Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-03-25
LABOR SHOULD ORGANIZE.
Views of Head Of New York Society
For Ethical Culture.

WE'VE Oh Heou Oh NEW OrA 6VcsCS1
For Ethical Culture.
In recent address upon the labor
question Dr. Felix Adler, head of the
New York branch Of the Society For
Ethical Culture, said:
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 we approve Of it. The situa-
ton 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 organ
ized, they say Why should not Ia
Dor be organized? Everything is Or
ganized.
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-
rians, the economists, the scientific in
vestigators everywhere are these
huge congregations Of effort, these CO.
operative efforts everywhere in
stances of concerted action. Every
where 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 can
not any more prevent it than you can
prevent organization anywhere else.
And. moreover, there is a special rea-
son why there should be this or@aniza-
tion or association Of laborers. because,
as every one knows, the argument is
so simple that one is almost ashamed
to repeat it-that the laborer. singly
and individually, is ut an enormous
Disadvantage as against the employer,
the same disadvantage at which man
is who wishes to dispose OF house
when it is known that he must sell on
the instant. that he cannot wait.
A man who must sell his house. of
whom it is known that he mast dispose
Of 1t, is at a great disadvantage. He
will not get his price. the price that is
proper, because it is known that he can
not wait.
So the laborer cannot get the price Of
his services because it 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 filled, 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 requir-
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
family to the land is prohibitive.
What shall he do? Threaten as an in
dividual to leave his employers service
when there are I; hundred and 4 thou
sand others ready to take his place?
What shall he do: He stops to think
and finds that While the threat to With
draw his service as an individual is
futile, if Il hundred people threat
en- to withdraw, that is more effective.
because the places of hundred cannot
be SO easily filled, and that if thou
sand threaten to withdraw that is still
more effective, and that if finally 15O,-
600 withdraw, as they did in the an
thracite coal strike, that is extremely
effective, because the places of 100000