The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-12-21
RULE OF LABOR
not so GOOD
A CYNICAL PROPHET SAYS IT
HAS MADE A MESS.
He Complains That Personal Liberty
Is Getting Less and Less In austria
liza and New Zealand-The Minority
Now Said to Be Ruling the Major
From the Review Of Reviews.

IL S41C1C AS OllS IlllIlS aDOuI WHICH
all Australians and New Zealanders
are cocksure, 1t is that the purest type
OF democracy the human race has
ever known hourishes to-day beneatr
Australian skies. From the eminence
Of that delightful conviction we look
down with mild pity upon the rest Of
mankind who have not yet reached
our level of political beatitude. The
latest and most highly developed form
or democratic government is that UNI
DER which happy Australians and New
Aealanders live. But names and
things do not always agree. name
IN this imperfect world is sometimes
only mask which hides q fact in ut
ter quarrel with the name that COW
ers 1t.
AS matter of sober and literal fact,
personal freedom is narrowing among
us until it threatens to be non-exist-
ent. We are developing what may be
called a one-legged democracy. Demo-
cratic forms are employed to accom-
pllsh the most undemocratic results.
The outstanding, unden1able feature
OF Australian politics is that under
solemnly democratic forms the inver-
sion of all democracy is achieved. The
freedom everywhere suffers conf1sca-
| ton. The present drift has only to be
continued for another decade and the
Australian or the New Zealander will
enjoy a smaller area of personal free
! dom than any other human being out
| side of Russia.
Labor members have captured the
commonwealth parliament. They
have used it to write their ideas on
the statute book. Their dominancy has
been so absolute that, as the labor
| members look back, they must, like
Warren Hastings, be lost in wonder
| at their own moderation. Sir Ed
mund Barton, at their bidding, put a
| FOOLS cap on the head Of Australia,
in the shape Of the immortal clause
intended to paint not merely Australia
but all the seas of the planet white
carried anywhere on board a ship that
employs so much as a colored cook.
| No one can blame the labor party
| for their success. They may be even
complimented on their moderation.
| What other group Of politicians, if
they had the same opportunity, would
not use 1t in the same fashion? But
here is the plain fact, the paradox and
scandal of sane politics. that in a
house of seventy-fve members a
minority of twenty-three practically
rules. This may be democracy; but it
The few rule the many; the minority
| stamps it's will on the majority.
And Australian legislation, filtered
in this way thru labor channels, has
in every detail, and at every point,
the vice of its origin. It effects, tho
1t does not professedly aim at. the
i establishment of class rule; the rule
Of class over the nation, of an organ
| lied minority over a disorganized ma
jor1ty. 1t legislates for the few at the
| cost of the many. While talking the
language Of freedom, it abolishes free
dom. tits building up the most hate
full OF tyrannies, an oligarchy under
the disguise of democracy.
i Mr.. Siddon has promised to bring in
a bill which will compel all employers
to give preference to unionists as
against nonunionists! The majority
of registered workers, in the exercise
of their freedom, refuse to join the
unions; as punishment, they are tc
be deprived Of the chance Of employ.
ment! The majority, that is. arr
robbed by the law of their right te
disagree with the minority; and dem.
ocratic institutions are employed tt
!. accomplish so highly undemocratic s
result!
And the bitter humor Of the stu
ton lies in the revelation this incident
makes of the inner mind Of the labor
party about all workers not included
in the unions. They feel toward then
as high-class Brahmins feel toward
pariahs. They are scarcely to be re-
garded as human beings; they ma,
be Justly denied the common privileges
Of civilizations! A good unionist will
of course, refuse, if he can, to worI
with a nonunionist; he will also refus,
to eat with him, to sleep under tn
! same roof, to live in the same tow
with him. He feels toward him as
; Spanish fnquisitor felt towards her
etics; nay, in the case of fellow
! unionist who departs from the faitl
and leaves the union, he feels as tina
t same inquisitor might have felt to
ward, say, a converted Jew who ha,
J relapsed. His mood Of feeling in thi
, matter has the fervors, and sometime
: w religion. The hate of unionis
toward a free laborer outruns time
Here ts the sort Of poetry expende,
l in labor organs on the "bla,ckleg':
Oh. who would rob us Of our bread,
. Who cause our wives sad tears to shec
E And lay our children with the dead?-
The blackleg!
! Who, when the pangs Of death are nea,
t Is choked with helIs continual fear
I Without q friend to linger near
, The blackleg!
Who, when the end arrives at last
And all the shame and wrong are pas
Still finds himself in hell outcast,
In memory's blacklist posted fast?-
The blackleg
And the ''blackleg," thus cursed wit
! bell, book and candle, and pursue
: with hate into eternity itself, Is sim
ply a free man in free country, VIII
e claims the most rudimentary Of al
e liberties, the liberty Of selling his la
Dor on what terms he pleases
FEATS OF MEMORY