The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-03-21
PRACTICAL. LIBERTY } 4 Y !,
IS LABOR's DEMAND
Equivocal Rights Under Guise of
Theoretic Liberty Does Not
Satisfy Labor. zc~- =
One Right Demanded is the Right
to Work Under Better
Sanitary Conditions. )

George w. Alger, in the February
number Of the American Federation
list, presents a very able article on the
above subject which we reproduce for
the benefit Of our readers.
Stated as concretely as possible, the
principal difference between the work.
marked tendency of the courts to guar
antee to the workman an academic
and theoretic liberty which he does not
want, by denying him industrial rights
to which he thinks he is officially en-
titled. His. grievance is that in a null
titude of Instances the courts give
what seems to him counterfeit liberty
in the place of it's reality.
In state in which every year there
are more than twice as many persons
killed in industrial establishments as
were killed in the Spanish war; in
which, in addition to the killed, 100000
employees are annually crippled, n1ain-
ed, Or wounded, such a decision, guar
anteeing to workingmen and women
the right to endure unnecessary dan
ger, and effectually denying their right
to safety in their work, is bound to
create some dissatisfaction among the
working classes.
Labor's right to get killed, guaran-
teed by decisions of which. this New
York case is but a characteristic ex-
ample, Is not highly esteemed by the
people to whom this guarantee is
given. The counterfeit liberty is no
more satisfactory to its recipient than
is the counterfeit dollar.
The enormously increasing number
of railroad accidents in this country,
compared with other countries, has at
tracted much attention. The greater
number of deaths thus occasioned are
of railway employees, but there are
enough passengers killed every year to
make the> legal status Of the railway
employee, as regards his right to safety
while at work, important to the pub
lie, as well as to him and his fellows.
The safety Of the railroad employee is
too closely bound to that of the pas
senger- to be separated in the eyes of
the law. When the collision comes the
engineer may die first, but the passeH-
gers are there in the cars right behind
him.
The guaranteed right to work with
an over-sweated brow for his bread is
not accepted by the workman as a
great judicial ark Of liberty. To get
rid of his liberty he organizes in in
creasing numbers, and strikes and
lockouts follow, so that Industry shall
nd OF to HI fho
which the law has refused. He says
if the law will not give him the right
to reasonable leisure he will take it for
himself
One of the rights, economic and
moral, perhaps but not yet legal. for
which workmen have been struggling
for quarter of a century, is for de-
cent conditions under which to do
their work. Some progress has been
made in certain directions, but the
main work is yet undone. How indif-
ferent their success has been in gain
ing legal support for the safety OF
their labor has been indicated in an
earlier part of this paper. The danger
of accidents, however, usually can be
avoided by constant vigilance. But
the sanitary howell; the. badly lighted.
unventilated, and unclean tenement;
the destruction Of the home by those
remorseless laws Of industry which
seem to compel the helpless worker in
the sweated trades to turn his home
into a factory, are incalcula!ble. A law
which guarantees to the worker a
right to destroy his own home is as
valuable to him as one which should
guarantee his right to commit suicide.
The law, however, forbids the Quick
process of self-inflicted death.