The Virginia enterprise., 1908-08-21

Y
night by a fear
some apparition. The cows had de-
layed coming home until after dark
and had been sent for them
Coming home through the lane
with them was confronted with
grewsome appearance in the
shape of a large round head star
Ing at me, with wide-open mouth
and shining eyes, silent, menacing
and awe-inspiring. I left the cows to
their fate and ran home terror-strick
en-. And afterward, was told that
what had seen was only followed
out pumpkin, with holes cut for eyes
and mouth, and lighted candle set in
it to give the impression of fla
ming hobgoblin. The name given to
this "scare-head" was "mOnkey-moon.
shine"
Well, that's what the labor vote is in
politics.
Understand me, now. l am in sym
pathy with labor and labor unions
Not that l flatter myself this fact
will make any difference to either la
Dor or capital. am, of course, op
posed to violence, and the "sympa
thetic strike" Violence is both wrong
and absurd, and when a thing is both
bad and ridiculous, the limit Of folly is
reached. Sympathetic strikes" usual.
ly take the liberty of utterly ignoring
solemn contracts; and they are basic.
ally grounded in intimidation, not ar
gument; and fail of their intent, even
when they sometimes gain a point
They hurt labor, as a whole.
l am with the labor end of it, be-
cause from the days of the pyramids
to now, the men who work mainly
with their hands have had to hold up
"the heaviest end of the log" AS boy
l worked at factory bench with fac
tory boys; and my playmates and
companions for years in baseball, foot
ball, hunting, fishing, fighting, skating
and other sports were boys who were
very poor. Boys who are my friends
to-day l learned what poverty really
meant by my association with them
and my welcome in their homes The
poverty OF the middle classes is often
extremely notifying to pride and
comfort, but the poverty Of the very
poor is hell.
And yet I say seriously, and without
any possible prejudice, that the labor
vote in politics, with rare exceptions
is nothing more not less than mon
key-moonshine." True, this vote oc
casiOnally elects mayor in some of
the cities, but these exceptions only
prove the rule. And will show you
by the logic and reason of the stu
alton, in America, that this is a fact
Politicians who will attempt to
demonstrate" that candidate is eth
er Strong or weak by reason OF
the support or antagonism of this ele
ment in politics are either knaves, OF
men who cannot see further than their
own noses. 1t is idle to call atten
tion to what has been done in Europe
by the leverage Of the labor vote, fol
the conditions there are vitality diff
ferent. The question of what is the
labor vote, how it will be cast, and
how far it can be depended on has
been will-o-the-wisp which has lurec
many an aspiring politician into the
Quagmire Of disappointment and dc
feat. 1t is, in its last analysis, {
negligible quantity in the voting
strength: that is, a quantity to be
disregarded, as it stands at present
And this statement is made with {
full appreciation of it's actual strength
in numbers. But numbers do not al
ways spell cohesion; ror do all thu
stalks in a field Of corn stand thu
same way.
During the period Of my active par
ticipation in politics l lived in la