The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-10-29

@ III Mr.. GOmper., for instance, o
8 American Federation of Labor to 8
9 support the Republican rarty the o
@ effect would be to drive votes O
from ROOsevelt. @
.@G@@@@@~@@@@@~@e@w@@@@@@@
THE labor vote, az transferable.
quantity III a national election, is a
myth declares an anonymous writer
In Gunton's Magazine (Washington)
In careful review of the matter.
David B. Hill went after this vote in
1902. he recalls, with his platform plank
in favor of government ownership of
the coal-mines, and "the result showed
that his judgment was as bad as his
motive" for lit is doubtful if this
socialism added fifty votes to the
Democratic candidate. and it is quite
number" Tom L. Johnson went after
1t in Ohio last year with "socialistic
speakers and single tax advocates and
labor leaders," and he not only lost the
state, but he "did not carry his own
county, his own city of which he was
mayor, his own district, or even his
OWL precinct" President Roosevelt
was accused OF going after the labor
vote in his coalstrike intervention, but
his refusal to sustain the union in
the Miller case and his failure to pro-
mise aid to the Colorado representa-
tives will probably undo anything that
his coal strike commission did, so far
as the labor vote is concerned Mr..
Rrvqn N 1908 tho
tions of using undue influence to make
their employees vote the Republican
ticket, but we are informed that un-
due influence was just what the cor
porations tried hardest to avoid. for
fear 1t would drive their men into the
opposition camp. The labor vote" is
so suspicious of any effort to "deliver'
1t that such attempts usually have a
boomerang effect. IF Mr.. Gompers,
fortinstance, should try, to, influence
5the.sAm 4AEmr rican=z Fed era Il On for
driYe voters
9Mr.:5G Gompers would also. probably lose
his own job. =Laborers everywhere
would denounce him as tool of cap
ital." We are told further.
This notion that the labor vote
can be transferred, like an old hat,
from candidate to candidate or from
party to party by dickering with lead
ers is as false as it is dishonorable 1t
is as reliable and stable as is the vote
OF any class in the country. It is GUS
| tomary, just before election; for labor
leaders to put themselves forward as
controlling the labor vote, and to be
ready to bargain for it's delivery; but
they are never able to deliver the
goods There is no vote in the coun-
try that is less deliverable, and who
ever tries to bargain for or to deliver
it is either fool or a rogue.
ut is not because workingmen are
wiser or more far-sighted or more
honorable thah others. They are, on
the contrary. often subject to suspi-
cions. On most economic and politi-
cal questions they suspect everybody,
and most of all their own leaders, of
! acting from selfish motives, and the
| very first evidence of a labor leaders
! favortng a political party or special
candidate creates the suspicion that he
has sold out This suspicious feel
! ing is the most disrupting element in
the ranks of organized labor. Moth
ing will bring disorder to a labor
| meeting SO quickly as the introduction
of politics.; so that it has become es-
sential to labor organizations that DO
| litical discussion be excluded. The
walking delegate may swindle the
laborers, he may get them into all
| sorts of trouble through blackmail and
dishonesty, he may easily array them
against their employer on a Swhim;
but if he should attempt to control
their politics it would Immediately be
his undoing. The. same is true as to
religion. Politics and religion are
both tabooed. Laborers are Repub-
| licans or Democrats, Socialists or Pop
ulists, by reason Of personal or class
prejudice or preference, but seldom by
reason Of labor-union influence. This
is fully illustrated whenever a labor
man is nominated on an independent
ticket. If the labor. vote could be
easily corraled by. labor leaders, the
labor candidate could in: any manu-:
featuring or Industrial center, best a
candidate, of either of the parties and
could often best a. candidate that had
; the indorsementzo OF all the other par
ties Yet the candidate OF: a. labor par:
ty seldom commands more: than a
handful of votes. The reason Of this
is, partly, that sworllingmen have little
faith in labor politicians; and, partly
1 again, that, like all $ other citizens
they have their party preferences and
prejudices.'s. == * |"s s:= s@ VI. y I
! How, then, is the labor vote to be
! caught 4: BY the same methods that
/ win the other ballots. To quote again
THE way ITO get the labor vote .is
to- promote sound party policy and in.
i ldustrial prosperity & and act with fair:
ness toward general >ind ustrial move:
|-nnenta at All the time Laborers ar
not influenced at All ~ special policy
tThey are Inf fluenced solely, by wha,
i laffectsa their own econosnic interests