The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1901-10-26

been doing and set their slaves to do
1t; the unions became impoveri1hed,:
the membership was unable to pay the
taxes, and were sold into slavery in
order that the taxes might be paid.
The foreign slaves and the Roman
workingmen sold into slavery made
common cause. In instruction after
insurrection they measured strength
with that Of the Roman armies, until
the last and greatest one, that under
Spartacus, was utterly destroyed by
the Roman armies at the headwaterB
of the River Salarus in the year 70:
B. G. Two years after, the Roman
senate took away the right Of combina-
ton from all but very few of the or
CARNATIONS, and from that time onward
those organizations which remained,
and the most of them remained in a
decimated condition, lived in intense
secrecy. AS religious organizations or
as burial societies, they continued their
precarious existence until the storm
had blown over and new ideals had be-
gun to assert themselves, as least to
some extent. AS far as official Rome
was concerned labor had made Its
struggle and had lost, and the system
Of absolutism, absolutism In religion,
absolutism in state absolutism in the
workshop, was supreme. This absolut-
ism was based upon the concept that
there were sons Of gods and sons sc
men; that the sons Of men existed for
no other purpose than that Of adminis-
tering to and serving the sons OF gods.
The man whose hand was soiled by
labor was not a citizen; he was sup
posed not to have any soul and when
the Carpenter Of Nazareth gave to the
world the new cult Of human equality
and brotherhood, He said, II come not
to bring peace but the sword" -Anci-
ent uniontsm took on a new aspect, at
least as far as the public was concern
ed, and in so doing it had to bear the
persecution and suffer the martyrdom
which under one aspect or another is
invariably melted out to any set Of men
or to any force which IL seeking to
disturb 1.-The existing order Of things"
In all it's aspects it was not advant-
ageous to the laboring men. They had
to suffer. they had to die, under. the
pale, on the cross, in the prisons and ii,
exile; but their sufferinss strengthened
the idea of human brotherhood, their
blood watered the tree Of liberty. AMI
In Its broadcast sense 1t was and re-
manned advantageous to laboring men.
1t gradually undermined the whole
Roman fabric and inaugurated a new
era In the history Of men. Society was
reorganized upon a new basis: Unfor-
tunately some of the reorRanfxers
proved untrue to the ideals which had
placed them in the position. to do the
reorganizing and there was a revival Of
the old pagan concepts, under new
names, and in the intense STRUGGLE
about the possession Of land, the then
practically only means Of wealth, which
followed upon the breaking up Of the
Roman lati-fundia, the old system as
master and slave was .re-established In
a modified form under the name of
master and serf. -.
The recollection; of the liberty that
had been, all the hopes and aspirations
which seemed to have vanished. were
less possessions, Of the past. and the
hope Of their revival and of obtaining
the full fruition thereof in the future
caused the reorganization Of the work.
ing people in the growing cities of: the
Middle Ages upon lines suitable to the
then existing industrial conditions. The
guilds were centuries in forming and in
gaining recognition; but in their strux-
gle they were the creators Of modern
society. They constituted the force
which re-established and for a long
time preserved human freedom in the
cities. and which ultimately brought
about the concept Of individual liberty
for which the opponents Of trade-union-
ism are known to stand. In this strur-
gle in the medieval cities for individual
freedom, for equality before God, for
equality before the law or In the state.
again man had to suffer imprisonment.
torture, death and exile; and if you
ask: Was unionism In all Its aspects
advantageous to the workinsmen OF the
Middle Ages? in its narrow sense. look
ing at it from the Individuals point Of
view, the answer may. be. given, No.
They suffered, they hungered, they
were luCAEceFdteu, tHey We're executed,
they were exiled. That ID. . great many
Of them were; but the cause Of. human
liberty, the cause Of human equality.
the idea Of human brotherhood, rev,
and in Its larger and q broader sense,
without hesitation we say Yes, In. ali !.
its aspects - was advant ageouo. ~
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