The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-11-10
ADDRESS TO LABORERS
ISSUED BY THE AMERICAN Equal
WAGE UNION AT KANSAS CITY.
Appeal for AmeliOratiOn of COndi-
order i'm the Labor World.

KANSAS CITY, Mo-, Nov. 9.-The Su-
preme Council of the American Equal Wage
Union recently Incorporated under the laws
of Missouri, with headquarters in Kansas
City, to-day issued an address to the wage
workers of the United States. The union
was founded upon the belief that to eradi-
cate the practice of paying lower wages to
women, for the same work performed by
men, means a revolution in the sociological
conditions of the country. Its main object
is to secure justice to women who work for
wages, to protect children from unnecessary
industrial servitude, and to discourage
strikes and accomplish its work by means Of
education. agitation and moral persuasion.
Excerpts from the address follow:
In an industrial nation like this, where
a vast majority of the people are wage
workers. the value of a days work bears
an intimate relation to the prosperity of the
country and for that reason becomes mat
ter of supreme concern to all. When wages
are up times are prosperous 1t Is COM
mon mistake to regard increasing dividends
and activity in stock as reliable indicators
of good times. The prosperity that illum-
ines the cottage and the tenement, and diff
fuses it's blessings among the poor is the
only genuine prosperity. The heart
less and unjust determinations practiced by
large employers of labor in almost every
department of the industrial world are
prolific sources of discomfort among work.
ing classes. All manner of iniquitous
schemes deliberately employed to reduce
the wage standard. The American laborer
Is required % submit to the unfair COMPETE
ton of men who hold no hope in life above
mere existence. and the enslavement of
women and children is encouraged, that
thereby the demands of men for fair wages
miight be ignored AS CONSEQUENCE the
Iaborer Is paid according to his necessity or
his defenselessness, and not according to
the work he performs. The importation Of
pauper labor, or the pauperization of our
N hQ cd
The wages OF labor should bear some equi-
table relation to the amount Of brain and
muscle expended In its performances, with
out regard to- the age. sex, creed, color or
nativity of the laborer
The current theory of the relations of
capital and labor must give place to one
that shall secure the laborer fair If not
full, compensation for his toll. And the
methods of labor and capital, with regard
10 the enforcement OF their respective rights
and demands. must be reformed and made
TO mt higher ideals and nober standard of
Justice and civil station The unnatural and
ital must cease. Instead of assailing each
otner, a. purer purpose and better civiliZa-
ton Will direct united attack against the
condition which now binds the employer as
well as the employed. Labor should know
and capital must learn that the highest mis-
sion OF mankind is to make the world happy.
"Self-preservation being the first law of
nature, the American laborer is justified in
demanding compensation for his toll suffi-
Gent in amount to provide for him at least
the common necessaries 1t is not only his
right, but 1t Is his duty to protest against
the unbearable conditions imposed upon him,
and no one shall justly question his patriot
ism because he interposes a defense against
an evasion Of his rights. - The Amer
lean Equal Wage Union submits it's prin-
CipleS to the considerable judgment of the
country and earnestly appeals to the sincere
and law-abiding citizens of all classes to en-
LIST under its standard"
The address is signed by Richard d. Kath-
rens. president of the union, ex-State SEN
ator arthur 3 Lyman. secretary, and seven
other members of the supreme council.