Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1901-07-03
DEBORAH, IOWA, JULY, 8, 1901
ABE is AGAINST STRIKES
INNOCENT PARTIES ARE INJURED
Gives His Views on Strikes and Argues
Against Unions Of All
Kinds.

Kinds.
When a strike is ordered against
large corporation the strikers are at a
disad Vantage. first because they haven't
money enough to successfully c'pe with
the great wealth of memier- Of the cor
poration. The strikers are working
for their bread and: butter. Suppose
they are able to close the big manufac-
tories Temporarily; who will suffer?
Their funds will soon be gone and work
too. The owners have plenty Of money
and can live without doing business.
They invest their enormous capital In
business because they are business men.
brought up TO it from childhood. 1t is
q habit which grows with age and they
would be discontented in any other
way, and of course, like the farmer or
any other business man, expect to
make fair profit.
Then strikes frequently injure thous-
ands of people hundred-fold more
than those at whom they are aimed.
Witness the great street car strike in
Albany, N. ", ashort time ago. Men,
women and children could not get to
their work, as they lived too far out to
walk, and their usual mode of trans
portation was cut off. Their misery
and suffering were severe, while the
street car magnates were not incOnven-
fenced at all; they could ride in their
private carriages.
Then there is the sympathetic strike,
which seems to me to be very foolish.
As q ri nple illustration, suppose that
my hired man on the farm should be
dissatisfied with me and his pay and
should quit work. Is that any reason
why all the rest of the hired men in the
county or state, who are perfectly sat
isfied with everything, should quit?
Another bad feature is that union
men will not work themselves, nor allow
non-u union men TO work, and this feat
ure has caused bloodshed, death, and
untold misery. Suppose a church
should allow no one to learn his. bread
by the sweat Of his brow":: unless he
belonged to that church-how long
would 1t exist in civilized commun-
ity? No king upon his throne at the
present day would dare enforce such
an unjust order. Ifthis is q free coun-
ury /. strikes me that man lshould
hire whom he pleases aud man should
work for whom he pleases, and let them
settle the plumber of hours in day
and the wages between themselves.
Labor unions are good thing when
organized to benefit laborers. No one
should object to them, andino one does
unless they are run to to the disadvan.
tage of the vast army of laborers and
the general public who are not mem.
bers of the union. ABE JONES.
VIE Davenport Times is getti g the
Cumminses mixed Amos Cummins
is the name of the famous Democratic
newspaper writer and congressman
He claims always to have been demo
craft Albert Cummins is the man the
Times is trying to talk about. He has
always been republican except for q
few years when he backslid on the re
publican faith cure but he repented
was put on probation, then given Ii
cense as a republican exhorter by thu
Polk county district conference. wa
made regular circuit rider in 1886 b,
the annual state conference, was twic'
a candidate for bishop at the genera
republican conference and having
failed in that Is now content to accep
the Office Of presiding elder till Bishol
Allison gives up his see. The creates
objection to his becoming presiding
elder is that he seems too much to b.
the candidate of Deacon Dawson, Dea
con Welliver and other heretics to re
publican faith. This orthodox jour
nal of civilization is here hoping tina
this will give the esteemed Times tn
proper light and will clear up the bari
on the Cummins tree. Both Alder
and Amos, it may be said in truth for
sooth. are brilliants, and neither will b
disposed to ask the Times to apologize
for the sins of the proof reader. Masol
City Globe Gazette.
''What Shall We Eat"
Every day the same old question
"What shall we eat for breakfast, go