The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-12-13

| would give to labor everywhere lie
lowest wages paid anywhere.
| In the countries OF Europe there are
! to-day twenty millions or more of la
borers and artisans producing articles
for human consumption. And their
| daily wages are greatly less than those
paid to labor in this country in like
employments. 1t would cost any one
! of these laborers or artisans to remove
from his home in the Old World to one
in the New not to exceed $50 or $50. For
every such person who should come
| there would be room for one less Amer
! lean laborer, provided there is Ameri-
can labor enough to supply the demand
FOR labor.
! The great attraction heretofore for
migration to this country has been
that it is the land of liberty, home Of
the oppressed, and an asylum for the
eXila. In addition, make it by undue
stimulation the most attractive country
for high wages and short hours for
work, and how long would it be before
I, our home labor market would be over
stocked from these beehives of indus
! try, beyond the power of legislation or
! the capacity of consumption to save
American labor, from the low wages of
the Old World? TO determine the point
| to which the increase or wages in this
country can go and not produce such a
result is the real solution of the prob
| lem of American wages
| Entitled to Fair Compensation.
The employe is entitled in all cases
to a fair compensation for the time he
uses his brain or muscle, or both, for
the benefit of another. The time thus
consumed and paid for belongs to the
employer, and he has the right to di-
rect the mode and manner of it's use.
| The time not paid for belongs to the
| employe, to do with it within legal
| limits as he leases. And the employer
has no more right to say how it shall
be spent than has the e,nploye to say
| to the employer whom he shall hire or
how he shall conduct his business. The
right of the employer to control the
time or the acts Of the employe ends
! where payment ends. These are the
! relative rights of empoyer and em-
ploye, and they cannot be violated by
either without injury to both. Either
has the right to organize for the pur-
pose Of improving their condition Or
prospect in life. But no voluntary or
ganization or association has any
greater power or rights than the indi-
viduals composing it. Any attempt to
| exercise any greater power or rights
| than those possessed by the individual
becomes an organized attack upon Sc
! ciety itself, which, in self-defense, if
there was no other reason, orderly gov
ernment must repel and prevent if
they would preserve their own exist
ence.
Labor, whether of brain or muscle,
has two indefeasible rights, both ell
titled to full, absolute protection
under any form of government. One
is to contract for employment on
such terms as may be satisfactory;
the other, to refuse all employment
provided no application is made on
the community for personal support.
Every person self-supporting and
law-abiding has right to work or
not to work. This is an individual
right, which the laws Of free gov
ernment are bound to protect. But
no person has right to prevent an
other person who desires to work
from doing so. Every person has the
right to work without molestation,
hindrance or intimidation of any
kind. The rights of one man end
where the rights of another begin.
In free government there Is no right
in any citizen to combine for the injury
of the general welfare. whether capital
list or day laborer. In this respect, law
applies alike to both. The primary OBJ
ject in the establishment and mainten-
ance of free government is the general
welfare, and in its administration that
is paramount to all else. While all
have the right to work OF not, no one
has the right to prevent, or attempt
to prevent, by word, act OF deed, the
prosecution by others of any lawful
pursuit OF the development of any
industry useful and beneficial to
mankind. Nor has any one a right,
by word or deed, to aid or abet in
any way persons engaged in OBJ
structing OF in hindering the prose-
cution OF development Of enterprises
and industries calculated to promote
the general welfare.
Boycotting, as 1t Is called, in any
business rests on the assumption that
nobody has any rights except the boy
cotter, and that he is privileged to fix
the terms on which labor may earn its
daily bread by its daily toll. and the
conditions on which all business in a
community must be conducted. The
fundamental principle upon which
which free governments rest, and
without which they cannot exist, is
the protection Of the inalienable
right of every person to life, liberty
and the pursuit of happiness.
The inalienable right of life and
liberty is of little consequence with
out the inalienable right of the pur-
suit of happiness. The pursuit of
happiness includes the right in the
individual to pursue any legal en-
ployment in lawful way, without
htndrance, molestation or intimida-
tion in any form. Laws in just gov
ernments are made for the protec-
tion of these fundamental rights, and
whoever violates them or attempts
to is subverting the spirit and gen
ius of free institutions. Whoever
prevents or attempts to prevent the
development of an industry bene-
ficial to mankind, or prevents or at
tempts to prevent the prosecution of
such industry by others, becomes a
conspirator against the general well
fare, just the same as a combination
of capitalists might become injurious