The Advocate and news., 1898-09-21


American Federation of Labor and its
affiliated unions, of the Knights Of La
Dor, OF the railroad brotherhOods and of
every other labor organization attest
It; every strike, every labor demOnstra-
tion, every union meeting acknowledges
It. Capital says so. When the control
ling stOckholder OF the Pana (Ill.) Min
ing Company said, 1--WE Pana operators
are opposed to the union as national
body debating to us how we shall run
our business, and we propose, unless
they will accept our terms, to put in
negroes" he sounded note of war. He
said what private capital is saying all
over the COuntTy-all over the world In
fact. It means fight just as much as
Spain did when she said, 1--WE are OPP
posed to the United States debating to
us how we shall run our business" Spain
did not take humanity into account;
neither does the mine operator who runs
the company store, the company doctor
system, and other inhuman adjunCts to
his mine.
Did you ever think, Mr.. Workingman,
that our whole business system is more
or less a warfare? In this world aren't
we fighting and scrambling for exist
ence more than we are really living?
We are out for conquest. When man
gets thousand dollars he wants ten
thousand, then he wants a million, and
even then he is not content to stop.
Business is competitive; competition is
warfare. Suppose, in your block, man
sets up little shop on the corner, and
little later another opens on the corner
opposite. One sells so much goods for
20 cents, and the other sells exactly as
much for 18 cents. 1t is good business to
buy of the 18 cent man, and you buy at
his shop. There Is trade enough for two,
so the other man manages to get along
without cutting the price. But third
shop starts up little further down the
block. The proprietor is out for busi-
ness, and he lets it be known that he
sells for Is cents what you must pay
18 and 20 cents for elsewhere. That is
free competition, you see; it Is nobody's
business how 1t comes about that Is
cents is a possible price. The new pro-
prietor is thrifty, his wife helps in the
store, and perhaps his boy is kept from
school to run the delivery wagon. He
has no hired help, and his expenses are
low. But 1t is the business Of the other
two. They must meet competition or
lose trade So they bestir themselves.
One Of them looks around and finds that
he can offer cheaper goods, made where
the machine has displaced hand labor,
and he replenishes his stock from that
source. He does not stop to think that
this cheapness means that the machine
has displaced workingmen who have
families to care for Why should he?
Business is business-buslness Is war
fare, and he has his own family to think
Of; there Is his daughters bill for music
lessons which should have been paid
two weeks ago. What did Spain think
of the welfare and souls Of the people
of her colonies? She had to have the
money ODIdlneu ny NaAdlEOh III OLuSI W
keep up her government. Perhaps the
second proprietor is able to make it in
some other way, for he has pretty good
stock Of IS cent goods on hand. He finds
that he can get along without his assis-
tant, and so he discharges Johnny, not
withstanding the fact that Johnny has
come to town to deliver goods and sweep
out the store in order to be able to at
tend night school, The proprietor
knows this, he knows that Johnny is a
good worker and is anxious to better
himself, and that it will be hard to find
another job, but what can he do? Busi-
ness is competitive, and he must meet
competition. So there are three 10 cent
stores, and to the innocent purchaser
m Vnu nerhans-the feeble wall of q