The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1906-07-26
What Would Be the Condition of American Wokingman and
Woman Unoganizeda
There Are Many Instances of the Misuse Crv1e sv
pathy Tor the Calamity HowerBy Only Can the ocr
Secure His Rights and Liberty
nan Unorganized? :?

In hundred different direc,
tions, writes Samuel GomDers i'm
the American Federationist, the
freedom of the citizen in modern
society is restricted in the interest
of the general welfare, of public
good, of health and morals. We
hear very little about personal lib
erty and lndlvidualism when the
law prohibits this or that or the
other thing in the name of moral
ity and public policy. 1t is only
when labor legislation is involved,
or the question of unionism in gen
eral, that many of our sapient
judges and educators and editors
become alarmed lest liberty should
be sacrificed.
We have discussed the fallacious
decision in the New York bakeries
case, In which 1O-hour act was
set aside on the absurd ground
that the journeyman bakers ought
to have the liberty to work Is or
Is hours a day! The fact that the
law was enacted at the demand of
the Journeyman who did not want
to work longer hours, was appar-
emily considered quite immaterial.
The personal liberty OF the hypo-
thetical baker who claimed his glo-
rlouS right to work like a slave or
beast OF burden caused the learned
Judges much worry and sleepless-
ness. He, the imaginary person,
must be protected in his slavery
and misery. and the 1O-hour law
mllSf r0 &c an aSSor,lf ~, 1;l,.,,+,
The decision is but one of many
Instances OF the misuse of the Glib
erty'' cry. The most persistent
champion of this one-sided. Jug
handled liberty is President Eliot
OF Harvard, who in and out of
season attacks unionism for its al
legged enmity to personal liberty.
his arguments have a strange, far
OH sound, an antiquated air. They
ignore all modern reality. the de
velopments of the last two or three
decades, the real elements of the
Industrial problem.
In recent meeting in New York
city, President Eliot reiterated his
threadbare half-truths concerning
the freedom of the individual work
man. But it is significant that he
met with very little sympathy from
the speakers, noted economists,
professors and impartial thinkers.
In very enlightened editorial
ON the subject, the Springfield
(Mass.) Republican thus comments
on the discussion referred to:
'All the other addresses on that
occasion, even those of the employ
er from PittSburg and the professor
of economies from Columbia, have
the effect of weakening the force of
President Eliot's protest in behalf
OF an unrestricted indiyidualiSm
Professor Seligman's very acute
analysis of economic liberty clearly
exhibits the truth that we can
never enjoy liberty in any absolute
sense, and that 'all social progress
is result of a certain repression
OF the liberty of some in the inter
est of ALL Nor can we object
seriously to Professor Seligman,s
conclusion that 'all liberty is bal.
ancing between the forces of anar.
chy and tyranny The special
representatives of labor who par,
dcipated in the discussion were
able, of course, to show very con.
vincingly how far from real econom.
lc freedom was the average wage
Garner under the factory system
before the labor unions had forced
the idea of collective bargaining
into the scale. The notion that. a,
between employer and employed
the average wage-earner under
modern conditions could really ex.
erclse the right of freedom of con
tract were he to remain an isolated
economic unit, is negatived b,
every fact of common, workaday
life 1t is by sacrificing his theo
retcal freedom of contract as al
individual and by merging himsel,
INTO an association of his fellow.
that the. wage Garner in man,
trades finally secures improved
conditions of living. When com
petition becomes mutually des
tructlve in short, either among
CAPITALISTS or wapa-aarparS a.,