Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-10-18
The Nations Condition Shown in
Labor Day Demonstration.
NUMBER AND PERSONAL APPEARANCE
Striking Contrast Compared With the
Conditions Which Surrounded the
Same Class of Men Four Years
Ago.

anu Adhi1eb III tulS country on LABOR
day, when the industrial populations
poured through the streets in march
ing order. were certainly gratifying,
whether regarded merely as pictur-
esque display of the forces of so
ciety or as token of the united
spirit which guides the destiny of the
nineteenth century workman. Rank
after rank the marchers in labor's
great annual parade presented the
most convincing evidence of the indus
trial prosperity that prevails through
out the United States. In it's personal
appearance, as well as in numbers, the
testimony admitted of no question.
For hours an army of well-fed, we'll
dressed, cheerful workingmen filed
through the streets of all large cities,
and in small hamlets the parades were
none the less marked. This years
Labor day parade was essentially
demonstration of the employed fairly
aglow wfththe signsof satisfactionov over
plenty of labor at more remunerative
wages than labor has known in six
years. This years demonstration was
the largest, the best-dressed, the best
fed and the best paid procession of
workingmen this country has ever
seen. There was expansion in it's step,
its smile and it's waist measure.
Scarcely four years ago, under the
last Democratic administration, there
was great agitation for free soup
houses, where the worlsingmen who
were out of work, under President
Cleveland's administration, could get
free soup to keep them from starv-
ing. Those same workingmen, under
only couple of years of William Nc
Kinley's administration, are now eat
ing sirloin steaks, and the grounds
where the thousands of soup houses
stood four years ago, are now covered
with factories, employing thousands
of men at good wages. Yet the DEM
ocratic party leaders, from Mr.. Bry-
an down, are trying to have the work
ingmen to vote to go back to the soup
house condition again. The American
workingman will not vote himself out
Of a good steady job at good wages
for all the soup houses that the last
Democratic administration produced.
They are all voters. Every man who
holds in his hand an implement of la
Dor also holds ballot. For the first
time in the history of the labor move
ment in this country and under re-
publican administration, the general
prosperity of the country includes the
prosperity of labor. The steadily in
creasing prosperity in the business
world was distinctly reflected in the
neat and satisfied appearance of the
different organizations. The men and
women marched like people who are
self-confdent and self-assertive-who
know that they are mighty force in
the work of widening and strengthen
ing the nations fields of industry.
They marched like men who dignified
labor by stamping it with their own
manliness.
OF all our annual exhibitions none is
more impressive than that of Labor
day. 1t is grand demonstration Of
wealth-producing forces, and of the
opportunities which come to men in
this free country under q republican
form of government and administra-
ton. The thousands Of workers who
mako up these annual parades are in
truth, as is often said, the Drawn and
sinew of the nation, but they also rep
resent progressive intelligence such
as it would be impossible to discover
in the same citizenOhip of other lands.
From their ranks will spring many of
the men of affairs and influential pub
lie men of the future.
Questions of politics should not be
mixed with the principles which are
at the root of all labor organizations.
Labor is organized for purely eco
nomic purposes. But this year the
issue at stake is one which vitality af-
fects the economic welfare of the
whole people, and it is only natural
that the workingmen should regard
it as worthy of their best study, both
as individuals and as members of
trade organizations. They will not
let democratic calamity howlers fool
them, as they have not yet forgotten
the last democratic times" of only
few years ago. We hear Of their
philanthropy and immense donations
to the poor, but when they give