The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-09-09
We find the safety valve Of industrial
opportunity closed by two forces.

We find the safety valve Of industrial
opportunity closed by two forces.
First, the cheap arabic land in the
temperate zone ID practically all either
preempted by use or speculation. The
chances are gone that our fathers, pos
seased when, conditions Of employment
became irkSome, or not. tremunerative
There was no occasion for them to
work for another for less than they
could make working for themselves. II
they desired to farm, they could. If
they had skill, they could establish a
mechanical industry and the surround
ing homo market sustained them In
comfort. ~:
| Second. we find modern labor-saving
machinery has been massed by indi-
viduals into shops, then into factories.
afterwards into companies, next into
corporations, last into gigantic trusts,
with one head and one directing depart
ment. Men are now compelled to con-
gregate in large centers.
/ The practical administration of the
modern industrial world precipitated a
conflict of serious proportions. almost
before those most intensely interested
had time to comprehend the difficult
situation confronting them.
The manual toiler suddenly found
himself a straw before the wind. a
creature of environment, subject to i'm
positions with which he was absolutely
powerless to contend.
Skilled mechanics found themselves
adrift in the world under the new sys-
TEN with no means Of subsistence.
A quarter Of century's experience OF
this kind made the manual toiler look
into the future with anxiety. No trade
was secure; one knew whore or how
soon 1t would be his turn to be cast
aside. A workingman no longer knew
his employer. The employer knew not
his workmen For convenience their
names were abandoned and numbers
substituted. Individual contract was>a
thing of the past in SO far as it ap-
piled to laborer; gone, gone, forever.
Free contract In the purely individualist
sense has not existed in the industrial
world for a generation.
Free contract Is not possible between
one lone workingman and the superin-
tendent of corporation, who is work.
Ing for record for cheapness and an
Increased output IN order to save his
own job. The boss makes the terms,
the individual toiler accepts them, or
goes hungry and hears his little ones
cry for bread. To be sure we are told
the laborer is free and can reject or
accept the offer. Yes, his freedom re-
sembles cat in tub out in the mid
die of lake; the cat is not bound to
stay in the tub. It is perfectly free to
Jump out.
The manual toiler at this juncture
drew on his free school investment; he
thought harder and quicker than he
desperation. He saw his professional
brothers Of the cloth, physics, and the
law, to a fair extent exempt from the
dangers to which he was exposed. He
learned that their security was guaran-
teed more through the power of free
dom by organization than through spe-
cial skill. He saw they maintained the
union shop principle and the minimum
compensation as a basis Of agreement.
He saw they did not act ''unprofes-
sionally" toward each other. He saw
also that he could not break into their
vocations except at great expense of
time and money.
In addition, stringent legislation had
been enacted in every state protecting
the regular practitioners, and, there
fore, again barring the manual toiler
in this direction.
What, then, was to be done? The
professions securely sealed; free land
all gone, and that which was for sale
held at prohibitive prices by specula-
tors; his trade destroyed by new
system of subdivision of labor, or a
machine; competition of Sitting
character from unskilled men, women,
and children; individual contracts a
farce; nothing but trampdom or servile
submission staring him in the face.
Is it then surprising that an Ameri-
con workingman, raised in an Ameri-
can public school, would be intelligent
enough to know what to do in such a
dilemma? It would have been much
more surprising and much more deplor-
able If he had not known. II he had
failed in the emergency all the elegant
superstructure of American public, in
dustrial, and professional life would
have been hurled from it's high emin-
ence. Society would now have been
grovelling in the mire of despair Bust
ness depression would have become per-
manent instead Of spasmodic.
The American manual toiler is the
quickest witted man of his class on
| earth. He knows the value of imita-
ton and advertising. He saw the sue
| cesses others had attained by the golden
means of organization. He took the
cue from the accelerating object lesson
Of mergers and trusts as we'll as pro-
LESSONS. He took advantage of his op-
portunity while still there was time,
hope, and life left.
He has organized. He will continue
to organize. He will remain organized.
He has substituted collective contracts
for individual submission. He realizes
that only through combination in trade
unions and applying the modern bust
ness method of collective bargaining
! can even a measure of freedom be re-
! stored or maintained.
! Slowly has the path been blazed.
! Many have died on the way; thousands
have been coerced, inundated, and
blacklisted Slowly have been won the