Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-09-30

| law.
1T passed the house. only to be pig
eonholed in the senate. at the behest
and demands of a coterie of interested
: prison contractors. where it remains
: to this Gay. a mute witness TO the con-
tempt and Indifference of the party in
power to the welfare of the working
classes Of the state and the business
interests of the manufacturers who
employ them.
Almost identically similar was the
treatment given by the legislature 10
a measure prepared by Clothing Cut
ters' Union No. 100 of Cincinnati, and
which was intended to regulate the
sweat shop and tenement factories by
thee imposition of proper sanitary reg
ulations and restricting to reasonable
and humane limits the hours of labor
of men and women employed in these
| establishments.
immigration Laws q Farce.
CAS- American workingmen we have
never protested in the past and do not
now, against that class of immigration
that, coming here with honest inten-
tions of becoming citizens, have added
in developing the country, and shared
in the proud work of making it the
greatest nation on earth
| We sprang from the same sires,
and in extending to them the hand of
welcome there has been no question
of race. color, party, creed or nation
ality. But we do most earnestly pro-
| test and object to a system of assist
ed immigration and contract labor
1 which has for its sole object and pur-
pose the maintenance in this country
of vast army of unemployed, fostered
and created by damnable collusion
of trusts and corporations on the one
hand, and of European, shipowners'
immigration bureaus and agents, and
prison officials desirous of being rid Of
their criminals and paupars, on the
other.
Congress has given us a fair, just
and consistent immigration law, in
| tended to protect us not only against
the offscourings of Europe, but also
against the thousands of Canadian
workmen who come to the United
their home permanently, but merely
for the seasons employment, and with
| the first breath of winter returning
from whence they came and carrying
out of the. country every dollar they
have boarded of their savings
1--WE charge that the present admin
istration of state and national affairs,
dominated and controlled by the trusts
and corporations, have ignored the
provisions of this wise and beneficent
law by giving it such a notoriously
loose and inefficient enforcement and
by allowing all its most important re-
quirements to be evaded and in many
cases openly violated by the trusts and
corporations as to render it a farce in
the eyes of all men.
I'm placing these facts before you
we have no wish or desire to appeal
to party prejudice, and are fully aware
that the discussion of partisan politics
or the Endorsement of party candidates
has been in the past interdicted in
most of our labor organizations This
is as it should be, and the principle
should never be disregarded, unless
for very grave and important reasons,
in which the welfare of the member
ship as whole and regardless of par
ty affiliation is involved.
Labor's Stern Duty.
when a crisis of this kind arises,
and it becomes necessary. to act unit
edly for our common interests, no bug
a-boo of politics in the union should
deter US from openly supporting a man
in whom we feel and know from his |
past record we can trust; measures
which have received our approval and |
IL ildorsement, and platform in which |
in every word, sentence and plank is
embodied the cardinal principles of all |
ism. Fear to speak as labor men
and trades unionists at such a time |
an not be characterized by any other |
term that of moral cowardice.
This council, representing as it |
dc~s the thousands of mechanics in the |
ba ding industries of Cincinnati and |
Hamilton county. has never feared |
carping criticism in the past, in taking |
advanced ground on all questions of
vital interest to its affiliated member
the common good.
I'VE call your attention to the fact
that the recent convention at Zanes-
vile has submitted to the people and
asks your support for ticket that en-
bodies in its platform every just and
reasonable demand that has been
made or ever contended for by the or
ganized labor of the state, either with
in or without the sphere of our organ
izations. If the convention had been
one of the trades unions and organized
labor of the state. wherein could we
have improved upon the platform and
principles there promulgated? For
the first time in the political history
of this state have either of the great
parties given its unsolicited pledge to
the support of the demands of organ
lied labor and incorporated these de-
mands in it's platform
"The S-hour day, the restriction of
convict labor; the initiative and refer
endum; the abolition of the sweat
shop and tenement factory; the re-
affirmation of declaration of the Chi