Amador ledger., 1904-01-15
THE CITIZENS ALLIANCE.


When the labor union agitation
was started in this county about a
year ago, the Ledger at that time,
while conceding to the fullest extent
the right of the employees to organize
along the proposed lines if they SO
desired, pointed out the unwisdom
of such action. For thirty years
Amador had enjoyed uninterrupted
peace and prosperity in the conduct
OF its staple industry-gold mining.
Why pursue course that was likely
to disturb the harmonious feeling
that had prevailed for a generation
Organization on one side, under the
peaceful conditions then prevailing,
was bound to breed distrust-the
very thing that should be avoided
in all industrial affairs. This sus-
picion would tend either to con-
tract mining enterprises, or lead to
a counter organization of employers
as measure of self-protection. 1t
may be by a slow and gradual process
that the average business man is
brought to present a bold front in
such movement This is natural.
He has much at stake, and capital
is always conservatively disposed,
shrinking from any policy which
might even temporarily affect its
interests. This is well recognized
in labor circles, and its potency in
the settlement of disputes between
employees and employers is fully ap-
preciated. But when this forbear-
ance is pressed to the breaking point,
and the business interests, from ne
cessity rather than choice, are i'm
PEELED to make a firm stand, there
can be no doubt as to the outcome
of struggle-not for supremacy
perhaps, but for fair need of in
depence and untramelled enjoyment
of constitutional rights = between
these two great factors of human
progress.
A significant movement in this di-
rection is the organization of the
citizens alliance, an organization
for the express purpose of curbing
the tendency of labor unions to re-
sort to strikes, boycotts, intimida-
tion and coercion of every form to
gain their ends. In Colorado-the
most strike-ridden state in the
Union-this alliance has developed
phenominal strength to meet the ex-
isting conditions there. It now
numbers in its ranks over thirty
thousand members, and the recent
drift of events in that state indicate
that the reign of terror in the shape
of strikes and boycotts with their
accompaniment of violence, has run
its course. In San Francisco the
alliance is making rapid headway,
and although just launched, is even
now force that labor unions have
to reckon with ere embarking in a
strike.
Branch organizations are being
formed throughout the state, and
we understand a proposition is being
agitated to form a branch in Amador
county. All persons who are not
members of any labor union are
eligible to membership. 1t takes in
both employers and employees, the
merchant and the farmers, the mine
owner and the underground toiler-
IN fact, everyone opposed to the
high-handed tactics frequently re-
sorted to by labor organizations in
the effort to enforce their demands.
The membership fee is only 81 per
year. The salutary influence of such
an alliance in restoring and preser-
wing healthy tone to the mining
industry of the mother lode region
cannot be overestimated. The pow.
er of numbers, the strength of or
ganization, the threats of coercion
on the one side are faced by similar
conditions on the other. The move.
ment should be welcomed by all ele-
ments as an all-important step in
the direction of industrial peace and
prosperity.