been swept
ont Of existence.
Without doubt all kinds Of persona,
sssed have crept into this effort to pro
tsct labor. But is this any harder to BE-
excused than the greed at the top.
which is destroying the prospects of Ia
bsr and has no excuse but parsonal ag.
grandizement? As for the unavoidable
mistakes made by unions, we must re
gember that they, too, are a minority
fighting not only the greatest of all h:'
ns.n powers. but public opinion as vel:
si they are to arrest the encroaci.'
merits of the money power, which y
trysng to possess the earth, there is no
OTHER way bnt the one they are taking
until public opinion insists upon seeing
the exact truth in every issue. But.
alas, this sleeping giant refuses too often