The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-02
FRIDAY, OCT. 2, 1908.
RIGHTS UNDENIED.

The address issued by the executive
council of the American Federation Of
Labor is temperate in tone and for the
most part moderate in it's demands.
The principal criticism against it would
be that it deals largely with matters no
longer open to debate. The eight-hour
day, for instance, is generally conceded
and generally adopted. In some oc-
equations the seven and a half-hour
day is now a subject of dispute, and
employers are anxious to learn where
the limit of a days occupation will
finally be drawn.
The right to strike, for which the
council contends, is not denied any
where or by anybody within our knowl-
edge. 1t never has been. No court, no
employer, no individual and no asso-
citation has ever asserted that the
workingmen, either singly or united,
should not be allowed to quit labor
contrary would be to sanction wage
slavery Neither is there any quarrel
with the position of the council on the
question of injunctions. We believe
that in certain cases the power Of the
injunction has been abused. We be-
1ieve, also, that in a great many cases
its use is absolutely necessary to pre-
vent the most heinous injustice. AS a
rule, it has been resorted to principally
when labor, angered by the refusal Of
its demands, has gone further in the
line of coercion than either law or
equity could permit. To interfere with
this is not to be hostile to organization,
or to question the right to strike.
The council contends strongly for the
total unionization of labor and the abo-
lltion of the open shop. We believe in
the desirability of the organization of
labor. We believe that the formation of
unions has not only tremendously i'm
proved the living conditions of the
working man, but that it has been a
gain all along the line. 1t has pro-
NOTED efficiency, it has raised the stand
ard of living and the quality of labor,
and, up to a certain point, has pro-
NOTED the interest of both capitalist
and working man. 1t will probably go
further in this beneficent work; but its
progress in the future, as in the past.
must be by the use of moral agencies.
If the workingnan can be persuaded
that to belong to the union is for his
interest, he will join. To prove to him
that it is is the office of the union and
the men who constitute it. The exercise
of pressure to bring about this end on
the part of either employer or employed
would be utter tyranny. Out of this no
good thing can come. The instant that
either the capitalist or the Iaborer with
whom he is associated assumes or ex-
ercises the right to impose conditions
upon mans free right to labor, they
do create, to certain extent, wage
slavery.
The denial of the right to labor on
whatever conditions seem best to the
laborer is as unbelievable as the denial
Of the right to strike. Possibly the
open shop is as inimical to production
and to labor as these high representa-
tives of labor organizations declare 1t
to be. But the open shop must be
abolished, if at all, because both CAPT.
tai and labor have found this to be true.
and not by the application of discrim-
mating rules or the practice of coer-
clon. All good things in this country
are the gift of liberty. We are the
foremost nation of the world in INDUS
try as we'll as In arms, because we are
nation of free men. Destroy that
condition, impair it however slightly