The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-11-26

Good laborer and poor laborer are paid
the same wage;t and both, follow the die;
| tation of their walking delegate" Tht
| shrewd business man and the unbus!
| nesslike widow invest their earnings In
| the same company and both get the same
interest on their Investment. Both leave
| their capital at the absolute disposal OF
trusted directors. For they have learned
that In combination under chosen lead
T.! crs both get an advantage which neither
| could get acting alone. The skillful and
| the less skillful laborer. acting on the
| same principle unite and put, their labor
| in the control OF chosen leaders, because
| they believe that by combination both
can get an advantage which neither car
get If he acts separately. And they are
| right In Industries where labor Is 'disor
| ganized, conditions are bad. hours are
| long, wages are poor-swcatshops, for
| instance. With rare If any exceptions,
the organiza tlon of. labor has been fol.
| lowed by improved conditions, lessened
| hours, better wages.
| The right of a laborcr not TO join a
| labor organization is absolute. The right
| of the individual to work antedates and
| Is the necessary foundation of the right
of laborcrs to unite in their work. 1t Is
| like the right of the capitalist not to
invest his money in u corporation, but
to continue in an individual enterprise
| TO force ~ factory into trust, to force
| u laborer into n union, Is to violate the
fundamental rights of man: for no right
Is more fundamental than that of an
owner to his property and that OF u
workman to his labor. The labor unions
which try to coerce laborers to jpin
them weaken their own cause and delay
that organization of labor which they
imagine that they are promoting. But.
more than that they violate the rights
OF labor and give excuse for It's VIOLA
ton by others. There have been cases
in which capitalists have stood bravely
for the right of the Individual laborer
against the attacks of labor unions
which, however unconsciously. were be-
traying their own cause. All honor to
such defenders of freedom. But too Of
ten the right of the laborer to employ
ment so valiantly defended by capitalis-
tic organs means only the right of the
capitalist to pay lower wages, require
longer hours and impose worse condi-
tlons than would be possible if labor
were organized.
Combination both of property and of
industry, of capital and OF labor, is in
evitablc. because it is the divine order
of human development. 1t would be no
more possible to go back TO the individu-
alstic organization of the first part of
the nineteenth century than to go back
to the fcudaism that preceded it. To do
so we should have to forget the invention
Of machinery, the discovery Of steam,
the utilization of electricity, division of
labor. the art of cooperation. The rem
etly for the evils incidental to the com
bination OF capital IS not prohibition of
combira ton, but wiser and more ben
eficenc combination; the remedy for the
evils incidental to the organization of
labor is not its disorganization, but it's
more efficient organization.
There can be no Question rs to
which is the more hopeful ard reassur-
ing view-Spencer's or Abbott's. In the
main we incline toward the latter. But
il Lyman Abbott could have lived for
the past three years in the anthracite
coal fields, in daily touch with the dis
turbed conditions so graphically de-
picted in certain now famous letters
contributed to his admirable magazine,
1t would have taken large faith and al
most superhuman patience to uphold
confidence in the proposition that the
violence, intimidation and encourage
ment of anarchy Their prevalent We're a
necessary price of labor's evolution or
that in all cases the end justified the
means.