The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1904-10-21
WHAT UNIONIsM HAS DONE.

WHAT UNIONISM HAS DONE.
Before labor unions became strong
the hours Of labor were long-from
twelve to fourteen hours a day. There
were no sanitary laws regulating fac
tory conditions. There were no child
labor laws. and thousands of children
under seven years of age were work
ing in mills and mines. The pluck
me stores robbed the laborer on the
one side, ard greedy employers robbed
them on the other side. The laborer
crawled from his cherries bed in the
morning and went to work, and at the
close OF day threw himself upon his
cherries couch to sleep the sleep of
the physically exhausted and the men
tally hopeless.
Before the advent OF labor unions
the only labor laws on the books were
those directed against labor and in
the interest of employers. Men were
jailed for refusing to work for a pit
lance Men were jailed for even ask
ing an increase of wages. A tailor
was jailed for refusing to work at his
trade and accepting work as laborer
because he could make penny a day
more wages. A mechanic who quit his
job at one place and started across
country to seek better wages was jailed
as a vagrant and sent back to his for
mer employer to work at whatever
wage that employer saw fit to pay.
Then labor organized in self-protec-
ton. Public sentiment was educated.
The cry of helpless and hopeless chill
dren was heard and needed. The rights
of humanity were given some atten-
ton. The hours of labor were reduced.
Wages were increased. Sanitary bet
terments were secured. Safety appli-
ances were demanded by law. Child
labor was regulated, reduced and for
hidden in moral communities. Sweat
shops were driven out Equal pay for
equal work was secured
And every one of these things was
secured by the efforts of labor despite
the opposition of employers. There is
not law upon the statute books de-
handing safety appliances that was
not put there by organized capital Ev-
cry law forbidding or regulating child
labor was secured by organized labor
in the face of organized capitals op-
position. Every sanitary law relating
TO mills and mines and factories was
brought about by organized labors eff
forts and despite the opposition of or
ganized capital. Capitalistic greed
kept the child in the mill and the mine
Organized labor took the child from
mill and mine and put him in the
school to be fitted for good citizenship.
Organized capital whipped the laborer
from bed to work, and from work to
bed. Organized labor rent the clouds
of despair and let the sunshine Of hope
beam upon the laborer's head. Organ
lied greed operated the noisome and
deadly sweatshop and waxed fat on the
phans Organized labor exposed the
sweatshop's methods and secured the
enactment of sanitary laws that are
driving the sweatshop out of existence
Organized labor has not only had to
--dcate public sentiment. but has had
to overcome the brides of organized
greed. Organized labor has founded
homes for disabled and INDECENT crafts
men, while organized greed has trav-
eled in private cars and sailed the
ocean in private yachts. Organized Ia
Dor has fed the hungry, clothed the
naked and visited the sick, while or
ganized greed has sat in cushioned
pews and lifted its voice in thankful
prayer that it is not as other men a.e.
Organized labor has buried it's dead
in holy ground, while greed has con-
signed it's millions Of victims to pau
per graves.
Organized labor has made mistakes,
but those mistakes are only as the
cloud which Elijah's watcher saw COM
pared to the tornado of ruin and desc
lation let loose by greed
Organized labor is the only bulwark
that stands between the wage-earner
and industrial serfdoIn worse than