Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-03-26

 Get More The workers want more, wages. These are the wants of yes terday; they are the wants of to-day; So you see there is to be no end to the cry. The same periodical contains numerous reports showing the gains made ill labor wages the past year to have been, in the various trades and To- calities, from 10 to 90 per cent. Where obtained fairly we are all glad Tor labor's gains, but suppose the cry should now be changed to How to Earn More,' How to Produce More would not the problem How to Get More, solve itself more quickly and with far less friction and moral de generation?
 Compulsion vs Persuasion.
 My brothers, have seen more years than most of you, but you are all oid enough to know that if you want ia vor you are more likely to get it by friendly request and persuasion than by demand with threat attached.
 The trolley strikers lost much of the sympathy of the non-union public when they began to take names of car pat rons for boycott purposes. They lost still more when their belligerent sym, pathizers began to throw stones and trample new trolley men under feet and drive from town one who had as serted his independence by quitting the union ranks. There is still much sym pathy with the trolley men. Not with their strike, but with them. The pub ,lic<at large perceiyes and understands that they are less responsible for the evil results that have followed their nasty strike than coereiye unionism at large. Superior union authority re- quired the resembling of the action they took weeks ago under the advice of the ministerial committee and so was closed the door to an early settle ment. "A generous public hopes that the most of them-the abstemious ones-may yet see the way to get back to their old employment, even if 1t necessitates their abandonment of the coercive unionism that has proved so disastrous to them and to our city.
 Evil That Good May Come.
 But" I know you unionists say: we are banded together i'll great and noble cause, the uplifting of the masses of the people and. as in all revolutions some must suffer and be sacrificed, we are willing to suffer and are Justified in making others suffer-" The end many of you aim at is noble, but there is fatal fallacy in your ad- vocacy of coercive methods. The old notion fhof 41.. means' has been long discarded among Christian people to shut down your merge my Individuality into a machine like organization, or distrust the wis dom of its management, or cannot con- scientiously cooperate in it's methods, IS 1t American or Christian for you to compel me? You may honestly think 1t for my good. but who appointed you a conservator over me? It would doubtless be great blessing to many of you if with sincerity and hearty good purpose you would enter into the membership of the Christian church. But what would be said if your good friends, the Rev Dr Davenport and the Rev Father Slocum and their respect i've congregations should seek to com pei you to join their organizations and. .1f you saw fit to refuse, they should threaten to call out all bodies of Christian people to shutd own your business, or prevent you from obtain ing employment, or should forbid you to ride on car manned by men who were church members?
 No, my brothers. If you wish labor unions to prosper, get back the old dictionary, the good old moral law, the genuine golden rule and declaration of independence and keep out of official position agitators who preach compul- sion as means of gaining that which fair argument and persuasion cam not obtain. It is Christian evolution and not belligerent revolution that is bringing on better day.
 Majority Rule.
 But" again you say, i've union ists are in majority; the non-union workers are few; the majority should rule" There you have another fal- lacy. The majority has no right to deprive, by compulsfon. minority of even one sane citizen of his personal liberty, manhood. conscience or means Of livelihood. Besides, organized la- bor is not majority. Tn the article have quoted from in the American Federationist, read: "There are in the United States something less than sixteen million wage earners. Of this number about two and one-half mill lions are organized. Our movement is yet, i'll it's youth.'
 The writer might we'll have added that the other thirteen million wage earners combined at the polls with the other many millions not so classed by him. will rise and are rising in their might to send back to infancy, to start anew or to deserved oblivion, the la Dor unions that persist in the use of l lhighwaymen's methods. And they will in the same way unite to curb or ganized capital if it uses similar meth ods or Is found to be tearing down in-
 stead of building up American indus l tries.
 My brothers, accept kindly and
 thoughtfully, pray, this honest dis
 course from one who, as he said in the
 American of February 10th has wit
 messed the growth of Waterbury from
 a village of five thousand people to it's