Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-09-05


" autagonizing capital at all times and
under all pretexts and of widening the
breach between capital and labor, with
the result that labor Itself is the beav-
lest sufferer through their insane fosr
lies. The most brutal tyrant the south
ern negro know in antebellum days
was not the white man. but the negro
himself who was made the overseer
of the plantation. In the same way in
many cases tie most brutal tyrant the
laboring man has today is not the CAPT
taIist. but the '.Walking Gelegate'' or
the mercenary political trickster who,
as a laboring man. manipulates the ex-
ecutive committees which govern the
labor unions for their own ruin. OF
course this Indictment is not universal
in its application. There are many
honest and upright and benefce1t
labor organizations like that of which
the late MIR Arthur was president
namely. the Brotherhood Of Locomo-
tive Engineers. Mr.. Arthur brou~ht
that organization up to such perfec-
ton that it not only looked after tie
interests Of the owners Of the different
railroads. but after the interests of
the engineers themselves. There are
many clear Drained, sagaci6us and no
Bile minded LABOR leaders whose object
is not to disOrganize the labor market.
but to steady it, so that employers as
well as the employed may have their
due Il do not believe in strikes for
the laboring man." said Terence V.
PowderIy a few months ago. ut is
true we had some when l was at the
head of the Knights of Labor, but we
settled LOO labor disputes without
strikes Indeed, | might say we pre-
vented over 1000 strikes" Yet, strange
to say, where there has been one able
and sagacious leader whose chief OBJ
ject 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 a
labOrer to do and how much they can
make an employer pay without literal
ly breaking his back. Such men are
an incubus on labor. Like the Old Man
Of the Sea, who sat on the neck of Sind
ingman's shoulders, impeding his prog
ress and involving him in endless dis
putes and trouble The sooner he ribs
himself of sach 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 COT1n of tho most TOprci10CC mon
in the world are to be found in the
ranks of capitalists. Some of them viii
squeeze out of d worker his last drop
of blood. Some of them have no more
sympathy with the hunger and power
ty Of the worker than Marie An
tOinette had with the sufferingS of poor
Paris when she heard the cry of the
mobs: "Give US bread! We must have
breadr' '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 cakeY 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 rightfully ought
| to have. When a labor union comes
and says, capitalist, you must hire
| the men | 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 [ 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 1 shall live, and
free 1 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 l would speak also in reference
to another great aff1iction from which
labor today is suffering 1 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
theirs compete with their own dauoh-
tiers. Now, know the few words tbat
1 am going to speak will not be ponu-
lar with some, but what have to saw
I hope may be heard patiently and
with profit
The world, by every law Of justice,
owes every man, woman and child a
living if they are ready to work for
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 a
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
tho folds whom fhora ct11,sdv 70