Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-05-06
The Coming Strike
BY CLINTON BANCROFT.
TCONTINUED.I


heart to be influenced by noble invitation and
high example; but their number Is TO the
whole as the drops of water in the pltcher
there are to the drops in the lake out yonder.
You might as well ask if Satan Will be lnllu-
enced to good by the good deeds OF good men
as to ask if the great body of capitalists ana
industrial despots who have gained thelr
wealth and position by evil and devious ways
under our favoring competitive system, Will
not reverse their methods of life time and
make restitution to the people OF unjust
gains
81 think you are perhaps Mistaken" re-
turned Cavendish, las to the number of those
who would be willing to introduce the coop
erative plan into their business, if they could
see way clear to do so without jeopardizlng
it's success or embarrassing its management.
Our propaganda lodges have enrolled among
their membership many capitalists and own
ers and managers of large enterprises who
are studying the system with view to trying
It's plan of cooperation; and | have had sew
eral wealthy men express to me sincere de-
sire to see general cooperative system es-
tablished and tell me they would join us if
Tie dUUlbuue vi ltDOI SooPOi"oiNh "oS
more emphasized and favorable. They have
asked me if ever knew of an instance where
the employees in concern petitioned or ask
ed or manifested in any way desire to invest
in it's stocks or bonds, and | have been COM
PEELED to admit that I know of no such in
stance. Labor as much as capital shows
reluctance to enter into cooperative enter
prise: and labor as much or more than capt.
tai needs to be impressed with the desirabil-
ty, nay, the necessity under the coming civil
ization of uniting and working together and
not against each other as they are now doing.
Capital is not altogether to blame | think,
that there is not more rapid movement tow
ards cooperation"
st is to blame" said Dalton warmly, beg
ging your pardon, it is to blame and alto
gether so. Have the methods of capital and
capitalists been such as to invite the conf
dence of labor?
''Tell the slave to be manful," continued
Dalton, tell the captive in shacles and chains
to be resolute and reasonable. Give labor
first the opportunity and it viii be all these.
But that is what it. Si,i ne sr get frem the
men who row cou.rol the nation and the ma
lions wealth. Opportunity, the one thing
needful, they will see to it that we never get.
1t is the most import ant part of their bust
ness to prevent it. They purposely bar the
way to healthful progress. They obstruct and
defeat every movement towards reform.
They hold us in a leash and drive us whittier
they will and no relief is possible while they
hold power and reign But they shall give
way" said Dalton growing more and more
excited as he proceeded. "Their days are num-
bered. They shall not enslave our country
forever; they shall not make a mockery of
our liberties and our laws. The die is cast,
their death warrants are already written"
AS Dalton concluded his whole aspect was
that of a man moved by the fervor of an in
tense passion. His eyes dashed; the muscles
of his face had grown hard and drawn, his
voice vibrated and his hands were clinched
as in short sharp gestures, as he emphasized
each sentence. There could be no doubt
but that he was in deadly earnest. His voice.
his cOuntenauce, his manner, showed that
deep and genuine feeling was agitating him,
and that his threatening declarations were
not the idle vaporing of fanatic in senti-
meut alone, but the stern and unequivocal
announcement of one quick to act as well as
to feel. And the evident strong character of
the man. his alertness and activity, the
square jaws the firm, shut mouth, made the
conviction certain that he would be as fierce
and swift in execution as he was in denuncia-
ton. Cavendish felt that he had before him
a man who, with the class he repres ented.
was going to be dangerous element in the re-
formative activities of the times, dangerous
in their tragic powor to precipitate from the
high plane of principle to the low plane OF
persons suddenly and destructively, all those
powerful butas yet peaceful movements which
though in many ways cross and counter and
traverse to each other were really converg-
ing currents flowing towards the broad clean
channels of the New Civilization. And while
he sympathised with the feelings that lay
bach of and motived the dark purposes Of
Dalton, he had condemnation for those pur-
poses themselves; for he believed that a sue
cessful attempt at their execution, if not re-
sulting in "A national cataclasm by arousing
at some inopportune moment the latent bit
terness of the people against the lawless
rich, would, at least, have the effect OF seri-
ously retarding the cause of labor which they
were so earnestly but idly designed to aid IL
he could believe, as he evidently did that
corrupting and expressing capital was so
strongly entrenched and so powerful in its
paralyzing methods as to render all other eff
forts impotent and fruitless, what numbers