The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-06

ask a fair compensation for the SER
vices rendered.
Capital seeks a fair profit in invest
ment and has not the right to ask for
the profit until the labor is paid
The laboring man is becoming
more important factor every day. He
ought to have and must have an in
telligent understanding of all questions
Labor and capital should deal fairly
with each other. The profits ought to
be fairly divided. There ought to be a
fair demand on the one side and a fair
concession on the other.
I'VE ought to plead for the best of
relationship between capital and labor.
Capital is helpless without labor.
The laborer has the right to demand
fair wages, good schools, academies
and advantages, such as are granted
to every other citizen. You should
have the same voice in the government
of the state as any other man, and the
right to cast the ballot uninfuenced
by employer or any organization on
earth, but be only subject to the die
tates of your own conscience and good
judgment.
II am glad to welcome you here to-
night. We are reaching the close Of an
old century. I trust that into your
homes will come plenty and good cheer
and that your organization will move
on with dignity. The power of the or
ganization is bound to be felt. Business
will increase and be stimulated by rea-
son of your banding together. hope
to see the laboring man of Kansas, the
most prosperous of any state in the
Union
Joseph McGrath, president of the so
ciety, was then introduced ION be-
half of the society,"" said he, Il ex-
press our thanks for the hearty well
come which we have received from the
chief executive of the state.
"One year ago when we met in this
hall to organize nearly everyone
thought that the society would be a
failure T0T1rinpr 10 of
existence we have increased from
membership of 100 to over 225, and we
now represent over 100000 wage earners
scattered over the state of Kansas.
I'VE feel grateful to the law which
created the labor society, and which
placed us on an equal footing with the
other departments of the state.
What makes 81 nation great is the
intelligence of her people.
1.-The laboring man, by virtue of what
he produces should live on the best that
the land produces.
I'VE have represented here tonight,
men of all trades and lines of work, and
it is proper that they be represented in
such an organization of this kind.
I'VE do not come as political or
ganization. We represent no political
party, but we come as representatives
of the laboring man, and it is our aim
to keep this society out of all politics
or partisan lines.''
G. G. Clemens spoke on Labor Legis-
1ation and How to Get IT, Mr.. Glenn
ems said: Il congratulate you gentle
men of the State Society of Labor and
Industry. You have the only assembly
of the kind on the globe. You have the
only labor commissioner on earth elect
ed by the working people themselves.
GU have the only mine inspector on
earth elected by the miners and in
stantly removable by them When your
labor commissioner or mine inspector
has an official duty to perform he does
not ask what effect It would have on
the administration or if he should dare
to do right. His constituents are the
people, and the people alone, to be ben
Gifted by his honest and firm perform
ance of duty. Let me warn you, gentle
men, that to get the full benefit of the
| laws under which you are assembled
| here, you must keep your organization
! aiOof from partisan politics and call
| every recreant of whatever party to
| just and stern account. In matters of
| labor legislation know only that certain
/ men hold office, official positions that
require them to act. upon legislation.
! Refuse to know to what party they be-
! long. If they prove recreant or prove
! true, condemn or reward without re-
! gard to party.
Labor legislation is legislation de-
| signed to protect working people
against the injustice of employers, their
/ unreasonable exactiOns, and their reck-
| lessness of the comfort, health and lives
| of those in their employ.
! For every man refusing to work I'M
! der dangerous conditions, a dozen are
| ready to dare death for bread, and the
| competition for a chance to work under
/ any conditions for that means a living
/ makes it possible suicide, and slow muir
| der of wife and children for the laborer
| to front his employer and risk the loss
| of his employment. Wage workers are
| not free, even with the aid of organiza-
| ton they are not entirely free, to refuse
! to work, for even organization cannot
| give them other employment and a
/ i6TnnoCS n mr. mis- h q
| laborer is not free. He is not his en-
| ployer's economic equal This is the
reason for the laborer's prayer that the
| state shall be his protection.
Constitutions seem never to be in
! jured by anything employers do; but no
| constitution seems able TO stand the Sc
we're strain of really beneficial labor
! laws.
Il engage in no promiscuous TRADE
against employers. 1 even believe the
! employers who care nothing for human
! creatures lives, when they are working
! crea lures, are rare. But how can a de-
/ cent humane employer compete with
| the few whose greed would coin the
/ blood of babes. One wicked employer
! can compel all others in the same local
/ ity to practice crueltieS at which they
/ themselves revolt.
What is the reason for the defeat of
SO much labor legislation? 1t is that
| most men in legislatures and on the
| bench-in short most men in political
! life-view your measures from the
| standpoint of the existing system of in
! dustry, and apply to it the old prin-
ciples of political economy, while your
measures can be justified only on the
theory that the existing industrial sys-
| tenn is wrong and that the principles
Of the old political economy should maka
way for the principles of the Sermon
| on the Mount
''The question is then what must be
done to set labor legislation?
First. You must be releD tless as to
recreants. They may be forgiven in
Heaven. You dare not forgive them
here.
ucated to the plane where the science
of human greed, otherwise known as
political economy, ceases to besa guide
| to the human conduct. The underly-
ing principles of labor legislation is So