Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1901-08-15
The Strike.

-
Of the world Is now on between or
ganized labor on the one hand and
the colossal billion dollar steel
trust on the other. The present
strike differs from its predecessors
in that there is no demand On the
part of organized labor for any in
crease of pay or for shorter hours.
The billion dollar steel trust is
simply making an effort to destroy
organized labor altogether, and its
policy for some time past has been
to bind their employees by iron
clad agreement not to join a labor
union, or to affiliate with such.
This, of course, has aroused the
labor unions as they have never
been aroused before, and the strike
promisee to be the most momen-
tous affair in the history of the
country. At the great Homestead
strike Of 1892 many thousands of
men were out of employment for
months, and after much bloodshed
the labor organizations involved
were defeated and the Homestead
mills were made. IL non-union
works. With the consolidation of
the Homestead mills into the other
plants now owned by the billion
dollar steel trust, concerted eff
fort is making by the plutocrats to
destroy forever the usefulness and
efficiency of labor organizations as
a help in maintaining the wages OF
the working man.
In these momentous times we
see capital organizing and consol-
idating itself for the protection OF
capital. We see the power of the
judicial courts of the country used
on behalf of these great consolida-
tions of money, issuing injunc-
tions which practically makes q
criminal of the working man who
solicits a fellow-workman to join q
labor union. We see the standing
army of the United States increas
ed to an unnecessary extent for NJ
other reason than to intimidate til,
laboring classes of the country il
times Of trouble and strikes ant
destruction of property.
Far-seeing men have for a Ion,
time predicted the present outcome
of affairs. Under the system O
class legislation which has pre-
vailed in the United States for th
past forty years we have seen on
manufactures protected by tarii
acts which give them complet
monopoly of the American market
we have seen them import til
pauper labor of Europe and til
Orient to compete with the labor c
the native born American citizen
we have seen them set at defiane
the antitrust legislation enacted b
the lawmaking pc err of tn
United States; we have seen. tn
consultations of industries int
billion dollar corporations, an
the concentration of the wealth {
the country into such a small con
pass that a dozen men hold it i
their power today to clutch organ
lied labor by the throat and say i
effect, that it is a crime to join &
belong to II labor organization. W
have seen Carnegie, the owner G
the Homestead plant in which til
great strike of 1892 was inaugul
ated. denying just wage to tn
men who worked for him; we hay
further illustration of the presen
tendency in the same individual
who boasts of his vast accumnla
tions of unjustly begotten millions
and who is scattering the million,
which were earned and properl
belong tn his work men, in estal
fishing libraries all over the cour
try.
Every dollar of the Carnogi
wealth was earned and made pos
sible by the iniquitous tariff legi,
lation # this country. This tart
legislation was enacted for the a
legged purpose OF "PRoTFcrrNG TIL
AMERICAN WORKING MAN FROM til
COMPETITION or FOREIGN PAuPE
LABOR
But after all, the people hay
only themselves to blame for yer
much of the ipjustiees which pi,
walls. They have permitted then
HkyEsYyN ~