Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1904-03-11

and the labor people throttle labor, and between
the two, honest p&ople might starve to death,
when, with due effort, there is abundance for
all. Blind and fools! We are creatures of
selfshness and fine fanciers We have think.
ing faculties without thought, and impulses
| that are born of "will-o'-t '-the-wisps." We are
so sure that plundering our fellows is the right
thing that we take seats on the foot-stool of the
Rockefellers and ape the high priest Of the gods
of Mooch and Mammon.
Not only is the policy of the San Francisco
laborers short.sighted, but it is just as selfish
as the policy of the Rockefellers, who forced
all weak competitors out of the oil business.
! In the interest of the Rockefelers, the union
labor men of San Francisco, through different
methods, have accomplished for few laboring
men what Rockefeller accomplished for himself
| and few associates Rockefeller cares nothing
for the good of anybody but himself San
Francisco laborers care for only those who can
squeeze into their organizaton The princi-
! pies are the same. Rockefeller bankrupted his
competitors in tine oil business. San Francisco
union-laborism intensified the poverty of the
laborers who, for want of the initiation fee, or
because of conscientious scrupes, could not en-
ter the fold of the self.constituted elect
| Union labor people claim that they are not
! paid as much as they earn. That is true.
Union labor people claim that they want an
increase of pay so that they may have homes,
wife, children and the comforts and benefits of
civilization. No American citizen can indulge
| in more laudabe desire. l am with union
labor in what it claims is its object, but am
against its methods. l am against all sharks
that eat the pike, and the pike that eats the
| ininnows; and pike is no better than shark.
| Se6shness has no ethics, no heart, no relig-
ion, and, therefore, it is always the antagonist
| of the noblest and best that is in the human
race. Selhshness is no better in labor organ.
iza,on than i'll a Rockefeller organization.
| repeat here what have asserted in times
past Labor can only win through the protec-
ton of government in maintaining just claims.
AS things now stand, the capitalist holds all of
the winning cards. Congress can pass the
laws; courts can decree their constitutionality,
and the executive can enforce at the point of
| the bayonet. There is no limit to the length
government may 60 with government under the
domination of capital. day, capital stands
in its assumption as kings stood in the sixteenth
century Kings held that they had the divine
right to unlimited control over the bodies,
minds, souls and property of subjects. The
actions of capitalists prove the charge here
make. Every move of government is in that
direction. Complete subjugation is delayed
only because the politician is afraid of the labor
vote--afraid of the only weapon labor can ef-
fectually use. With the government against
labor, labor is mpotently weak. A strike won
is a nail in labor's coffin, because OF the cost,
and because strike won gives no assurance
that the battle may not have to be renewed
next day or next week.
Labor can be starved into submission or the
grave. Labor can be forced into submission at
the muzzies Of gatling guns. A labor move-
ment must be in the interest of all laborers to
give permanent security. 1t must be along the
lines of steady employment at remunerative
wages. TO be free labor must be emancipated
from the tyanny OF greed or the caprice of
labor leaders.
sometimes think that labor leaders and the
capitalists working in concert. The strikes,
called, last long enough to just about take up
all the reserve funds of stored capital of the
laborers, but scarcely touch the capitalist. IT
the capitalist loses in the present, he has
future, and is sure 10 make his losses good in
higher charges to his customers. The aborer
[Concluded on editorial pagel