The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1904-04-29
LABOR MUST UNITE.
SOME REASONS WHY WORkINGMEN
SHOULD STAND TOGETHER.

ORGANIZATION Is the Order of the
Day In All the worlds Activities.
Cooperation Necessary For Self
Preservation.
Do we approve Of organized labor:
1t almost strikes me sometimes as
ludicrous when that question is asked.
1t does not really matter very much
whether or not we approve of it. The
situation is not such that organization
waits upon our tardy approval or our
modified and qualified and condescend-
ing appreciation.
Organization is in the air. Organiza-
ton is the order of the day. Organiza
ton is everywhere. Capital is organic
ed, they say. Why should not labor be
organized? Everything is organized.
Science is being organized. Even the
solitary thinker is solitary no longer:
the solitary scholar, the philosopher.
meets his fellow philosopher in con-
crosses, the psychologists, the histo-
Rams, the economists, the scientific in
vestigators-everyw are these huge
tive efforts, everywhere instances of
concerted action. Everywhere great
ends are undertaken not singly, but
jointly.
Is it to be wondered at that labor
should be organized? Labor simply
follows the general trend. You cannot
any more prevent it than you can pre-
vent organization anywhere else.
And. moreover, there is a special rea-
son why there should be this Organiza-
ton or association of laborers. because
SO simple that one is almost ashamed
to repeat it-that the laborer, singly and
Individually, Is at an enormous disnd-
vantage as against the employer. the
same disadvantage at which Il man is
who wishes to dispose of a house when
1t is known that he must sell on the in
slant. that he cannot wait.
A man who must sell his house, of
whom it is known that lie must dis
pose of it, is ut 4 great disadvantage
He will not get his price. the price that
is proper, because it is known that he
cannot wait.
So the laborer cannot get tie price of
his services because il is known that
he cannot wait His necessities are
pitted against the resources of the en-
ployer; his existence, always close to
the verge of want. is pitted against the
broad margin of the employer; his ig
norance of market conditions is pitted
against the experience and the outlook
of the employer.
The only weapon in his hands is the
threat of withdrawing his service, but
as the place of an individual can easily
be filed that threat Is perfectly futile.
What shall he do? To establish him
self in business is out of the question
He has not as an individual the capital
More and more large capital is requr
ed. He cannot do that.
Shall he go upon the land. as they
say? That, too, is impossible: the mere
expense of taking himself and his fam
lily to the land is prohibitive.
What shall he do? Threaten as an
individual to leave his employers serv-
ice, when there are hundred and a
thousand others ready 10 take his
place?
What shall he do? He stops to
think and finds. while the threat to
withdraw his service as an individual
is futile, that if hundred people
threaten to withdraw that is more eff
fective. because the places of Il hundred
cannot be so easily filed. and that if a
thousand threaten to withdraw that is
still more effective, and that IT, finally,
100000 withdraw. as they did in the
anthra cite coal strike that is extremely
effective. because the places of 10000
men cannot be filled-Dr. Felix Adler
in New York American.