Milford chronicle., 1904-09-09

iect seemed to have been to make
every man do his honest quota Of work
and get his just pay there have been
many whose chief object has been to
find out how little they can permit
laborer to do and how much they can
make an employer pay without literal
" breaking his back. Such men are
an incubus on labor. Like the Old Man
of the Sea, who sat on the neck of Sind
bad. they sit heavily upon the work
ingman's shoulders, impeding his prog
ress and involving him in endless dis
putes and trouble. The sooner he rids
himself of such incumbrance the better.
Like Marie AntOinette.
Now. my laboring friends, mark you
this. | am not claiming that capital is
all right and labor is all wrong. l
think some Of the most merciless men
in the world are to be found in the
ranks Of capitalists. Some Of then VII
squeeze out of q worker his last drop
of blood. Some Of them have no more
sympathy with the hunger and power
tv of the worker than Marie An
toinette had with the sufferings of poor
Paris when she heard the cry of the
mobs: Give us breadi We must have
breadw why" said the shallow
Drained French queen TO one of her
attendants. do they ask for bread?
If they have no bread, why don't they
eat cake?" But. while capital IN, some
instances may be merciless, it is quite
certain that if the labor unions will
stop their petty chickering's and their
unjustifiable tyrannies and unitedly de
mand what is right capital will be COM
PEELED to yield to all Of labOr's just de-
mands. So long as labor persists in
making absurd claims just so long
will labor not only be refused such de-
mands. but labor will lose much Of
what she justly and rightfuily ought
TO have. When a labor union comes
and says, Capitalist, you must hire
the men I send to you and no Others" "
then the capitalist. stung by such tyr
amy. replies: Rather than have you
dictate to me what l shall do l will
fight your organization to the last dol
lar. My fOrefathers died on Bunker
Hill and at Valley Forge for liberty.
Free l was born, free l shall live, and
free l shall die" 1t is flint against
steel and is the inevitable result Of
such a course of action. This is the
spirit with which capital is today fight
ing labor when labor makes absurd and
unjust demands.
But would speak also in reference
to another great afiliction from which
labor today is suffering. l allude not
to the competition of American labor
with the foreign hOrdes, but to that
unnatural and ever increasing COM
petition between our American boys
and their American sisters in the la
Dor market Brothers struggle for
bread in competition with sisters; ia
thers compete with their own daugh-
tiers. Now, know the few words that
am going to speak will not be pOpu-
lar with some, but what l have to say
1 hope may be heard patiently and
with profit.
Tie world, by every law of justice
owes every man, woman and child q
living. if they are ready to work foI
it. But God never intended some peO-
pie to work for a living in certain
ways any more than he intended colt
six months old to do the work of q
well developed draft horse. He never
intended young boys and girls to leave
school before their time, or wives and
daughters to labor as farm hands in
the fields, when there are sturdy IA
theirs and brothers physically able tC
bear the brunt of the work under the
noontide sun. Yet everywhere we SET
strong men, ablebOdied men who wan
to work and yet who are unable tC
find employment because the work that
they should do is being done by womer
who ought to be at home caring fol
the household. This condition is a men
ace not only to the American Labor
market, but to the American home anC
| family. Both must suffer by the sub
stitution of women and girls for meI
and boys in the factories and stores Of
our land. The natural place for wo
man is the home. 1t is there that th'
qualities with which God has endowed
her find their proper exercise. II
be the wife and mother, to make thu
house a home by her sweet and rein
ing influence, to train the children t.
be good and wise men and virtuoui
women by a mothers love and care
these are the services she alone car