The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-01-25

All la5orers would doubtless welcome the shorter hours and more pay for wnIcn the unions are striving, but there are very many who disapprove the methods resorted 10. How numerous the dissent- CTS would prove to be if full liberty were allowed 1t IS impossible to say, for it Is a grim characteristic of this humanitarian evolution, as it is called, that non-unlon laborers are oftener than any other class the victims of wrongs that are forbidden by the laws of the land. This at least Is the charge. The puolic, so often called on for its sympathy in this struggIe should inquire now whether 1t be true It certainly is true that the majorities who control these unions lose sight of the fundamental maxim, Hive ana let liVe. They forget that there are others, the millions who in countless occupations earn small pittances, the farmer who must work from sun to sun, and the helpless woman whose work Is never done. The question of the present hour seems to be, how much can be extorted from the little stores of all these other classes by the power over the necessities of life which can be exercised by labor organizations? Is there any limit to their demands? Some answer may be gotten by reading the following extract from the December number of Wiltshire S Magazine, published in Canada and cir culating largely in the United States. 1t was written in full view of the suffering among all classes entailed by the recent strike in Pennsylvania.
 The editor entities his article, How High Can Wages Cor" and says:
 "A great many employers conscienti- ously believe that wages cannot be raised if the increase will make the cost of production greater than the present re- eeipts of the business will allow to be paid.
 They seem to be quite oblivious to the possibility of raising prices sufficiently to enable them to pay the higher wages. In the last coal strike the operators said that If they paid the wages demanded by the miners they could not get enough for the coal to enable them to pay cost of production.
 However, as soon as production was curtailed, the price of coal went up from $6 to $20 per ton. The people simply must have coal, and if the cost of operating the mines forces up the cost, then the people, rather than go without, will pay whatever is necessary to get 1t even if 1t be $2O a ton The Steel Trust today pays profits of over s1OO, ,OOO,- 900 per year. If times were dull they would run the works at loss rather than shut down.
 If labor could hold It's own in a strike 1t could put up wages to the extent of absorbing the whole of the present $100,- 100000 profit, for 1t would pay Mr. Nor gan better to lose all his profits rather than to shut down all the works"
 This able advocate of an indefinite in- crease of wages Is now a full-fiedged so- ciaiist.
 Most Americans are attached to Amer ican institutions, which protect life. lib- erty and property and give full play to individual energies. Socialism, wherever fully tried, has led through anarchy and bloodshed to revolution. and those who heed the lessons of history naturally look upon 1t with horror.
 We have recently read many news items pointing in the direction of social ism. and the following, when carefully studied, is particularly instructive!
 ''The American Federation of Labor held It's last annual convention at New Orleans Over 5000 delegates were pres ent Remembering that the general policy of labor unions has been to keep, as or Ranizatlons out of politics. in order to hold the balance of power by influencing individual legislators, let us note these proceedings:
 "A Socialistic delegate offered as a sub stitute for resolutions reported by a com