The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1906-02-10

What Would Be the Condition
Of the Workingman Unor-
ganized.

In a hundred different directions,
writes Samuel Gompers in the Amer
lean 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 the person
al liberty and individualism when the
law prohibits this or that or the other
thing in the name of morality and
public policy. It, is only when labor
legislation is involved or the question
of unionfsm in general, that many of
our sapient Judges and educators and
editors become alarmed lest liberty
should be sacrificed.n.x.
We have discussed the falllacious de-
cision In the New York bakeries case,
in which a ten-hour act was set aside
on the absurd ground that the journey
man bakers ought to have the liberty
to work Is or 1S hours day! The
fact that the law was enacted at the
demand of the journeymen who did
not want to work longer hours, was
apparently considered. quite immater-
dal. The personal liberty of the hy-
ious right to work like a slave and
beast of burden caused the learend
judges much worry and sleeplessness
He the imaginary person, must be
protected in his slavery and misehy.
and the. 10-hour law must go as an
assault on liberty.
The decision Is but,one of the many
instances Of the misuse-of the liberty
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 it's alleged enmity to personal lib
erty. His arguments have a strange
far.off sound, an antiquated air. They
ignore all modern realty, the develop
ments 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
threadbares half-truths concerning the
freedom Of the individual workman.
But it is significant that he met with
very little sympthy from the speakers,
noted economists, professors and i'm
partial thinkers.
In a very enlightened editorial on
the subject, the Springfield (Mass.) Re-
publican thus comments on the dis
cussion referred to-:
"All the other addresses on that oc-
casion, even those Of the employer
from Pittsburg and the Professor Of
economics from Columbia, have the ef-
feet Of Weakening the force of Presi-
dent Eliot rrotest s inss behalf ssof an
unrestricted indiv vidual lism. Professor
SliEInan's, very acute analysis OF. emo
nomic liberty clearly exhibits the truth
that we can never enjoy liberty in any
absolute sense, and that "all social
progress is a result of certain repres-
sion of the liberty Of some of the in
seriously to Professor Seligman's con-
clusion that all liberty is a balancing
between the forces Of anarchy and ty-
ranny.' The special representatives Of
labor who participated in the discus
sion were able, Of course to show very
convincingly how far from real eco
nomic freedom was the average wage
Garner under the factory system be-
fore. labor unions had forced the idea
of collective bargaining into the scale
The notion that as between employer
and employed, the average wage-earn-
er under modern conditions could really
exercise the right of freedom of con-
tract were he to remain an isolated
economic unit, il negatived by every
fact Of common, workaday life. 1t is
by sacrificing his theoretical freedom
sof contract as an endividual and by
merging himself into an association of
his fellows that the wage Garner in
many trades finally. secures improved
conditions of living: When competition
becomes mutually destructive in short
either among capitalists or wakd-earn-
ers, the mere instinct of self-preser-
walton will drive men into courses
whereby competitio nmay be madified
and checked, and this Is bound to
happen whatever may be the wounds
inflicted upon theories and PHILOSOPHERS
by the constant adjustment of men and
the hard facts Of thir lives. Thus liber-
ty, as Professor seligman says, be-
comes a balancing between the forces
Of anachy and tyranny and the bal
ancing at any given time will be for the
most part governed by the economic
conditions that prevail in the struggle
for life"
Freedom to starve an dtoil for a
sweater Is not the kind which will ap-
peal to the American workingman,
Without combination and cooperation
the Individual workman is helpless, at
the mercy Of the employer, owing to
the Involuntary idlers, the professional
strikebreakers, the = anti-social low
creatures. who permit themselves to be
used as tools by the greedy and short
sighted plutocracy.
In union alone does, the. workman
find strength, dignity. an deconomic in
dependence. 1<-~s4f
That for the sake ,~of these great
benefits the worker must surrender
some of his freedom, is trpe just as it
is true that the citizen must give up
some of his wild freedom in order to
enjoy the benefits of society. Even
membership in a club involves giving
up some freedom. the acceptance OF
some restrictions. * " ~
The question to consider is whether,
other things bein gequal and the indus
trial order being what It is, the In
dividual workman would be freer, In