The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-25
IT. v. ~POWDERLY'S IDEA.
He Favors Closer Business Relationship
Evening Session.

Evening session.
T. v. Powderly, formerly president Of
the knights of Labor, addressed the aft
ernoon session yesterday, and, in the
course of his talk advised working men
to invest their savings in the stock Of
the corporation by which they are en-
ployed, his idea being that a community
Of interest would thus be established be-
tween employer and employee which would
have a tendency at least to lessen fr1c-
ton. Referring to the strike in the an
thracite coal region, Mr.. Powderly said
that people generally were prone to forget
all about the laboring man until their at
tention was compelled. He considered the
labor problem a serious one and suggest
ed that it ought to be given serious at
tention at other times than when great
strikes are in progress,
He spoke of trusts as a natural out
growth of modern industrial conditions,
and predicted that these great combina-
lions of capital had not yet attained the
acme of their power. He also declared
much of the criticism Of trusts to be the
work of demagogues, who, in the trust
problem, saw an opportunity to play to
the galleries. s,- III
Colonel James Kilbourne of Columbus,
Ohio. and William H. Tolman of New
York. secretary of the. League for Social
Service, addressed the evening session,
Colonel Kilbourne@, speaking of Some
Phases of the Labor Question: He is
president and general manager of the Kill
bourne and Jacobs Manufacturing COM
pany. and was introduced as a manufac-
turer who had never had any trouble
with his men, although an extensive en-
ployer of labor for thirty years. -..
He expressed the opinion that labor was
not receiving it's just proportion of the
rewards of industry and 1nstanced the
immense fortunes accumulated in this
- 1r,& t~
prove his point. He declared the aim of
socialism to be a noble one, but doubted
whether it could be accomplished by the
means suggested. He declared that to
make the government the sole employer
Of labor would be to inpoverish the whole
people and to call halt upon progress.
He predicted that public utilities would
ultimately belong to the people, and said
that public ownership might, in time, ex-
tend to railroads and even to mines; but
he secuted the suggestion that the social
list ideas, in their entirety. would ever
prevail in this country. He advocated
the adoption Of: the eight-hour day, and
suggested that. the evil feature of trusts
was not combination but overcapitaliza-
ton. Combinations which do not seek
to establish a monopoly Of the product in
which they deal, he considered innocuous.
Mr.. .Tolman's address was Illustrated
by lantern Slides the speaker thus being
enabled to give his audience an exact idea
Of the conditions under which laboring
people, both here and abroad, live. One
set of views showed the homes of work.
ingmen in aslittle English manufacturing
community both before. and after the
English employer had made up his mind
that twas his business to see that his
men were well cared for, The contrast
was startling, squalor giving way to neat
ness as the new idea was put into effect.
Other views showed interiors in factories
under similar conditions. A highly inter
esting series showed the homes of labor
ers in the Krupp gun factory. neatness
and cleanliness being characteristic OF
| their appearance