The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1906-10-18

10 90 nounlnS Is TO rot, to de-
gcnerate-in body and mind and
character. The first commandment
today should be-Earn your own
living.
Centuries ago it was considered
Il disgrace to work; in a few years
it will be considered a double dis
grace for an American citizen not
to work.
Therefore it is safe to say that
the power of unioniSm will continue
to increase. In the last year 500,
COO new members have been added
i'll spite of an opposition which is
becoming less and less.
The school teachers are falling
in line, and all the progressive men
and women are cooperating moro
and more with labor organizations.
Is it not clear, then, that in ten
or fifteen years the American Fed
Grafton of Labor will include the
%reatcr"part Of the nation?
Is it not plain that it will band
together the workers and the think
clS against the idlers and the eN-
ploitcrS!
is it not evident that it repre-
Sents the future American nation
better than any flimsy, irrespon-
Siblc political party can dof
And can any work be more pro-
@resslve, more socially useful and
more patriotic than the education
and organization of nine -tenths of
The American nation, so that they
may possess their rights and per
form their duties as citizens of
great Republic?
Who can deny that the trade
union is the firing line of social
progress?
Lecturers, professors and sociol-
oSlStS may talk and write, and
write and talk, but it is the union
lSt who acts. 1t is he who is being
prosecuted by injunctions and
abused by the daily press.
In Florida union men have been
driven from the State by White
Caps; in Porto Rico. Waterbury
and the Coal Regions they have
been imprisoned illegally, and in
West Virginia they have been shot
and killed by drunken So called
gaurds. In all of the above cases
their prosecutors and murderers
have up to date escaped punish
mcnt.
1t IS terrible fact that there is
no safer crime than to kill an
American worllingman who is de-
manding his rights.
The deputy sherif1S who shot
and killed twenty-four unarmed
coal miners at Hazleton are today
unhung and unpunished. The
guards of the Idaho "Bull Pen,'
who murdered unarmed and inno-
cent miners are today unhung and
HnpUniShed. The militiamen who
Shot and killed two peaceable citi-
%enS during the Albany strike are
today unhung and unpunished.
ii this list were complete it
would fill pages. There are dozens
ol men who are at the present
ume alive and free who have not
been imprisoned, fined or even rep
rlmanded by a judge, yet who are
Known to have taken the lives OF
workingmen whose only crime was
an attempt to better their con,
ditions.
These are factS-hard facts: and
the sooner we open our eyes tC
them the better it will be for the
nation.
The second Civil War is now go
ing on. Every newspaper contains
accounts of the battles, skirmishes
victories and defeats. Great peace
able armies of wage workers are
1aclng poverty and bankruptcy
with organized desperation to pre-
vent themselves from becoming the
human chattelS of the great Trusts
These union men-these strikers
are fighting for principle as trul.
as was any military general wht
wore the blue or the gray.
Their patriotism is as pure a.
that of any soldier who ever CAV,
his life for his country; and it i
much more beneficial in its result
than any kind of military valor.
The grim, desperate, unconquer