Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1902-11-20
in THE LABOR REALM.

5 in THE LABOR REALM g
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1.-THE matter published IL this col
umn is furnished by the officers OF the
Federation of Labor]
The grumblers and fanatics in the
ranks of labor point to the failures,
the mistakes and the obstacles.
Whenever a judge smashes a strike
with the force OF an injunction, the
grumblers and the fanatics look wise
and say, Didn't tell you so? Labor
always gets thrashed!"
Whenever a governor uses Winches-
tiers and riot guns, the grumblers and
fanatics wag their heads and say,
Didn't tell you that trade unionism
is played out?"
Nothing can be more contemplate
than the attitude of these croakers
Nothing can be more thorough than
their ignorance of what trades union
ism has accomplished.
| OF course the battle for Industrial
justice is not yet won. The owners
still receive more than the earners.
But since 1925 thousands of substan-
tial and permanent victories have been
won by labor organizations. Wages
have been raised. hours have been re
duced, conditions have been improved,
reforms have been enforced, abuses
have been abolished and the whole at
titude of society toward the wage-work-
er has become more respectful and hui
name.
In SO short an article as this there is
no room for statistics or history We
shall merely look at few contrasts be-
tween the past and the present of the
American worliingman.
| Contrast the $500 a year which the
average factory worker receives today
with the s247 which the same worker
received in 1850. To double wages
and reduce hours In fifty years is GER
tainly rapid transit in social progress.
Compare the fifty cents a day for
fourteen hours labor which the New
/ York bricklayert got in 1776 with the
$3.50 for eight hours which he receives
today. BY unionism alone he has
forced his valueiup, until now he gets
| 10 cents more for one hours work
than he formerly did for fourteen. Did
any revolutionary scheme of the red
flag tribe ever accomplish as much as
| this? saa
| While 1t is deplorable fact that
many Industrious American citizens
are receiving one dollar day and less
1t should be remembered that one hun
| dred years ago thousands of white
men in this republic sold themselves
| to employers for seven years for $100,
Ia, :,
cents a day! Such was the 'redemp-
| toner" system which organized labor
abolished.
Many laws are today harsh and I'M
fair, but who would compare them
with the savage edicts of century
ago. when twenty-five crimes were in
some states punishable with death. In
1889 and later the foreman dashed
women and children workers with
rawhide if they slackened with their
work; the treadmill was always 60
ing; the pillory and stocks were sell
dom empty; the branding iron was in
constant use and the whipping post
was always crimsoned with fresh
blood. These damnable cruelties, per-
sisting through centuries, were never
abolished until self respecting, organ
lied workmen refused any longer to
be the victims.
1t is still hard enough today. to be
poor and In debt, but consider the
progress We have made since 1916,
when the debtors Jail in New York
held 1884 prisoners, nearly all for
sums under s25. The man who owed
one cent could be imprisoned for years
If he had no friends to buy his free.
dom. The Workingman's Advocate,
the first labor paper In America, de-
nounced this law of Imprisonment for
debt until 1t was abolished in 1881.
The lot of the striker is not easy to-
day, but compare 1t with the lot of the
twenty-one New York tailors who went
on a strike in 1885, and who were fined
$1,150 for the crime of demanding
higher wages.
One hundred years ago trade union
was as Illegal as band of counterfeit
tiers. The first unionists met secretly
In barns or workshops. If they re-
quested less work or more pay they
were treated as law-breakers and pun
ished. AS late as 1884 the trades
uniontsts of Boston. when they wanted
to give a dinner, found every hall in
the city locked against them, and were
obliged to build a hall Of their own.
Contrast such conditions with those
of today, when unions are as legal as
corporations, and quite as capable Of
defending their own interests.
The trade union means more today
for good citizenship. for purer politics
and for humanitarian reform than 1t
has ever done before. Never before
were there SO many leaders of high
character in the labor movement New
err before was the influence of the fan
Iatic SO small. Never before was the CO
operation of outside influences SO ex-
tensiye. Never before were the year.
| ly gains in membership and achieve
ment SO large and satisfactory.
Every right that American working
men possess was won by organization;
not one was obtained by criticising
trade unions, or by fanahoal propagan-
4 da.
while there may have been
some excuse for the obstructionists 100
years ago, there is none today.