The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-09-04
BRYAN'S ADDRESS TO
LABOR UNIONS At
KANSAS CITY
He Warns the Working Man
of the Great Danger Of
Private Monopoly.
(By the Associated Press.)

y
Kansas City, Mo-, Sept 2.-Labor Day
was marked by the largest and most i'm
posing parade of labor unions ever seer
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 distinguishing uniform
Mr.. Bryan occupied q carriage at the
head of the line and was cheered as he
was recognized. striking feature OF
the parade was the hod carriers union
negroes, 225 men, led by a negro band
The orator of the afternoon was William
]. Bryan, who was preceded by Mayor
Reed. The pavilion at the park was
crowded to suffocation. Mr.. Bryan took
for his text the Bible verse, "Muzzle not
the OK that treadeth out the corn
Mr.. Bryan said:
Each decade OF our history shows
greater production of wealth and the men
who produce it have less to show for it.
This good condition? A right condition
The solution of the problem that confront
us in legislation not in legislation for or
against classes, but for equal justice be-
fore law. The strike today is the only
weapon the laborer has,. but it is weak
and inefficient.
IF the laboring men were half as ac-
tive on election day as they are in en-
forcement of their strikes, they would
WELD force that would right the evils
which beset them
"The greatest danger of today is private
monopoly Not that any monopoly is worse
than Others l have heard that the true
solution of the problem is for the labor
ing man to divide nroGts with the trusts.
That has been given as an argument for
the trusts. Such a thing would be inn
mo-, al and impolitic. 1t would be like di-
yding the spells of the highwayman. 1t
would lie permitting man to rifle your
pockets and then offer to divide the pro-
cee1s with vcu. Today the only people
who sympathize with you are the others
who toll in other parts of the Lords vine
yard. In the present great steel strike,
where DID the first expressions CT So
pathy come from? From Texas. They
have no steel mills there. They are
farmers. They are tillers of the soil
and labcrers like yourselves. / want to
warn YOU 10 resist the overtures OF the
trust Beware when corporations ask you
to join them. The farmers can stand
the ercroachments of the trusts longer
than you can. The farmers live off their
farms. When trust prices get so high
that the farmers cannot buy, they will
eat the products Of their own industry.
Their wives can even go back to the
primitive method of making clothes by
weaving But when the farmer can no
longer ray trust prices, then there Will
be no mere demand for the products OF
YOUR toll, and you can make no more
wages" ~
1.-THE offer of the trusts to divide with
the lahoring man is pit-fall Can you
trust the corpora tons to divide honestly
No how many of you would like to try a
lawsuit, when the judge on the bench is
the opposing party to the suit? There
are good judges, good juries, yet do you
want judges and jures to try your cases
when they are interested in the outcome
themselves? When you permit private
monopoly to dictate terms OF division,
then you place yourselves wholly at their
mercy. You allow them to water their
stock and then expect them to divide with
labor on a just basis.
''You are witnessing battle between
labor and the great steel trust This
trust was willing to unionize some or It's
mills, but would have others open TO non
union labor. Why? Because the trust
wants some mills that it can depend on
in a strike. 1t Is an unequal struggle,
fer the trust can shut it's mills down for
a year, but laboring men cannot live a
year without work. 1t is your duty to
crush monopoles with the best resources
at your demand, the ballot.
Government by injunction is an ini-
quitiOus system, and one OF the questions
demanding attention at the hands OF the
American people. The courts are the
servants of the people and for court 70
rule by injunction, is for court to dis
pense with jury and to condemn man
for violating law that the court itself
made Under the process of Government
by injunction, the court constitutes itself
the power to make the laws, execute
them, and pass judgment on the offender
The whole thing is wrong. Under the
system number of employers can or
ganize themselves, go into court and ge'
an order prohibiting others from organic
ing for the same purpose They can gel
an order prohibiting workingmen from
getting other workingmen to refrain from
working. The employers can organize u
crush labor, but others are forbidden t.
organize.
Il am opposed to Government by injunc
tion, not that it is directed especially
against the laboring man, but that i
does away with trial by jury. 1t is
menace. not only to one class, but to all
1t is within the power of the laboring mar
to do away with the system
Mr.. Bryan also condemned the action O
the South Carolina mill men who forbade