The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-03-31
TRADE UNIONS ARE. THE
ONLY HOPE FOR LABOR
Lizzie M, Holmes Maintains That La
Dor Ie Regarded Az a Com.
modify Al Ever.

Lizzie M, Holmes Maintains That La
Dor Ie Regarded Az a Conn.,
modify As Ever.
Combination For Self Defense Is the
First Lesson Of the Freed
Wage Garner.
Washington, D. c.. March 30
Under the caption, ''Trade Unionism
the Only Hope" Lizzie M. Holmes,
| the veteran labor writer contributes
the following in the current issue of
the Federationist:
1t should be eelf-evident that in
trade unionism the toiler finds his
only hope and security while. we
| live under the commercial system
which reigns today. Sugar coat it as
| we may, labor is today a commodity,
and the capitalist goes Into the
market and buys it as cheaply as
it can be purchased. So there seems
to be no limit to the lowering of
es. Mems very necessities compel
them to compete with one another
| until the very lowest possible liv-
ing price is reached. The fact that
a man has his wife and several child
rem does not always urge him on to
demand higher wages in order to
support them. He is indeed, more
helpless than the single man. He
dare not be idle; his family will
starve, and so he is compelled to beg
for chance to- work at any price;
consequently the single man is often
discharged to make room for the mar
ried man whose family's needs drive
him to work for less.
The one man who refuses to work
unless he is better paid can accom-
plish but little but hundred men do
ing the same thing at the same time
can bring about wonderful results. The
force the WELD is something that must
be reokoned with combination is the
workingman's only weapon against the
encroachments Of we'll entrenched cap
ital.
l. The struggle between the two forces
Nave been many and bitter. Great suf-
fering, deep enmities, hunger, despair
have resulted from these conbats, and
because of this it Is said trade unions
are wrong and should be destroyed.
But struggles are never pleasant
things. Must we then supinely SUBJ
nit to any wrongs that is offered us?
It is often a choice between peace
at any price, and the hell of war;"
Who would purchase quiet at the price
! of liberty? Not the modern, civilized
aspiring working1nan, who is Americas
| best citizen.
Combination for self defense and Sc
| curity is the first lesson Of the freed
wage Garner. 1t has not been an easy
| lesson. The primitive type Of man
could hunt and fish as an individual:
| could even build a shelter alone and
| prepare the skins Of animals for
! clothing. Association was not then
| so much a necessity in times of peace
! as a pleasure. Danger from wild ami
| mails, human enemies, the rage of the
elements urged them to combine for
self defense, but in peaceful productive
| labor each man could work to protect
himself alone. R,1t then, no one dis
| puted{ his right to all he produced;
| If any one did, 1t was equivalent to a
! declaration Of war. AS labor became
more complicated, requiring more tools
| and more complex arrangements, la
| borers became diversified and classes
sprang up. Combination for mutual Sc
| surity and defense became a necessity.
The trade union or guild is a very an
cient affair. and even yet the lesson
Is not universally learned.
| The combination of many trade un-
| ions into one organization for the good
| of all is a more modern movement, and
one that has made progress with some
difficulty. Many obstacles have been
in a manner overcome by the American
| Federation of Labor in this country,
| and the task has been q most gigantic
one. In the last twenty-five years the
| change has been marvellous. We have
had to deal with laborers from every
! country on the globe, speaking all
languages, possessing thousands Of
varying prejudices, customs, tastes and
superstitions; they have been stupidity
selfish, pigigshly selfish, blindly sell
fish, and through the very selfshness
have stood In their own way; and they
have been more or less stepped in ig-
norance and servility. But such have
been caught. taught, trained, pulled
and pushed into something like order,
and the first principles of mutual COM
| bination for the interest of all has
seeped into their understandings. To-
day the workingmen of America are
generally Intelligent and we'll informed.
They are far from being perfect and
from really compromising their own
rights; they have not thoroughly i'm
bibed the principle of loyalty to one
another, and they are not cool and calm
and suave and. polite at all times, as
are some employers even while de-
ceiving and wronging them.
Every workingman known something
about the union" and he knows that
he must hold some relation to it, either
that of mutual support or Of direct
| antagonism; and every worker from
the humblest to the highest in position,
Is better off for the existence of the
union" The poorest toiler receives
more for his labor than he would have
done but for the union" He may