The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1904-02-13
JOHN MITCHELL TELLS
WHAT UN|ON|sM MEANS
MAN DOES NOT. LIVE BY BREAD
ONLY.

It is No Longer Each For Himself and
the Devil Take the "Hindmost,n
But Each For All and All For Each,
Individual Laborer Stands But Poor
Show With Big Industry.
ingman more money, more leisure.
greater safety and better condisions Of
work and life, says John Mitchell. Th<
average workingman now leaves his
work an hour or two earlier than for
merly.
There is more money in his pay en-
! velope and the mill or factory in which
he tolls is better lighted, better heated,
better safeguarded and in every way
better to work in.
All these things lie on the surface.
There are other things, however, deeper
| and more important. Man does not
live by bread alone, and the trade
| union has helped the workman spirit
ually as we'll as physically.
| 1t has taught workingmen to act to-
gether, to unite for common end, to
make joint sacrifices, to abide by the
will of the majority, to struggle
against great odds for the sake Of
an idea. 1t has taught workingmen
| that they are related to one another
and it has preached and practiced soli-
darity.
Worklngmen are now united where
they were once disunited It is no
longer leach for himself and the deyi!
take the hindmost,'' but each for all
and all for each. All the workrnen in
a shop or in an industry will sacrifice
| their position to maintain the wages
of any one of them
Ten thousand men will strike for one
man, not only because the one is de-
pendent upon the ten thousand, but
! because of the rights of one are invaded
the rights of all are invaded.
One may know all this, and still not
know all the trade union stands for.
Trade unionism is not a thing which
has sprung out of nothing and will
end in nothing. It is not a thing
which belongs only to this generation
It is a part of the evolution Of the
race.
There was a time when workingmen
had nothing to say about wages. hours
or conditions of work. They were
slaves, subjects of the lash, and they
worked when and where and how
their masters decreed. At another time
they were serfs, attached to the soil
and disposed of with the land--like an
old farm building. ,..,-. = -. /
/ \: It was only later that :theyiEWorked
M - n /,
ages Oh ho1i & even.
I then it sometimes happened that the
4 law. forbade them to ask more than so
many farthings for their days work.
! At the present time the trade union
| is necessary to the real freedom of the
workingman. During the latter part
of the eighteenth century and the be-
ginning Of the nineteenth century there
occurred one of the greatest revolu-
tions in the history of the world. It
was a silent movement. The newspa-
pers did not speach of it and the wise
men of the time did not even know
that it was happening.
The revolution changed manufacture
ing, introduced the steam engine and
turned little workshops, where the
master worked with his journeyman
| and apprentice at the same bench,
into huge factories, where one man
holds dominion over thousands of en-
| ployes.
In the older time the employer and
his journeyman were on fairly equal
terms It was case of man against
man, and master and man knew ech
! other, for the master had been a jour-
ney man and the journeyman had
hoped to become a master.
All this is now changed. The en-
ployer can no longer know all the men
| in his employ, and few, if any, of
| these men can hope or expect to be-
| come employers. Each workingn,an
is dependent on his employer for his
! job, but the employer can dispense
with any one of the thousands men in
his establishment.
If there is no union the condition of
all workingmen tends to become that
of the poorest in the establishment II
! all, they can. be SO only by joining to-
| gether in a union and by making a
contract for all.
Trade .unionisrn standsf or the right
| Of all workmen in an industry to de-
fend the interests of ALL
| Those who. oppose trade unions do
80 on the ground that they are defend
ing the freedom of contract. The free
4 dom which they defend is thae Of a
billion dollar trust. contracting with a
single Polish or Italian laborer. The
freedom for which the union stands is
that all of the employers in an indus
try contracting on equal terms with, all
| the workingmen.
The first freedom means swea ting,
poverty and the destruction or the
poor; the second freedom means in
creased wages, shorter hours, better
conditions Of work, moral elevation of
the workingman and amicable -<rela-
tions between employer and employed.
[FoRTY-TWo UNIONS