Amador ledger., 1907-05-17
The Labor Situation in Amador.

The request for recognition OF
the miners union of the Western
Federation upon the nine owners
around Jackson has created feeling
of unrest in all classes. L he uncer-
tainty is having a very prejndicial
effect upon business, which has not
been brisk any way for some time.
Extreme measures on the part of the
union miusrs at this junoture would
be folly, even though the companies
should positively decline to recognize
the union. The mines have been
running along without any recognition I
of labor organizations so far, aud it
could hardly be expected that mine |
owners will assume different atti-
tude toward unionism nov to that |
which they have taken heretofore.
The probability is that pressure to
accomplish that end would result IN |
the shutting down of the mining |
industry.
Angels Camp presents today a
striking example Of the effect of work
of labor agitators, who are in reality
pushing a campaign, not in the inter
est or for the benefit of the toiIers,
but against property and employers
generally. Their creed is to break
up the wage system entirely. Higher
wages and shorter hours are merely
a mask to hide the ultimate design
to abolish the relationship of en-
pIoyer and employed. The extrem-
lists of these walking delegates-the
hoId-up men of the industrial world
freely admit that there Is no stopp
ing place in their crusade short of the
brake-up of the present system of
wage-paying. Angels, heretofore the
liveliest towns in Calaveras, and one
of the best business centers in the
mountains, is a dead camp today.
Agitators, by inhamlng and prejudic-
ing the minds of the miners, can
bring about ruin, but they are i'm
potent to restore. prosperity to that
stricken camp. Her industry is
paralyZed, the mines are filling up
with water, business houses are clos
ing, and her population is leaving by
the hundreds. Everything points to
q permanent abandonment of mines
which have given employment to
hundreds OF men, and impaired life to
the town. What do these alien
agitators care for the ruin their evil
preachings have wrought? They are
merely birds of passage and of prey.
They can gather their grip sack and
leave the scene of wreckage without
monetary loss to themselves, depart
ing for new fields of industry to lay
waste with their Infamous doctrines.
Even the presence of such men has a
damaging effect upon every class of
business.
The attitude of the mine owners is
pretty we'll understood. They will
maintain the "open-shop'' principle
in their mines, employing whom they
please without regard to atfilIation
or non atiiIiation with any labor
O1BohlLobAOh' AAubAOl tndl 6uAl5AOOI
this right to hire laborers without
dictation, the mines hereabouts
would probably close-down as they
have closed IN the erstwhiIe thriving
town of Angels. Such an outcome
might give birth to exultation on
the part of agitators, but what would
the miners gain thereby; what benefit
would those toilers who have their
homes and families here reap? The
grip-sack brigade can tramp else
where, in search of employment, and
hug the delusion that they will feel
no harm. But even this class must
realize that eventually the ruinous
system will ogertake them also.
Industrial centers cannot be paralyz-
ed one after another without suffer-
ing to the masses of toiIers. 1t Is as
certain as the DEGREES of fate, that
wage -earners cannot prosper without
the prosperity. of the wage payers,
and the sooner the workers under
stand this. -and act accordingly, the
better will it he for all concerned.