Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-08-10
STANDS FOR JUSTICE
Organized Labor Holds It's Cause
Is That of Right.
ITS AIM INDUSTRIAL PEACE
Trades Unions Seek to Inculcate the
Principle That Just Service Is En-
titled to Just Wages-Utterances OF
Gam ers and Parry Compared.

ConperS and Parry Compared.
Every business, profession or trade
that is honest is honorable. and if in
dustriously and intelligently followed
ought surely to make the follower at
least a comfortable living. In the
sense Of amassing wealth, the accu-
mutation Of money comes with more
certainty to those who derive it from
Inheritance or profit producing factors.
From the enhancement of values of
stocks. bonds, real and commercial Sc
curities and transactions, margins, divi-
dends and premiums are derived.
These are the foundation stocks which
labor does not possess.
Advantages and opportunities which
play SO great part with capital are
not happenings of the hour or the day
with labor; hence it cannot be said that
capital and labor ride equally upon the
surge and swell Of moneys mighty cur
rent. Nor is it possible for labor to
obtain the same real, substantial bene-
fit which capital thus secures.
The laborer, skilled or common, is
not a capitalist He works for what he
earns-money. He has few real estate
holdings, for the most part is a renter,
and however moderate his living eX-
penses. finds his earnings barely sufIi-
cient to meet them and not enough to
serve as a foundation for a fortune of
any considerable value, in fact the
margins of his earnings are so narrow
that he really cannot invest in any
profit making enterprise.
An extraordinary individual would
be the satisfied person. Were we all
rich, in the sense of having unlimited
wealth, we would still be contending
for the acme of possession. The effort
to ascend in the financial scale gener-
ally falls heaviest on the man who
earns his prosperity 'by the sweat of
his brow" and in most such cases it
is the man of labor, trade and mechan
les whose physical forces are strained
to the utmost. If he asserts his skill
and industry are of such value as to
give him right to demand a remuner
alton that will be sufficient to provide
him an income beyond his living re-
QuirementS, he is where the more pO-
tent power-the capitalist gives him a
scornful look and declares he is with
out merit.
Indeed, says that power, when you
place your skill and endurance before
me for remuneration you must realize
that 1 am it's judge, as 1 am the proper
one to estimate the supply and de-
mand and to fix the profit l should
have.
This is the condition which the labor
world encounters. Much of capital is
represented in it's employers assOcia-
tons.
When it is considered that there are
today over 100000 men supporting
varied number of trades unions, it can
not be consistently denied that they
have in their unity inalienable rights
which they should assert and protect.
Organized labor seeks to inculcate
the principle that a just service is en-
titled to just compensation, ration
III endurance to a rational rest, and in
the moral domain it aims to free men
from the rapacity and slavery OF
moneys power, to spread calm, clear.
liberal thought, speech, and action
along the lines of right, reason and
justice, and to make life peaceful,
worth the living, uncontrolled and IN
controllable by the elements Of hate,
avarice and contention.
Organized labor claims that it's cause
is that of equity, right, reason and
justice, the primum mobile of human
ity's prosperity, Sinking no response
bility, but prepared to face public opin-
ion the world over as a sincere advo-
cate Of industrial peace and earnest in
any effort that will secure impartial
judgment upon all questions involving
the rights of wage earners and employ
ers to the end that harmony and peace
may generally prevail.
Very naturally it is pertinent to in
uuire whether there is a hope for any
such happy probability.
Past observation is not encouraging,
if we look to the domains of capital
as represented in the manufacturers
association.
Former President D. NJ. Parry said
at one time:
The only true solution Of the labor
question must lie in an appeal to the in
telligence Of the people.
Arbitration, he elsewhere said, is an in
reference with free competitive condi-
tons, and it's effect cannot, therefore, fail
to be detrimental, and, if generally adopt
ed, its tendency will be to hamper indus
try, bring about a waste of effort and
an increase of the cost of production and
a decrease in the margin Of profit.
The recent determination Of this same
association to raise $1,500,000 to fight
labor unions, seems to show that the
spirit Of peace is not theirs.
Accepting Mr. Parry as capitalist,
or rather as q man with capital in the
field of manufacture, we may look upon
his expressions as voicing the senti-
ments Of the avowed opponents Of or
ganized labor; hence it is interesting to
compare his utterances with those OF
President Gompers of the American
Federation of Labor, a body that IS
virtually the representative congress Of
American organized labor.