The San Francisco call., 1897-09-07

efforts OF the Knickerbocker Male Quar-
tet, which rendered, II Dream of Thee,"
and Was not allowed to retire until after
several other songs.
DR.. J. E Scott quickly won his way
into the hearts of the people by few
pleasant remarks before beginning his ad-
dress on Organization,' in which he
said:
Organization, ike order, is one of heavens
hrst laws Capital is organized why not
those whose labor makes capital? Bank ks,
railroads, factories. foundres, iron works and
trusts are organized, why not those whose toll
! oulds and pays the expenses. and also paws
the dividends of those concerns? Labor
unions have done and are doing splendid and
noble work in battling for organization. Their
aim and end is economic emancipation. Their
IDEAL is such conditions ma ke true freedom.
DO labor unions cause and encourage the
strike? On the contrary strikes are caused by
the cooperation of EN- ployers and unorganlzed
laborers. When in jus tice, robbery and hunger
are dealt out as iecompense for honest life
Weerlng TOLL, who stlrs up the strike and Its
strlfes ?-those who deal out the injustice, rob-
berry and starvation, or those who rise like
men, and like men resist the wrong? The
strike is disgrace 10 civilization. So are
swords and daggers. So are armies and navies
so is the strife and waste of business compe-
tltion: Let the work OF l"bor unions go on
till all laborers are consciously and practically
organized INTO one great, worldwide union
of labor.
w. J. Hynes kept the audience in roar
of laughter with lot of comic stories and
songs.
The principal address of the evening
was delivered by Rev. w. d. P. Bliss of
Boston. He won his way to the hearts of
| most of the audience by saying that
women as we'll as men should be union
lists, and that no pure woman should per-
NIT her lips to touch those of ''scab, u
and that if Jesus Christ were on earth that
nj oh he wOnId add innCtlOn
| to his folIowers-''Thou shalt not steal
thy neighbors job" Continuing upon
his subject, The Eight-hour day and the
Triumph OF Labor" he said:
1t is impossible for me to appear before you
to- night with merry bubble or with idle jest
We stan. this day in the shadow OF a great
wrong and in the presence of an impending
crisis. Meeting in this Metropolitan Temple
on Labor day, | can but remember the 17O,-
600 miners who have been battling, not for
tn mselves, but for the most sacred rights OF
American citizens. The cause of the striking
miners is not the cause of the miners a one.
II is the cause of the laboring man from Mas
sachusetts to California. 1t has become, in
deed, the cause of every American citizen.
Capital has gone to venal courts and obtained
from corrupt Judges an injunction depriv1ng
American citizens OF the right to walk on pub
lie roads to assemble in peaceful meeting.
1t ought to bring the blush OF shame TO every
American lawyer and TO arouse the patriotic
wrath OF every citizen. Is American justice
forever to be sold to the highest bidder?
To walk the public roads or TO hold a peace
ful meeting has been declared an offense, for
which peaceful men can be dragged before an
unjust Judge and imprisoned without trial
by jury. Even to preach TO striking men has
been decided illegal.
What Is labor to do? 1t has appealed to the
public and the public declines to act. 1t has
cried to the churches, those churches which
ought to be the refuge OF every one oppressed,
and the churches, which can send MISSION
aries TO India and money to Armenia, are deaf
to the wrongs of the American workingman.
One hundred and fifty circulars your labor
unions sent to the clergymen of San Francisco,
and only one clergyman answered, and not
one penny thus raised.
Let American labor unite; let the represen-
tatives OF every National labor union assem- bic
and in the sovereign name of outraged justice
declare that on January L, 1898, all working
men in America will cease to work unless the
Supreme Court declare the unconstitutfonaiity
OF government by in junction or Congress act
10 do away with the wrong. II you do not do
this no workingman il safe. Wages eau be re-
duced and workmen imprisoned or marched
to work as convicts under the musket or he
cannon. Gentlemen, America to-day is not
tree. Justice dOes not rule.
Professor Rogers tells US that in the four
teenth century there was no such thing as
economic rent l should like to ask this audi
ence if In San Francisco there is nc such thug
as economic rent? Under feudalism every
man had q place. Feudalism recognized the
right TO work. Does every man In San Fran
cisco to-day have a place? Yet, after
all, down to the nine eteenth century the Ia
borer was politically slave. Only with the
present century has the laborer polit-
ically become free. Let us not min
imize or despise this. Labor has not
yet learned to use the ballot, to use
our advantage, but she holds there weapon
that can yet overthrow and nquer every
tyrant. With political democracy the laborer
has become potentially king. But, gentle
men, unless the laborer uses his ballot it is
little worth.
The wage system must go. welcome this
present crisis between labor and capital. 1T
means the beginning of the end. Reforms
never go backward. Llblrty always gains. 1t
must come by effort upon two lines. The in
dustrial the political. Trade-unionism alone
can never win. Socialism alone will never
WIN. deprecate as the gravest mistake OF
labor to-day the feud between the trade
unions and the Socialists.