Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1901-08-10

hind a citadel of dollars. stocks and
bonds, and can call for reinforcements
upon the great financial institutions of
both this country and Europe. 1t is al
most limitless in its strength, and might
well maintain the position it has taken
for a year, or for years.
On the other hand, how is it with
labor. battling for the right of organ
ization? Labor has numbers, good
leaders, courage, determination and a
good cause-but it has very little else.
And especially and particularly is 1t
lacking in that essential-money. It's
are measured, perhaps, by
mere hundreds of thousands Of dollars;
those OF the combine by scores and
even hundreds of millions. Idleness,
enforced OF voluntary, renders no less
the pangs of hunger, the rent must DC
provided for, as il times of bright
glowing furnaces and humming wheels.
In a little time serious inroads will be
made upon the Lodge treasures, and
then those who have struck, or have
been locked out, or compelled to cease
their usual labors because others have
done so, find necessity at the door. 1t
is an unequal conflict.
There are other elements initiating
against the wage-earner. Not only has
the great trust the financial ability to
make a stand Of the most stubborn and
prolonged character, but 1t has other
aids to be taken into account. Behind
and beside the corporation stands the
Court with its injunction. the law, which
must not be infringed, the ordinary civil
Officers, the State troops, the regular
army and the whole power of the gener-
al government, and all these aids to COM
bines of capital have been called upon
many times either upon just and reas-
enable grounds or pom a mere pre-
text, sometimes, indeed, through the
Vaccinations of corporations them
selves, to contribute to the overthrow
of the demands of labor, however reas-
| enable or righteous, while rarely Or
never are they arrayed on
the side of those demanding
justice or a proper share OF
the fruits of industry. Under the forms
of law it is easy for capital % in
woke the law; it is very difficult for
labor to obtain a hearing; and, while
this state of affairs is lacking in JUS
tee ard equity, it is none the less the
fact an element worthy Of serious con-
siderasion. The manufacturing ard
mining history of our n~eighborirg
state Of Pennsyly ania is filed with c5t-
rotoratiun of tbis-we have no; been
fee from the same thing in Yves. Viz
ginia; nor has Ohio, nor New York, In
diana, Illinois, or the States of the far
West. When labor fights, it must battle
I'D a steep and rugged hill, confronted
by money, influence and power, and
weakened by a lack Of means, dissen-
| lions, and oftentimes treachery within
it's own ranks, for the "black sheep
and the 'scab" is always a workingman
and never an employer. Employers will
compete with each other in the business
world. and, as the phrase is, "cut each
others throats," but when 1t comes TO
a contest with labor they stand to-
gether. for capital fully realizes what
labor does not-that in concert of ac-
ton there is invincible strength. Some
day labor will learn this lesson; but it
has not yet. When it does, the men who
work for wages will not only stand to-
gether, but will vote together, looking
solely to their own interests and turn
ing a deaf ear to the specious pleas
| of politicians who represent the inter-
ests of corporations as against those
of the masses of the people,
That deplorable results will ollow to-
morrow's strike in this and many other
cities, goes without saying. and it will
fall largely upon those innocent or COM
euIicity upon either side. That is the
common heritage of the masses IN sucn
affairs. We have only to turn back to
the great strike of 1877 at Pittsburg, to
| the never-to-be-forgotten nailers' strike,
or to the affairs at Homestead or in
the mining regions of many States to
verify this. And it being true, the
-oor Tho oorca for depn and wide
spread regret that conciliatory councils
have not prevailed, that something
might have been given and taken upon
either side, to the end that business
| might have proceeded along usual chan
| nels. and the prosperity of the first
half of the year continued to the end,