The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-02-14

COMMENT ON CURRENT EVENTS: !.
LOCAL, STATE AND NATION.

Observation-Disclosures
President Gompers Of the A. T. of
l.. discusses the attitude of two promi-
nent d1v1nes and public teachers
towards the organizations of labor in
the current number Of the Federation
ISL IN a most able manner.
Dr. Lyman Abbott, who once occu-
pied the pulpit, now filed by DR.. Hill
u.s. in Lecture recently delivered at
the Chicago Commons { a, social set
iement) on "The Duties of~Man," de-
ciared that since an injuryto one is an
injury to all, it is the duty of every
wage workman to join union: and
he went on to say:
IT | were a laboring man I would
not be without union card. The more
he IS to do for Himself. tn the more more i1,e inn
Deratlvely It is his duty to Join labor
Hnlqn ~ ba,a and j. help those who are s.ah'c
battle Of capta aeaimst IL maSt labor bot es es
tne classes against classes. but a COM
b5shdesnt b55nation tof all forces for the accom-
Manifestly DR., Abbott has no fear
that individual worth or dignity will
be destroyed by cooperation and the
organizations Of unions among wage
workers!
Compare DR.. Abbott's views with the
assertions of his successor in the
Plymouth Church pulpit. DIR. Hills
speech fills four or five columns in a
daily newspaper; he never suffers from
lack of words, and we connot under
take either to condense it or to give
liberal quotations A few character
istic specimens will suffice, however,
to indicate the emptiness or shallow
ness of the whole sensational perfor-
nance.
D. Hills argues that unions are det-
rimental and reactionary. Thus he
says
The trade unions level men down:
they run moving machine along and
Ter men. and reduce them to the level
of the worst laborer. The, free school
men up. They lift the lowest to the
side of the best. Does the trades union
help eas4 each ad, and Svery r Workman to make
the limit drarf and depress him? If
SO. it is doomed. in so far as it iriiures
has, the individual and represses his great
There would be much, very much,
not said in the same breath that trade
unions do. level men down." and de-
liberately seek to cripple and handi-
cap and restrain the superior and
more capable in order to reduce them
to the plane of the least competent-
and intelligent. 49,. =. .::,5,= *:,,s55, :,
AS it fs, the ifs have no saNlngS
fs
stood as assuring his pll1toeratic
friends that the union IS doomed.
Those who cherish the delusion make
Il great, fatal mistake. The unions will
not disappear
But where does DR.. Hills obtain his
information about labor principles and
union policies? He has taken no
trouble to get the acts Of the case,
and has repeated the false, thrice-re-
peated mis-statements Of the ignor-
ant and malicious enemies Of union
ism.
There is no foundation for all this
talk about the leveling down tenden-
ces of the unions.
A minimum wage is insisted upon
for the American standard of living de-
mands it, Even the plutocratic scribes
glory to the efficiency of American
labor; but they will not see that this
efficiency can not be maintained OH
starvation wages. Between a living,
minimum wage and a uniform wage
is all the difference in the world.
What other evidence does DR.. Hills
offer in support of his Indictment?
III what way do unions degrade and
hamper the Individual? There are no
specifications in the address.
We assert as against these wage
generalities that trade unions ex-
alt the Individual, give se1,se Of dig
nifty, independence and power.
1t is proper to add, however, that the
excellence of the individual is not the
secret Of social progress. Civilization
is but another name for cooperation,
1nutualism, common effort. Individ-
uals in isolation however, 'excellent''
they may be-, are impotent.
To accomplish anything. at all men
must combine and act together.
DR.. Hills own church is an instance
of combination. He doubtless belongs
to several clubs, yet it does not occur
to him that his individual excellence
is imperilled by such membership.
We must all carry our several bur-
dens, but concerted. action lightens
these burdens for all.
There is no moral or economic prin-