The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-05-30
The Daylight StOre''
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(Communicated.)
(Communicated.) THE LOGIC OF LOCKOUTS

the same corporate greed and intolerance which would deny to It's employees the right to join union, will not as readily, if permitted, deny to them the right of suffrage-the right Of the ballot. If or ganized trusts and capitalists feel that unionlsm is inimical to their interests do they not also feel that the political bal lots of their employees might also prove inimical, and would not they the organ ized trusts and corporations, if they could, as premptorily refuse the right of a la- borer to vote as they would his right to join a union? Of course they would. The great Tennessee Coal and Iron comt pany the Republic company the Bir- ningham Railway, Light and Power com pany, and perhaps others of our great corporations, have refused to recognize in their employees the right which they themselves exercise of union organization. Thus treading underfoot the liberty of their laborers and setting up for them selves a precedent of assumed superiority and of class plutocracy which must be curbed, or the public must reconcile itself to see the conversion of our republic from that of government of the people, by the people and for the people" to a plutocracy for the rich, by the rich. through usurpation and injunction. What then Is the conclusion? That organized Tlutocracy unrestricted and unhindered in it's selfish greed and assumed arrogance is a menace to the liberties of the people and will, If uncurbed, eventually destroy the last vestiges of q free government, and substitute in its stead an oligarchy of syndicatad trusts and corporations.
 But will labor unionism if permitted to pursue its aims and interests unhin- dered and unbridled, prove any more safe or conservative than organized cap ital? Perhaps not Capital and labor are now and have ever been irreconcilable in their respective interests and de- mands. Both are essentially and of neces- sity selfish, and if trades unionism could exert the power to enforce it's demands it might retard progress and like Sam son, pull down the very pillars of the temple of capital and fall a victim to it's own great power. But in the present status of society, and of government
 it must be conceded that labor has the same God-given and inalienable right of organization as has that of the cap italists, or any other class of people, and in the present condition of things it is not only right and proper that labor should organize. not solely for it's own good, but as a counter force to the aggressions of organized capital, and as a conservator of the principles n- volved in our free government.
 And 1t is, therefore, clear that liberty, freedom and independence the prereaui- sites and absolute essentials to a main tenance of our republican institutions, can never be safe nor secure If entrusted or perforce placed solely in the hands of plutocratic trusts or federated unions; for their interests are antlpodaI and the innate selfishness of each is but innate human nature. At present capital has the greater advantage in knowledge and education, whilst labor Is stronger in numbers, but neither can be independent of the other. Hence, 1t will readily appear that some legal form of forced arbitration must be necessary for the preservation of peace and harmony, and for the protection of the rights and in- terests of the classes who are not of either the incorporated trusts, nor of the federated unions of labor. Let laboring men pay more attention to the payment of their poll tax, and to politics, and let the public composed of every class, reflect and realize that only by a revo- cation by government-national, state and municipal, of the franchises of public utilities already granted. and the re- sumption of ownership. management, and control of same by the nation, state and feasible method of preventing the down. fall of liberty through the conscienceless acts of corporate greed. and plutocratic power or the blghting downfall of in- dependence through the demoralization of revolutionary organizations bent on so- cialism. and the subjugation of corporate mower. In this 1t seems to me lies the only hope of sustaining our republic. preserving our liberties and promoting the prosperity and peace of all
 O. T. DozIER.