The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-02-24
TRADE UNION; FRIEND
OF THE N0N-UN|ON|ST
Non Members of Organized La
Dor Get Benefit of Whats,
Union Labor Achieves,
Every Time Organized Labor
Wins a Victory the Status
of Non Unionists Is Raised.

A great majority OF people have per-
haps never stopped to figure out the
reason or cause Of the present stand
ard 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 tho earnest consideration of
every one, be he wage Garner or not.
This improvement is not coming Of its
own accord. The conditions under
which the workingman earns his living
will not advance to a higher plano
without some propelling force. There
must be some good and substantial
power behind the movement which is
continually ascending to a point high
enough to be satisfactory to those 50
vitality Interested.
Most any sort Of movement will go
backward is left to take care of itself,
but it Is a show of push and energy
when movement is on the upward
trend.
There is no more powerful or potent
agency in the advancement Of the labor
movement than organized labor IT
the influence of organized labor could
be wiped out with Que blow, how long
would it require for conditions and
wages to recede to a state that would
be absolutely intolerable to the work
ing classes? It would reach this state
immediately, for there would be no
impediment to the greedy ambition of
the capitalist, who would glory in the
opportunity to treat with his employees
individually and thus force conditions
and wages down to stage of long
hours and the lowest possible pay.
Even under the strong and ever-alert
influence Of organized labor in de-
handing anything 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 Of their employees.
Therefore it has been a matter Of pure
and simple self-defense that labor has
organized. 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 ben compelled to adopt the sys-
tenn Of organization and hold 1t as a
club over the head of the tyrannical
employer in order that decent and
Wholesome conditions might be forced
it they cannot otherwise be secured.
Organized labor seeks to force con-
d1tions up Without the collective eff
! fort of the laborers, nine-tenths of the
! employers would force conditions down
| to a basis Of abject slavery and serf-
| dom.
The working people, acting together
| in a given purpose, can and do WELD
! a powerful and far-reaching influence.
| Acting separately and each one for
| himself, they have been, are now, and
| always will be absolutely helpless in
striving for their own advancement
But on the contrary, help to increase
the too strong power Of the dev1lish
clique of employers who, at the ex-
pense of those who are compelled to
work for living, do not hesitate to
| take advantage of every opportunity
| to crush the strength of organized
labor and to precent the unorganized
| from becoming allied with others OF
their class.
! Organized labor, in its organized cap