The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1899-04-15
! A Few StraWs
Show Which Way, the Wind IL
blowing.
From The MicrOcOsm.
~ TRAVIS sometimes show which
~ way the wind is going to blow.
al Io c.ohnrninn II
From The MicrOcOsm.

q TRAVIS sometimes show Whlcn
- way the wind is going to blow.
The wholesale discharging Ut
s street railway employees from
the service of the Duluth street
railway is one straw. That the reason
for the dismissal of the men is openly
avowed to be that they are members
Of organized labor is the second straw.
That the discharged men are being re-
G placed by some imported from other
states is third straw. That the said
street railway is just at this particular
time nominally in the hands Of the
courts (Which means the government
but practically in the hands of a schem-
ing gang of labor-hating monopolists
is a fourth straw. That the Mnnc-
sofa legislature has recently passed
bill prohibiting, under heavy penalties.
all manner of boycott proceedings and
boycott thinking is fifth straw. That
certain gillhoolyhoo high rolling
street car boss of Duluth started big
newspaper sensation last summer, with
scare lines and head lines, to effect
I that everybody in the, EAST all the
way from the harems of the Sultan to
the flesh pots Of Hanna. were MAIN.
tanning a strict quarantine against
iabor-stricken Duluth, is a half a dozen
straws. The rapid concentration of
5 power from the protoplasmic indi-
yidual up through those wonderful evo~
lutionary stages Of partnership to COR
poration, thence to trust, and further
on to trust of trusts, is whole
handful of straws. These pointers
already indicate that gentle breeze
has s'setr in Bye and bye she will
blow some more. Then, in the Ian
guage of the Indians description of Il
cyclone, him blow big and Injun grab
soap weed N grass, Ell hole on like
'ell.'' This bundle of straws is singu-
larly Subjective. There are many parts
54 Of the future that can be judged by the
slt st, but there are some things in the
ture for which history hath no exact
parallel. There were trusts and mon
opolies and oppressors of labor in the
ancient and middle ages; these sys-
tems rose and fell like huge billows of
the sea, finally losing each itself a
gainst the crags or upon the sands OF
:he shore; the same thing has kept
iup through modern times; but there
is no past to compare With that great
smash up of smash ups coming when
King Labor shall lead his conquering
T warriors over the Notifications Of the
smassed and concentrated unionism Of
i the collar. Many people believe, or a+
I least feel, that members of organized
labor are enemies Of the public good.
The world has always been addicted to
such queer, distorted notions. The
facilities for inoculating the public
mind with erroneous opinions are bet
II ter now than ever before. There have
been ages in which it took years to
thoroughly disseminate a popular pre-
;udice, but in these days it is not un
frequently the work of few hours.
People have been made to belive that
organized labor is offensive, aggressive,
impertinent, and obstructive. There
can be no question but that an open
War to the death exists between or
ganized labor and organized wealth.
But labor did not open hostilities.
Wealth was the first to organize and
assume the offensive. Labor was then
forced to organize and assume the de-
of nature. The ill-feeling that has
grown UP between the man of labor
and the man of wealth as a personal
matter is a natural result Of the an
tagonistic attitude of wealth toward
labor in the abstract. That this dis
tinction is not generally made is the
principal reason why the present very
unfortunate condition of affairs cam
not be easily and amicably adjusted.
TO say that wealth is Expressing labo:'
is to say the truth. But to charge
. lIlG Wealthy lhSh <tlS 'oANAt<aAiiS W
pressing the working classes is not SO
true. Men as men naturally sympa~
thize with each other. The child Of
fortune sitting at his sumptuous board
or by his coy freside rarely ever
takes any pleasure in thinking over
the struggles of those who toll. AS
rule he would be gratitied to see every
working man paid many. times over
what he is at present receiving, but he
dare not himself set the example, for
to do so would be to wreck his own
fortunes by rendering himself unable
to longer compete with others in the
same line of business. He might play
the phihnthropist for a short while.
hut when stranded upon the rocks of
business failure his own direct bene-