The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-07-07
A Note OF
WARNING
Clarence barrow an Advocate of La
boris Claims.
TALKS TO A CHICAGO CROWD
Only Small Proportion fthe Real
Workngmen Are Eligible to Trade
tention to the Solution of the
Problems Of the Day.

Clarence S barrow, the lawyer
who appeared before the strike COM
mission as counsel of the United
Min Workers. recently delivered an
address in Chicago on The Perlls
of Trades nonsm." His speech is
described as mote of warning to
organized workmen, and coming, as
it does. fIcm a man who has been 50
prominent as al advocate OF labor
claims. i has aroused unusual inter-
est.
But Clarence barrow is more than
IAN alvocat= of labor's claims, if
by that term is meant an advocate of
the claims Of labor unionists. He is
a student, a thinker. man who ad-
vocatcs the rights OF men rather than
the claims of any set or class of men.
If any man assert or claim his rights
Da1row is with him; but h. is with
no man WAo claims wrongs. M.
Darrow said in part:
THE phenomenal growth Of trade
union,sm throughout the last two OF
threa years, although unparalleled in
other period of the world, is perhaps
not unlike tLa growth of the knights
of Labor some twenty years ago. 1t
does not follow that trade unionism
will live because it is strong tolay
When adversely comes, as 1t must
come under our pres, Mt system of
production; when large numbers of
men are thrown out of employment,
then the great strain upon trade
unionsm will be felt. 1t is compare
lively easy to organize workingmen
when all are employed or while work
is plentiful. 1t is difficult to sustain
this organization while many men are
living on the verge of starvation or
want
"The great growth Of true union
ism has caused the workingman to
feel his power; it has necessarily
made many of them arbitrary, I'M
reasonable and unjust in their de
mands This has, in many places,
awakened a sense of resentment
among a large class who otherwise
would be sympathetic toward the
unions. For instance, in the late coal
strike of the anthracite workers, the
sympathy of the whole country was
with the strikers. This was not due
- any special knowledge on the part
of the public of the condition Of the
striking men, but to their hatred
against the coal trust, which haC
monopolized and put up the price or
a necessary product The growth O.
these great industrial monopoies
whose business it has been to take
as much from the public as the pub
lie would stand. has SIT against then
the great mass of the common PEG
pie. These people have been sympa
thetic to trade unions. not so mucl
because they understood trade unions
as because they hated the monopo
lies.
"At best. only a small proportio
of the real workingmen are reason
ably eligible to trada unionism. Farm
ers. small merchants, and many oil
ers COMPOSING the great middle elias
do not belong to the unions and cal
not reasonably be expected to ba'on
to the unions. This great midal
class, which really creates the syn
pathy for the common people, Whicl
in fact. is the common people. hay
believed that they were plundered |
the trusts and corporations, and HAY
given aid to the trade unionist
When they imagine that the tra(
unions are making unreasonable d
mands or unfair conditions, their he
tility will be turned against ira
unonsm as it is turned against ii
corporate control.
That is true. and for that naast
trade unionists should be all t
more careful of their claims al
their actions.
Continuing. Mr.. barrow said tn
the majority of trade unionists tod
devote their whole time to the IA
ing of wages This he characteriz
as "delusion and a snare" on I
ground that a rise in wages is
most always followed by rise
commodities. Above all things ell
he said, trade unionism should IL
it's attention to political action, !
necessarily this party or that,
toward the solution by law and ind
trial changes of the problems Of
day"
Mr.. barrow concludsd: THE
ergy now directed toward simply
ganizing men and seeking to bet
their condition by raising wae
must be more largely turned tow
the political and economic questi
of the day, upon which labor, cap
and wages depend.
"This great energy cannot alw
be kept in the narrow channel
which it is directed at the pras
times. 1t is for the trade unonist:
the world to show their ability
generalship by directing this 81
o,r,y NJ work i'm o-n on fOWard the