The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-02-20
HEARST SAYS UNIONS
DISTRIBUTE WEALTH
PRE- ESjDENTlAL CANDIDATE DE.
FINES UNION AND TRUST.
Price Of Labor Has not Increased in
Proportion to the Cost Of Living,
Says Mr. Hearst. Trusts Stand on
Each side Of the Workingman. Pay
Him Scanty Wages, and Charge
Him High Prices for Necessities Of
Iife

him Scanty wages, and Charge
Him High Prices for Necessities Of
Life.
Chicago, ILL.,, Feb. 18.-The Chicago
Tribune last week printed lengthy
interview with W. r. Hearst, in which
he gave his views on many national
issues.
In regard to the labor unions, with
whose interests his name has often
been linked, Mr.. Hearst said:
The distribution of wealth is just
as important as it's creation. Pros
perity does not mean excessive wealth
for few combined with poverty of
the masses This is the sort of PROS
perity that exists in China and in
India, where rich Mandarins and Ra-
jahs lord it over starving populations.
THE labor union, in enforcing a high
scale Of wages, brings about the dis
tribution of wealth throughout the en-
tire community.
'The prosperity of the merchant de-
pends upon the purchasing power Of
the mass of the people. Upon that
purchasing power depends also the
manufacturer, the farmer the book
publisher, the theatre owner and actor
all of those that have products or
effects to sell.
"Poverty-striken people do not eat
beef or mutton; they do not buy
woollen clothes in profasion. They
have not enough for life's real neces-
stiles, nothing at all for the books, the
travel, the pleasures that should ac-
company genuine, national prosperity.
wide and equitable distribution Of
wealth is essential to nations PROS
pereous growth and intellectual devel-
opment, and that distribution is brought
about by the labor union more than
by any other agency Of our civiliza-
ton.
1.-The labor union, with it's good prices
for good work, enables the father to
keep his children In school instead Of
sending them to the factory. Thus it
adds to the intelligence and health Of
the future generation, besides increas-
ing prosperity in the present.
And the dignity that comes of the
union mans independence is in har-
mony with our American ideas of life
and government. The industrial un-
rest of recent times has not been due
to extraordinate' demands by labor
the scapegoat Of many an incompetent
and many a. get-rich-quick schemer
The workn1an's increased pay has come
show that the cost vof life 8 necessities;
has: Increased sixteen: to thirty per
cent. The price of labor has not in
creased in proportion to that.
InereaeAA coe+ nf I ;xsnr n,,> 81 -...A>
"The trusts are chiefly responsible
for this increase in the cost of living.
An important and able business man
of New England said to me the other
day that it is becoming almost i'm
possible for legitimate business to sue
ceed, owing to the demands of the
trusts on, the one hand and of labor on
the other.
II replied what I believe to be OBJ
viously true, that he was paying trib-
ute to the trusts in both cases. One
tribute he pays directly to the trusts
through the increased cost Of trust
products. The other he pays to the
same trust Indirectly through he in
termediary of the workingman. who
simply hands over his increased pay to
the trusts in payment of the increased
cost Of food and other necessaries.
1T is, Of course, true that the de-
mands of trades unions are not always
just or wise. The unions are made up
of human beings, with ordinary human
weaknesses. But the unions at least
ask pay for labor which they actually
perform for services actually rendered,
They do not demand extoAtionate
prices for the products of others. And
yet the unions are subjected to more
harsh criticism than the trusts. For
instance, in my business, the producing
Of newspapers, there came simultan-
eously two demands.
The trust demanded an increase
price for paper, and one Of the unions
demanded all increase price for labor.
"A number of my brother newspaper
owners gathered in my office and sug-
gested a union of newspapers to prev
ent an increase in the wages of the
workers. I asked them why it would
not be better to combine to prevent
the trust from getting its arbitrary
increase in the price of paper But
could not interest them in that They
seemed to think it all right for a great
trust to ask for more money, arbitrar-
lily, but all wrong for men that work
to ask for more money to meet the
constantly increasing cost of living"
COOPERS QUIT AT LOW WAGES
Chicago, Feb. 1S.-Union coopers are
on strike against all the shops control
led by the Manufacturers Association
because demands for increased wages
were refused. Increases Of 10 per cent.
for all day work, with decrease In
hours from nine to eight, were asked.
The union and the employers held a
big meeting Sunday and the union
sent an ultima tim dana xadix.