Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-23
WORK IN HARMONY
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS AT THE
TRADES & LABOR ASSEMBLY.
CHANGE REGULAR MEETING TIME
Assembly viii Meet on Second and
Fourth Wednesday Evening of Each
Acknowledgements Annual Address
Receives Favorable Comment.


At a meeting of the Trades and La
Dor assembly held in Labor hall last
evening it was decided to change the
regular meeting time from the after
Moons of the second and fourth Sun
day of each month to the second and
fourth Wednesday evenings OF each
month. After the transaction of the
regular routine business and the dis
cussion OF some of the details con
corning the coming Labor Day cele
bration the assembly adjourned.
The annual address of the retiring
president G. A. Hagberg, who has oc-
cupied the chair for six consecutive
years, which was delivered at the re-
cent installation of the newly elected
officers and which received much IA
vorable comment, has been presented
for publication The address has been
| withheld until the present owing to the
| unavoidable delay in the completion of
some of the official reports. The adj
dress was as follows.
The Address.
eFellow Workers and Fellow Mem
4 bers of the Trades and Labor Assem-
/ bly,: I have the honor to again pre-
sent my semi-annual report for the per-
1 iod extending from January to July l.
1 During the time just about to expire,
1 as your presiding officer, l have had
the satisfaction of seeing our grand
work going forward in a most salts
factory manner 1t is true, possibly,
that everything has not advanced as
we might have wished or anticipated,
but in the main | think results are as
good as could be hoped for. Ours is g
! work not to be completed in a day,
week, q month or a year, but a worn
that must be continuously pushed for
ward with renewed energy and de
termination to stay with it at all times
and all places, and to see that we wiz
out in the end regardless of discour
agements and seemingly insurmounta
BILE obstacles 1t is work never end
ing, because as time goes on, new con
ditions present themselves and new
and ever changing methods in the in
dustrial world bring on new questions
to settle.
Should Work in Harmony.
I'VE find at times tendency by
those whose interests are apparently
opposed to ours to try and influence
the public mind against our work ant
to make it appear that We are unreas
I enable and unjust in our demands.
do not claim that organized labor i
irifallible and possibly sometimes cor
ditions do not warrant an employer t
! accede to all that is asked by labo
i union but think that bot
! labor and capital should work in hal
: mony to bring about such condition
whereby these things which seem in
!, possible for capital to concede to Ia
Dor could be granted and much NOR
, than we ask, and this without injur
to capital OF course such sentiment
are lost on some capitalists, who los
sight of everything except their own IL
dividual momentary gain and VIII
think that labor and the world in gel
eral have no claim upon them whateN
I er. From that class of people who's
narrow selfish lives have no broade
1 horizon than their own, or at mos
e their own class Or set. one can neve
expect sympathy nor anything br
fight. But from men with a broadt
j. conception of life and it's duties W
/. can expect help and cooperation in OF
h work Both to point to us the be-
way and to send their assistance
; further the cause Of humanity.
Is Labor Unreasonable?
!, Touching on the claim that labt
is unreasonable, who, ask, is mo
II competent to judge than labor itsel
than those who know conditions und
r which they labor and what it cos
to maintain them and those depende
/ upon them And further, labor has
right to enjoy some of the fruits Of tt
wealth ii produces as well as to lay
something for sickness and old ag
If When this is impossible man is !
9 more than serf or slave. All wou
ID ask is for some of those who conden
labor in its demands to try and Ii
~ on what some of these workers do, al
IN then to see nothing ahead but Il
IS same old rut without any chance
IS Improvement
Ia But, though the outlook is son
n, thing gloomy, | am an optimist who !
,,se lieves that the world will advance a
9 that generation hence we will wond
y that we were so foolish as to not fl
v and apply the proper remedies befol
II, AS said at the outset, our work
r cally shows healthy and stea