The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1905-06-10
On the Quality OF the Law Of
Evolution
AS TOUCHING A UNIONIST
His Development from the Time He Be
gins to Take Notice Until He Be
comes a Man of Official
Experience.


The quality of the law Of evolution
is not by any means strained. It is
an all-pervading force and affects the
"throned monarch and trade unionist
with equal impartiality. Nothing could
be more instructive than watching the
evolution Of thought and feelings in an
average active trade unionist from the
| time he first gets interested till he
becomes a imam Of official experience"
Energetic and hopeful, like young birds
when they first realize the use of their
wings, the young member when first
he finds his voice in a meeting straight
way resolves to have his moneys worth
at the meetings of his craft. Full OF
zeal and of q reforming spirit, he butts
| in" on every question, determined that
| if he has no knowledge Of the subject
to begin with he will be educated before
| the matter il disposed Of. He looks
upon the officials as his natural enemies
| because having often occasion to correct
him they may do it sometimes with
more force than politeness. He thinks
| they ought to attend to their official
duties for love of the work and con-
siders the paying OF salaries smacking
of corruption. He constitutes him
self champion Of Democratic Methods"
and demands that everything be done
fair and above board The fact that
everything is already fair and above
board does not worry him bit He
likes to reiterate the phrase and it helps
him on as procIaiming an honest, fear
less man.
II he has anything in him at all and
uses that phrase long enough he il liza
Bile to get into Office some time and
then, very often, the feelings change
by almost imperceptibIe degrees. The
| first thing to make him tired. will be
the kicker who demands everything
done fair and above board when he
| 1.-THE official now1 knows he has been
fair and above board He will discover
in his negotiations with employers and,
indeed, in all official business. that he
must keep his own council until the
proper time comes for laying the mat
ter before his union and then he is
looked upon as a deep and dark conspir-
ator. Should his plans -be turned down"
by the democracy. he begins to lose
faith in the old proverb, atbe voice of
the people Is the voice Of Cod He
thinks he could do better without the
interference of the common crowd, who
he thinks cannot possibly know so much
about the matter as he who arranging
it. He may keep awake at night for
mulating plans for the betterment of
his organization and find his pet scheme
criticised severely and turned down in
a discussion that all the time reflects
suspicion on himself as having some
Interior motive in view. When the vote
il cast against him he is thoroughly hon
est in his opinion that the @crowd" don't
know what is good for them and that
a great percentage OF them did not
vote intelligently. He thinks how much
better it would have been had he been
allowed to have his own way and he
begins to despise the intellect of the
common rank and file and begins to-
question if our democratic institutions
| are, after all, what we crack them up
| to be and has visions OF government
| by experts. He himself, it will be mo-
ticed, is an expert Were anyone to
suggest to him that "they who pay
the piper have a right to call the tune, /"
or that a man always wants to run
his own house in his own way, even
though an expert might think be could
do it better, the suggestion would meet
with but cold reception from an expert
suffering from the sting Of neglect. He
| begins to realize that his efforts on
behalf of the multitude are not appre
| ciated at their real wolth. He feels
sure the rank and file don't realize the
4 amount Of effort he put into the duties
| of his office, or the money he has to
| spend in travelling about organizing
| branches and attending conventions, ETC.,
and he feels he is underpaid He sees
| the same union voting down proposals |
| to raise his wages and he compares
| his salary with that of other men in
| the same position and wakes indignant |
at the niggardliness of trade unionists |
| in general and questions himself il they |
are worth fighting for after all, and |
decides they are not; even though they |
| may have kept him in q good, comfort |
able situation for many years, with |
much better wages than they were get |
ting for hard work themselves. Then |
when he il kicked out of office for being |
ean old FOSSIL and trying to run the |
whole show" he turns to a full Pledged /
misanthrope and lives miserable ever
afterwards.
The morall Why the moral should
be on the surface, but in any case,
mankind is mankind and any man who |
thinks himself above it will find his
level, even though he don't know it |
when be finds it.
But bless my heart, here have been
dreaming away about abstract things
and have forgot altogether to give the
trade union news Of the week but be- |
tween you and me there is not much
to give The Chicago strike il not yet
settled, even though several experts