The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-11-07
I'6IB|E1'lIl I! / Devil
AND l THE ...D D E. j SEA |
ORGANIZED LABOR Is THERE AND
MUST GET OUT. -
George; w. Meyer, Ex-President of the
stone Cutters' National Union
: Writes On the "Mistakes Of Capt.
tal"-When Capital assumes an
Arbitrary Position the Wrong is
Not All on One Side. !.

Minneapolis, Nov. 4-Gecrge w.
Meyer, ex-president of the Stone Cut
ters' National union when asked by
a Labor World representative what the
thought of the labor situation today,
and the relation of capital to organized
labor said:
When a great manufacturing COM
pany whose employees are on strike
announces. that it will beat them at
any cost, and refuses to entertain any
proposition to submit the questions in
dispute to arbitration, it is no longer
possible to assume that the wrong is
all on one side. The men may have
acted hastily and violently and with
out due regard for the rights of the
public, but whatever mistake or wrong
they may have committed cannot pail
late the vindictive obstinacy of their
employers.
Under existing conditions capital is
no longer represented, as it used to
be in most cases by a single individual
It is used by; combinations of men 1iv-
ing remote from each other, and for
the most part having no immediate
connection with the management of
their property which is in the hands
of their representatives, men who.
like the laborer, are hired at so much
month or a year. Since capital,
through the ramifcations Of the COL
lossal system which applies it, comes
at length in contact with labor only
by means of still other labor differ
ing from the former in nothing but
character, 1T is no longer possible for
capital to say through the agencies
which it employs that it is supreme in
all things; that it cares nothing for
the organizations and representatives
through which and by whom labor
makes it's wants known; that it will
run it's own business to suit ITSELF
and it will not be dictated to by any
body.
When organized capital assumes that
attitude it is in the wrong: 1t is or
gained for selfish purposes, and so is
| labor. Unless capital can be reached
in some way by labor it's machinery
| must be complete, brutal and tyran-
Gus, tempered by nothing but the pos
sible good nature Of an agent. Labor
cannot have even the poor satisfac-
ton Of the old time workingman, who
! pealing to the men whose money gives
| it occupation. Therefore, it organ
| ICES and, like capital, it appoints it's
| own agents, obeys their orders and
| follows their advice. When it quar-
rels it is not necessarily debating
what capital shall do, whom it shall
employ or how it shall run it's bust
ness. 1t is more likely presenting an
indictment to capital of some of capt.
tails agents who are using their pow
err: to zoppresse labor or to discriminate
unjustly against men whose only Of
| Tense is that they have become
through the organization of labor; con-
spicuous targets for the agents of
capital.
| This may or may not be largely the
| nature of the conflict between labor
and capital in the flour mill employees
| strike in this city. Nevertheless, it is
true that in all strikes the quarrels
is chiefly one between Intermediates
Of both. Injustice has been done. La
Dor asks that it be righted and CAPT
| tai refuses. Labor strikes, and capi-
| tai, represented by plutocrats turing
| in Europe, or sitting as board of di-
rectors in remote city, refuses to in
| quire into the merits of the case re-
| fuses to arbitrate, boasts of it's abi1-
| ity to spend a million dollars or more
If need be to crush labor and dogged]y
| lnflicts loss and discomfort and dis
! tress, not only upon the strikers, but
| upon thousands of people who are not
| IN the remotest degree responsible fol
! the quarrel Capital, when it stub
| bornly declines to discuss the causes
| of the trouble and positively refuses
! to listen to any proposition for their
adjus tment that does not involve the
disbanding and humiliation of organ
lied labor, places itself in a most in.
defensible attitude; and one from
which and for the benefit of all con.
cerned it cannot recede too soon
Great corporations and combina tions
| of capital, enjoying rich franchises
from the public, or reaping enormous
! benefits from a system Of special tax.
| alton which lays the whole country
under tribute to them, cannot be man.
aged under the old time principle which
obtained under employer and employee
When they assume arbitrary power
and for the purpose of establishing
that power subject whole communities
to protracted Inconvenience and in,
calculable loss, they simply invite {
solution of the vexed question between
labor and capital which will not bt
favorable to capital.
The fact is, and it might as we'll b,
recognized by both sides and all clas
ses, that the labor strike cannot be a;
the same time peaceable and success
full. In contest of endurance the or
ganized labor side must go to the wall