The age-herald., 1901-09-03
Eight Thousand WOrkiRgmGn Marched Through Streets
 of Kansas City
SOME SOUND ADVICE GIVEN
MT. Bryan Attacked the Trusts and Said the Laborng Mans Only Weapon Is the BaIIot-com-
 mented on the Strike. ---

Kansas City, Mo, September 2-Labor
 Day was marked by the largest and most
 imposing parade of labor unions ever
 seen here and by the participation of
 William J, Bryan In the procession and
 exercises. Eight thousand men marched
 through the streets, grouped in their
 unions and each union wearing a dis | tinguishing uniform. Mir Bryan occupied
 a carriage at the head of the line and
 was cheered whenever recognized.
 The orator of the afternoon was Wm. J.
 Bryan. The pavilion at the park was crowded to suffocation.
 | Mir. Bryan took for his text the Bible verse. "Muzze not the OK that treadeth | out the corn"
 | MT. Bryan said:
 Each decade of our history shows l greater production of wealth and the men who produce it have less to show for it. Is this good condition? A right condi- tion? The solution of the problems that | confront us is in legislation, not in legisla- 1 tion for or against classes, but for equal | justice before today is the only weapon the laborer has, but it is weak and inef- | fective.
 'If the laboring men were half as ac- | tive on election day they are enforce | forcement of their strikes they would | wield a force that would right the evils which beset
 "The greatest danger today is private
 monopoly. Not that any one monopoly is
 worse than others, but the principle Is
 bad which tolerates any private mono
 poly.
 Immoral and Impoiitie.
 'T have heard that the true solution of
 the problem for the laboring man is to
 divide profits with the trusts That has
 been given as an argument for the trusts.
 Such thing would be immoral and im-
 polite. It would be like dividing the
 spells of the highwaymen. It would be
 permitting a man to rife your pockets
 and then offer to divide the proceeds with
 you. Today the only people who sympa- | thize with you are the laborers who toll | in other parts of the worlds vineyard In
 the present great steel strike, where did l the first expressions of sympathy come | from? From Texas. They have no steel | mills there. They are farmers They are l tillers of the soil and laborers like your | selves. want to warn you to resist over- l lures of the trust. Beware when corpor-
 ations ask you to join them. The farmers l can stand the encroachments of the l trusts longer than you can. The farmers | live off their farms. When the trust | prices get so high that the farmers can- | not buy, they will eat the products of | their own industry. Their wives can even | go back to the primitive method of mak- | ing clothes by weaving. But when the | farmer can no longer pay trust prices, | then there will be no more demand for | the products of your skill and you can | make no more wages.
 Trusts Offer a Pitfali.
 'The offer of the trust to divide with | the laboring man is a pitfall Can you
 trust the corporations to divide honestlyf l No. How mahy of you would like to try
 a lawsuit when the judge on the bench is
 the opposing party to the suit? There are l good judges, good juries, yet do you want | judges and juries to try cases when they are interested in the outcome themselves? | When you permit monopoly to dictate
 terms of division, then you place your
 selves wholly at their mercy. You allow
 them to water their stock and then ex-
 pect them to divide with labor on just l basis.
 You are now witnessing battle be-
 tween labor and the great steel trust. | This trust is willing to allow union mills. | but would have others open to non-union | labor Why? Because the trust wants | some mills that 1t can depend on in the
 event of strike. It is an unequal strug-
 gle for the trust can shut down It's mills
 for year, but laboring men cannot live
 a year without work It is your duty to | crush monoDolies with the best resource | at your command-the ballot. | Government by injunction is an fniqui- | tous system and one of the questions de- manding attention at the hands of the ! American people. The courts are the ser wants of the people, and for court to 1 rule by injunction Is for a court to dis | pense with jury and then condemn a man for violating law, after it's made. l Under the process of government by in- | junction the court constitutes itself the power to make laws. execute them and pass Judgment on the offender. The whole thing is wrong.
 Under the system a number of em- ployers can organize themselves, go into court and get an order prohibiting others from organizing for the same purpose. They can get an order prohibiting work workingmen from getting other working men to refrain from working. The em- ployers can organize to crush labor, but others are forbidden to organize.
 T am opposed to government by in- junction, not that it is directed and prac- | ideally against the laboring men, but that 1t does away with trial by jury. It is a menace not only to one class. but to all. It is within the power of the labor ing man to do away with the system MT. Bryan condemned the action of the South Carolina mill men who forbade their men ito celebrate Labor Day or to join unions.
 MT Bryan went in a carriage from Electric Park to Shawnee Park Kansas City, Kan, where he addressed an open air meeting of several thousand persons, going over the same grounds as in in this city. He raised a laugh at the out set by taking a position sheltered from the sun, saying, i've been in the shade for several months. now. and I'm used to A"