The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1903-05-17
SUNDAY, NAL II, 1908.
SOME PARALLELS IN HISTORY.

commission this declaration OF rishls "as
made:
.rrhe right to remain at work where
others have ceased to work, or 10 en-
gage anew In work which others have
abandoned, is part of the personal liberty
3 OF citizen that can neve: be sur. .t
cd. and every infringement 'thereol
merits. and should receive the stern oe'
nouncement Of the law
There is nothing new in this principle
+ 1t was declared more than hundred
years ago by Louis XVI, who received II
from the lips OF Turgot his Comptroller
General of FINANCE. Cod when he made
man with wants" said he. and render
ed labor an indispensable resource, made
the right Of work the property OF every
Individual in the world and this properly
IS the first, the most sacred. and the
most imprescrlptible OF all kinds OF prop
erty He regarded 1t as one OF our hrs'
duties, an act worthy of all loenevolence
PSI IA free our subjects from every lnfraction
OF that inallenable right OF humanity.
It was right and proper and necessary
Il in those days that such principles shoulu
4 ybe declared and maintained and enforced
& for 1t was the day in France of tyranny
an tho commercial world, tyranny OF th'
labor guilds and tyranny OF corporations
"In nearly every town In France,
saws the historian, 1.-THE work in the dit.
fercnt trades and arts was conducted ny
Il n few master workmen. Incorporated mic
guilds and who monopolized the produc.
ton and sale Of the articles belonging &c
as. t,,dnrtrv M citizen could
exercise n trade or calling without nav
ing obtained the consent of these corpo-
Erations. citizens were deprived, not only
OF the free choice OF dsposing Of thel
siown labor, but of utilizing the labor OF
others The guild was master. saying
who should work. what should be made
how much Produced and the price to be
paid. It often happened that a simple
piece OF work had to go through the
hands of artisans of several different
corporations, each of which levied Its
tribute upon the customer. Thus there
was a tyranny In the labor world as
there was oppression in the realm Of
s cupltal-and organized labor was quite
as cruel In shutting out the individual
sdeallng with It's competitor. A few
laborers In the cities enjoyed the adj
yantages OF good work at high wages;
while the mass Of the wage earners VIII
ing to work, able to work, and demanded
by the work, were shut off from the priv
ileges.''
Is not, that strikingly like the situa-
tlon In the United States to-day? The
{ labor situation In New York has come
TO such pass that the employers have
been compelled to organize in order to
protect themselves from the demands Of
the labor unions. Some of these demands
are contained in the following extract
from the news columns of the Herald:
"stonecutters want all their helpers and
the drivers who carry their material to be
union men.
painters insist that all the employees
4 OF shops from which their materials are
supplied must be union men.
architectural iron workers want all
shops to employ union men, and they
and the structural iron workers say they
Will handle no material not delivered by
union teamsters.
"hlasons demand that tho brick and
mortar supplied to them shall be made
by union men,
"Bricklayers want the privilege Of hav'
ing their foreman named by the union.
carpenters are fighting among them
selves. each of the two rival union,
striving to crush out the other.
plumbers and gasftters are at war
the former saying that work which the.
should do Is done by the other.
''Plasterers desire that all plaster ant
hnorta used nv them shall be made n
union men,
The situation in New York Is not unlik
the situation in some other cities of tn
land. In many instances the labor union
demand that none but members OF thei
organization be employed, and whe
others are employed they refuse to wor
with them, On two occasions recent,
according to reports which we have see
In the newspapers, hackmen In funer'
procession struck while the processo
was on its way to the cemetery and r.
fused 10 drive farther because one of Il
drivers was non-union man,
But this Is not all The oppression
by no means all on the side of the labt
union. Corporations too often show Il
oa''io ''SPN"'''N" w ~ H''' WV ~ N'A"p
tition. TO force their patrons to deal vii
them exclusively. and sometimes the
Is a disposition TO take laboreys by Il
throat,
Recently Mr. Joseph Ramsay. Jr,, pres
dent of the Wabash Railway Compan
contributed an article to the New Yo
Commercially on the labor situation,
which ne said that II the railroad "
held under legal construction to certa
performances IN the public interest
lieu of It's charter as q common earr
the employe OF the railroad ought to
50. aar,.i,, par formanccs In lien