The labor world., 1899-03-25

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slide.
When the cut came HE men organ
}iZcd and quit. Even the railroad Of
fcials admit that the men are a su-
Iperior class OF worLingmen. They
are not ordinary railroad laborers, but
are men working for a stake to go
prospecting in the interior. There
has been no violence, no disorder: the
advent of 900 strikers into the little
town Of Skagway has not made neces-
sary any additional police protection.
OF course the saloon and gambling
joints did a slightly increasing busi-
ness, but a strong committee appoint
ed to look after the men who were
overcome by the attractions Of the
festive stud house and black jack
games. has reduced even such indul-
gences to Il minimum. And the almost
universal sympathy and admiration of
the townspeople have been won by the
orderly, gentlemanly conduct of these
so-called 'stril>ing laborers.''
The strikers have held nightly meet
ings. established lodging and eating
house, and recently gave an entertain
ment in Il local theater, the profit of
all of which have gone into their treas
ury. The arguments in their favor
have been formulated for generous
distribution below, in circulars, all the
indictments in which they
are abundantly able to prove. Men
are still arriving on every steamer
carrying contracts at the 35 cents per
hour rate, it being the evident policy
of the corporations to fill up the coun-
try so that it can force men to work
at its own price. But enough of the
strike.
Gold hunting, Of course, is the ulti-
mate object of nearly every man who
comes to this country. Prospects are
always luminous, results, except i'll iso-
lated cases, always unsatisfactory. But
let the gold fever once get {; good hold
in a mans system and it never leaves
him except as it is driven out by long
years Of disappointment, hard knocks
and ling tabor
There are only three things to be
absolutely depended upon in this coun-
try: First, the country is big and full
OF unknown possibilities; second, there
is gold, if you can find it; third, your
finding it depends upon either phe-
nomenal luck or snperhuman hard
ship and labor. Or, rather combina-
ton Of all three, for without the luck
the utmost expenditure Of labor and
endurance Of hardships in many cases
comes to nil.
But these things count for nothing
with the men rightly equipped from
personal standpoint. What cares the
man of spirit with a stomach for hard
labor for hardships if he can escapt
the tyranny of wage shaving and the
uncertain hold it gives him upon life?
When a hundred dollars will buy a
man grub and clothing for year
{; year in which he is his own boss,
tc. defy nature in her sternest moods,
and to try his ability to WOO from
her the long and jealously guarded
secrets of her treasure house, there
is little inducement for the man prop
erIy endowed to submit to the aboni-
nation Of industrial bondage.
Take this country as it is, stripped
OF the sentimentalism and glamour OF
paid advertisements, and it is the most
God-forsaken, useless stretch OF
marshy bottoms, rocky, precipitous
mountain slopes and snow-capped OF
bald, rocky SUBMITS, that man even
laid eyes upon. And yet L thank God
for it. Here in days to come will be
developed the independence, the man
ly virility and physical stamina that
Will 1CuCSlu Win Nopi'uAA''AA
has wrecked the spirit of liberty in the
favored region of the states.'
'Westward the star Of empire takes
it's way" Why? Because industrial
) slavery has always driven from its
presence the hearts that were stoutes1
and most heroic.
For thousands of years the best, the
bravest, the most lberty-loving have
preferred exile to the whitening pres
ence Of hydra-headed tyranny. Here
we stop. There is no further retreat
Before us stretch the broad biIlows ot
the Northern Pacific. fianked on the
north by the eternal walls of polal
ice. Across the Pacific in bold relic
stand upright the standards of Rus
sian despotism. Peace-loving, tht
working mass has always been. But
what will he do when he can no long
er retreat? Up to the present capita
has never faced the sturdieSt element
in labor'S ranks. Its victims in labor
. riots nearly always have been too fe"