The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-09-08
IRELAND SPEAKS
 ID WORKINGMEN Archbishop Says Labor Has a Right to Form Trusts STRIKES ARE INJURIOUS In Struggles Against Capital It Is the Waee-Earner Who Suffers Most.
 Should Not Fear concen-
 traton of Capital.
STRIKES ARE INJURIOUS

St. Paul. Minn., September 7.-Raln early thls morning threatend the Labor Day celebration but by 10 o'clock the sun came out and when the thousands assembled at the Harriett island picnic better weather conditions could not have been desired.
 Archbishop Ireland was the orator of the day.
 In his address the archbishop said
 Capital is stored labor, the fruit and result of labor. It's rights must be re- spected. A country without capital Is impoverished. Labor should invite 1t into use; never frighten it away by making 1t unsafe or depriving 1t of reasonable profits. These profits are to be measured by its value to labor or by the intelligence and work stored up in 1t. On the other hand capital must respect the manhood of the wage-earner and allow him. as far as 1t can, without loss to itself, a fair wage. We should not be afraid of capital in whatever form it comes, whether in large personal accumulations or in trusts, or in syndicates. As matter of fact. without large aggregations of capital. great enterprises are not possible and the country is not developed. It Is time enough to hold the hand against trust and syndicates when they do harm. If they are known to do harm, the country will attend to them, and if they do no harm. and on the contrary, do good, they should be welcomed.
 Wage-Earner Has Rights.
 'The wage earner has rights; his right to living wage. his right to reasonable hours, his right to more than even a liv- ing wage when circumstances and success warrant It. Wage earners have a right to combine, to form trusts and syndicates and to call them labor unions. Labor guilds were common in the middle ages and did good Labor unions have given wage earners the consciousness of their rights and have done much to obtain higher wages and shorter hours. But labor un- ions must be on their guard against seri- ous evils threatening them. They cannot be tolerated if they interfere with the personal liberty of non-unioh men who have right to work in or outside of un- ions as they please. Public opinion and public law will and must protect this lib- erty It were social chaos If we were to impose our opinions on others by force. What right have labor unions to encom- pass their opinions by force?
 Socialism Abhorrent.
 "State socialism is utterly abhorrent to American institutions and ideas. The deadliest enemy of labor is that form of socialism which would close out from man God and his Christ, the church, and strike for what they believe to be justice, but practically, strikes do most harm to the strikers themselves. Men are left whole seasons without work, without pay. The public, in presence of strikes, is turn ed against tabor unions, without enter ing for the moment into an explanation of the rights and wrongs of existing strikes.
 "rhe labor question of today Is far | reaching in it's consequences Common sense, spirit of justice and patriotism alone can solve it. Let the wage-earners show to the country that they are swayed by justice and patriotism and they will win in all righteous claims"