The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-06-02
THE ':'sCAB" IS
WELL NAMED.
Any Worker Who Decides Against His
Fellows and Helps Break Up Strike
Is Indeed a "Scab" on Humanity
His Nature is Combination Of
Hyena, Hog and Shark.


way Of settling questions that he does
not understand.
Most sickening Of platitudes, most
nonsensical Of nonsense concerning
mans relation to man is the CUSTOM
airy talk about the "scab" workman.
A number Of men combine to better
! their condition. The law will not help
them. 1T considers only supply and de-
mand, and the rights Of property. Pub
lie opinion helps them little, but not
| much.
| They must strike, and their only
hope is in their own courage and the
loyalty and decency Of other working
men.
! They are making sacrifice for their
wives and children. They are fighting
one Of the fights that gradually brings
up the scale Of living to a grade Of de-
cency.
And each time their enemy appears
in the form Of other workers. Every
time that men, hard pressed, strive to
, better themselves, there are found
vile, and selfish, and heartless Great
ures to take the places OF the men on
strike.
And what does snug prosperity say
to this? What is the attitude toward
the "scab" Of those who should be at
least sympathetic?
They all talk balderash about the
fright Of the laborer to work where
he WILL
They shrek and howl this tune:
"The sacred right to earn a living
must not be interfered with. What
ever else happens, remember that any
man may sell his labor to whom and
where he pleases, to do what work he
pleases."
Sickening hypocrisy, heartless hy-
pocrisy!
When this nation is fighting another
nation do we allow any Of our men to
sell his work" to that other nation?
Suppose an American in the Philip
pines were starving and sold his mus
cles and fighting ability to our enemy
What would happen? Would the pros
porous say that he must be permit
ted to sell his labor, and do as he
chooses with himself?
Not at all. He would be despised
by every human being, even by those
who hired him. And if caught, he
would be hanged, as he deserved to be
hanged, with the shortest Of trials and
all possible disgrace.
The "scab" workman is simply a
traitor in the army of human labor.
He is a miserable, cowardly renegade.
He is despised by all honest workers,
he is despised equally by those who
hire him, unless utterly depraved he
despises himself.
Some strikes are based on righteous
ness and need-most of the are. Some
strikes are based on hasty decision, on
a misguided sense Of power, or on other
evils.
There are good strikes and bad
Strikes good workmen and bad work.
men, good employers and bad employ
ers.
But Of "scabs" there IS only one
kind. They are all towards, all trait
ors at heart, and all deserters for profit
Of course, the "scab," like the hyena
the vulture and the shark, must exist
| and play in the worlds economy.
He exists as one of the necessary
adjustments in social disputes. With
out him the power Of the union would
| be supreme, and no union or union
man, no man on earth, Is fit for SUI
L
| upon the avarice of labor-which is
often as averacious and as obstinate
as capital. He could not be dispensed
with in our selfish civilization, where
every man, laborer and employer, tries
| to get all he can:
But if we must endure the "scab
let us at least not try to excuse him
Let us not shed SORT Wful tears over
the plight Of the hyena eating a corpse
| No man has a right to take the law
into his own hands. The right to vote
gives, to the majority, power to make
! laws. If workers lack brains to use
that power it is their own fault, anc
| they have no right to make themselves
! the law.
Therefore, it is wrong, criminal, un-
worthy, to visit physical punishment
upon even the meanest "scab." But con.
tempt he should have, and he has it
The men who plead for the "scab'
always hypocritically and always de.
spising him in their hearts, are those
who use him, the employers fighting
their men,
These employers are not to be blam
ed. Fight is fight and every arm!
takes advantage Of deserters from tn
other side.
But the employers should cease tt
defend the "scabs." They do not toll
crate "scabs' among themselves.
Let some capitalist try to make prof
out Of the present dilemma of the Goa
mine owners, and see what will happe1
to him. He will be boycotted by tn
r banks and the railroads, shut out o
clubs, snubbed in public, jeered at il
private-his life will be made burden
If the prosperous man with every
thing that he needs-even in strik
tinles-hates the "scab' in his class
let him not wonder that the laborin
"scab" is dispised.
= He seeks to make profit of hi
brothers suffering. He works knowing
that he is keeping women and childre
hungry. For immediate gain he op
poses the permanent welfare of tn
whole class, to which he belongs.
He is unspeakably vile and repulsive
and his well-chosen name Of "scab
describes him.-New York Evenin
Journal.