The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-09-16
PUSH AND ENERGY HAS
RAISED UNION LABOR
Power Of Organized Labor Brought
by Consistency and Eternal
Vigilance.
If Its Influence Could Be Wiped
Out Life Would Be Worse than
1utolerable.

"A - cut ANNJOAIty " lllc p0OQlc hive
perhaps never stopped to figure out the,
reason or cause of the present standard
OF conditions and wages among the
working people. These conditions and
wages are not yet what they should be,
but they are improving gradually, and
the fact Is important enough to de-
serve the earnest consideration of
every one, be he wage Garner or not.
Inc improvement is not coming of its
own accord. The conditions under
which the workingman earns his living
Will not advance to a. higher plane
without some propelling force. There
must be some good and substantial
power behind a. movement which Is
continually ascending to a point high
enough to be satisfactory to those so
vitality interested.
Most any sort of a movement will
go backward if left to take care OF it.
self. but it is a show of push and en-
ergy when a movement is on the up
ward trend.
Ihere Is no more powerful or po-
tent agency in the advancement of the
labor movement than organized labor
If the influence of organized labor
could be wiped out with one blow, how
long would it require for conditions
and wages to recede to a state that
would be absolutely intolerable to the
working classes? 1t would reach this
state Immediately, for there would then
be no impeachment to the greedy ambi-
ton Of the capitalist who would glory
in the opportunity to treat with his en-
ployes individually and thus force con-
ditions and wages down to a state of
long hours and the lowest possible
pay.
Even under the strong and ever-alert
influence of organized labor in de
manding nothing more than human
rights, the conditions are still below
what they should be- Experience has
taught the working people that very
few employers voluntarily improve the
conditions for their employees; there
fore, it has ben a matter of pure and
simple self-defense that labor has or
gantzed. Labor had to organize in
order to protect its own welfare, or
else supinely submit to the encroach-
ment of those who would fatten their
bank accounts at the expense of the
good health and even the morals of the
working people.
To be candid, the working people
have been compelled to adopt the sys-
tenn Of organization, and hold it as a
club over the head of the tyrannical
employer in order that decent and
wholesome conditions might be forced
If they cannot otherwise be secured.
Organized labor seeks to force condi-
tions up: without the collective efforts
of the laborers, nine tenths: Of the en-.
ployers would force conditions down to,
a basis of AFFECT slavery and serfdom.
The working people, acting together
IN a given purpose, can, and do. WELD
a powerful and fetching influence; act
ing separately and each one for him..
self, they have been, are now, and al
ways will be, absolutely helpless in
striving for their own advancement;
but on the contrary. help to increase
the too-strong power of the deYilish
clique Of the employers, who at the
expense of those who are compelled to
work for a living, do not hesitate to
crush the strength Of organized labor,
and to prevent the unorganized from
becoming allied with others of their
class. >":;
Organized labor, in it's organized ca
pacfty is in position to demand
fairer wages and shorter work days.
The employers of labor grant to the
unorganized workers the same de-
mands made by the organized in order
to keep them out of the unions, 80 they
jrl{
is where organized labor is a positive
benefit to the non-unionist as we'll as
the union1sti Under the upbuilding
influence of organized labor, both UNI
ionist and nom unionist, are advancing
to still better conditions; remove the
in * uence of organized labor and the
conditions of the working people, both
union and non-union, would revert to
such depths of degradation as would
paralyze even the highly imaginative
fancyings Of the hellish dreamer and
seek after such conditions.
The helpful and wholesome influence
Of organized labor cannot be discount
ed and waited aside by simple presto
change" method. 1t still has q. large
work to do in forwarding the interests
OF the COlleTS- LOf daily DTeaQ, ana tDlS
purpose can be UNNECESSARILY promoted
by teaching the non unionists the doubt
fulness of their position as such. and
impressing upon them the benefit and
security to be found within the ranks
of organized labor. They must be
shown that collective bargaining in
respect to hours and wages is just as
fair and far more effective in the end
than individual effort along this line
They must be shown that the union
man can enter an emphatic protest,
and be in a position to force satisfac-
tory results, against intolerable condi-
tions OF hours and wages, while the
non unlonist will have to accept what
the boss wishes to shoulder upon him,
or else make. room for some other
slave whose backbone and manhood is
as weak as his own.
There are \ great many opponents
Of organized labor who are such for
the simple reason that they have never
studied the great ana expanding bless
ings to he found in the movement.