Montana news. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-191?, 1907-09-12

address delivered by Mrs. Hazlett at
the Labor Day celebration of the
unions Of the Western Federation Of
the Boundary district at Curlew Lake,
British Columbia, Sept. 2, 1907:
Friends, Brothers and Comradesi
AS we meet on this most happy Occa-
sion, and gaze upon this sea of faces
all gathered here in honor of day
dedicated TO the cause Of American la.
bor,-the heart is thrilled with a sense
of the immensity Of power that resides
in that vast body Of people known as
the worlds working class.
Behold, Labor comesl The fall of
it's footsteps shakes the nation. 1t
stretches its giant arms and it touches
every shore. The sound of its many
voices rises to the heavens-but the
age has not yet come to speak of the
joy in the voice Of labor.
The September day is Essentially an
labor day. In Helena valley lies the
man who fathered the idea, in an un-
marked grave.
The plan sprung into light in the de-
clining days of that noble and aspir-
ing organization known as the knights
of Labor. AS this solid and far reach
ing organization climbed to its zenith,
fraught with the hopes of toiling mil
lions, it celebrated the first of May
the day adopted by the International
working men, and honored to-day
throughout the world as the universal
expression of working class solidarity.
The first of May was observed as a
tribute TO labor in the old Druidical
and it was Karl Marx who urged that
it be adopted by the International
Working Mems association that was
organized in London in 1868.
On that day still in every land where
labor dares to voice its aspirations,
the tread of marching millions falls
like music on the ear as it follows the
crimson standard of universal hope.
That standard, so dear to those who
behold in their ideals labor glorifed.
lifted from the sludge and the murk,
robed in the garments of beauty which
its toll hath fashioned!
That standard gloriously eolorej
with the heart throbs of fraternity
that beat around the world in the
breats of those who toll, whatever may
be the color of their sweating hides.
Shall capitalism protest at the stan.
dard of labor'
We bring it into contest with the
emblems that the capitalists have rails.
ed in the nations which they govern.
Labor governs no nation. Until il
can do so, its national emblems must
typify the laws and institutions agree.
able to the dominant class
When labor and civilization walking
hand in hand shall fashion nations
where toll does not mean poverty and
| shame, then will these stars and bars
and crimson flashes float over universal
joy, content, and justice, and not over
bull-pens, aims houses, and penitenti.
| aries.
The red flag follows the star of hope,
but newly arisen in eastern skies, that
throws its golden radiance down the
long ages of night and suffering where
labor has groaned and clanked its
chains.
1t is labor that has raised the race
from primitive stages to whatever of
civilization We boast to-day. II turns
every wheel, it builds and operates
every factory, it fires every engine.
Labor feeds us, clothes us, educates
US yet throughout the ages there is
the same bitter tale of its suffering
and degradation. The pages of his.
tory culver with the breaking backs
of the slaves, the fetid smells and
the rotting bones Of the dungeons, the
slaughter Of armies of the toilers.
But with the oppression and the
cruelty there was likewise the revolt
There were long slave wars-the Ro
man legions held at bay-the peasant
revolts that shook all Europe. Always
that suffering, that injustice, that re
volt, that struggle.
Labor itself means continuation
of that struggle.
In just and rational arrangement
of society there would be no specia
day devoted to the parade Of tn,
slaves, for all would labor. The para
site would vanish, and every individ
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