The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-08-03
THE pEcApENcE OF A CRAZE.

Violent diseases are apt to run their course quickly. we are told. and 1t is much the same in other affairs of life. When the Know Nothing Party sprang into existence in the early sos. 1t swept the country like an epidemic. and for a time threatened to swamp both the old parties. as 1t actually did the Whig Party. But its principles and practices were contrary to the spirit of Ameri- can institutions and its life and power were brief. The rise and fall of the Farmers Alliance is familiar to all. and 1t failed because it. also, was opposed to the love for fair play which is one of the strongest feelings in most Amer ican bosoms.
 We are even now witnessing the de- cadence of another wild attempt to de- moralize the American people and to drive out their love of fair play and their hatred of secret and underhand- methods We of course allude to the labor union propaganda which has cut such a wide swath in the country, thanks to the credulity of the work ing people and the sleek methods of bosses and agitators. Up to recent date unionism dominated the industrial world and threatened to reduce both labor and capital to a condition of peon- age. Working in the dark and only showing It's hand openly when 1t was strong enough to carry Its ends against unorganixed opposition. 1t hourishcd wonderfully.
 But this could not continue forever. The dark and underground ways of unionism, its secret plotting and schem- ing, and its open disregard of law and justice and fair play when it found it. self strong enough, could not for long continue to bind free Americans. Its brazen defiance of capital, Its open dis. regard of the rights of employers and its bombastic boasts of what 1t could | and would do could not go on for all time. Up to a very recent period con- | tractors, manufacturers and all other employers of labor were absolutely at the mercy of this self-appointed regu- | lator of American industries. but Its power is proving its own undoing for it has passed the limit of passive en- durance. .:"
 Only few days ago the business agent of the structural iron workers in Kansas City made a demand on the contractor for the building of the Savoy Hotel that the work must be unionized; ; that Is. none but union men must be employed. A year or two ago this i'm pudent demand would have had some effect, because union labor was well or ganized and was thoroughly under con- trol of its bosses, while the contractors and employers had no organization and each was dependent on his own re- sources.
 But 1t Is different now, and when the Kansas City C ntractor told the over bearing agent that he would go on with the work, and would employ such labor as he pleased 1t marked the great change which has come over the labor situation. Only a few months ago, even. such a demand would probably have been compiled with because the contractor would have been virtually at the mercy of the unions and must eith- CT yield to their unjust demands or have his work stopped by the orders of some labor leader. The fact that contractor on a large job can defy the demands or threats of a labor agitator shows the advance that has been made towards freedom for the working man.
 It is not to be denied that in the early stages of the labor movement. and even in most of the strikes. public sympathy was largely on the side of the work inx men. This was partly due to tbs