The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1899-03-25

that their bodies are still under the
slide. sE%.f %tE,t- i /
When the cut came the men organ-
lied and quit, Even the railroad Of
ficials admit that the men are su-
perior class oof workingmen. They
are not ordinary railroad laborers, but
are men, working for a. stake to go
prospecting in the interior. There
has been NJ" 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 a minimum. And the. almost
universal sympathy and admiration of
the townspeople, have been won by the
orderly, gentlemanly conduct of these
so-called striking laborers.'''
The strikers have held nightly meet
ings, established a lodging and eating
house, and recently gave an entertain
ment in a local theater, the! profit Of
all of which have gone into their treas
ury. The arguments in their favor
have been formulated for generous
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. IS 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 it's, own price. But enough Of the
strike. HI st
Gold hunting, of course, is the ,ulti-
mate object of nearly every man who
comes to this. country. Prospects are
always luminous, results. except in iso-
lated cases, always unsatisfactory. But
let the gold fever. once get a good hold
in a mans system and it never leaves
him except as it is driven out by long
years Of disappointment, hard kaocks
and ling labor 81
There are only three things to be
absolutel.y epended upon in this scoun- l
Try: First. the country is big and Il full full
OF unknown possibilities; second, there
is. gold, if you can find it; third, your
finding it depends upon either .phe-.
nomenal luck or superhuman hard
ship and labor Or, rather a combina-
ton of all three, for without; the luck
the utmost expenditure of labor and
endurance of hardships in many cases
comes to nil. !,.,e.. gs,s
But these things count for nothing
with the men rightly equipped from
personal standpoint. What cares the
man of spirit with q stomach for hard
labor for hardships if he can escape
the tyranny, of wage. shaving and the
uncertain hold it gives! him upon life?
When hundred dollars will buy a
man grub and clothing for year
{: year in which he is his own boss,
to 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
erly endowed to submit to the abomi-
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 or
bald, rocky submits, that man ever
laid eyes upon. And yet thank God
for it. Here in days to come will be
developed the independence, the man
ly virility and physical stamina that
will redeem hnma nifty when capitalism
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 stoutest
and most heroic.
For thousands of years the best, the
bravest, the most liberty-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 pillows of
the Northern Pacific, fanked on the
north by the eternal walls of polar
ice. Across the Pacific in bold relief
stand upright the standards of Rus
sian despotism. Peace-loving, the
working mass has always been. But
what will he do. when he can no long,
er retreat? Up to the present capital
has never faced the sturdiest element
in labor's ranks. Its victims in labor
riots nearly always have been too few