Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1908-07-02
Hoods SarsapariIla
TO STRIKE IS A MISTAKE.
Editor News:

Editor News
1t is getting quite monotonous read
ing the discussion of salaries to preach
ers. Your readers could be better On
tertained reading something that will
enable them to find way TO better the
condition of those who toll for liv-
ing. It is ignorance of the causes OF
poverty and suffering that has brought
the laboring class to the condition they
are in today, 1t is my desire to en-
tighten them, if in my power, to bet
ter understanding of the situation. l
do not expect to convince those old
fellows who are fixed in their notions.
It's to the rising generation ! look to
for a change in the laboring world
"Cold Wave, "Uncle Tom, and those
of their age are fixed and settled in
their views and are not likely to
change, yet will ask them to point
out wherein am wrong in my views,
and | am open to conviction, and ready
to adopt any plan by which labor can
be freed from the tolls of their task
masters.
1t will take good many letters to
show up my plan, and to show where
labor has failed to take the right
course to better their condition. While
they have acted to the best of their
ability according to the light put be-
fore them, they so far have not touch
ed the real cause of their troubles. In
order to convince them that | have
kept pace with the trials of labor,
will try to show where l think they
have gone wrongly trying to coerce
employers to raise their wages and to
debar non-union people from laboring
at their several callings, and by strik-
ing to carry out their objects. The
first effect of strike" is to ALLEVIATE
the good feelings of employers who are
not always monopolists and all those
who suffer from the stoppage of bust
ness. The strike can only end in one
or two alternatives. Either the EN-
ployer has the money to pay higher
or not. If not, the contest is at an end.
The business is bound to close. You
may continue your strike forever,
higher wages will never come. If, on
the contrary, the employer has the
money and the market justifies it, will
he not raise prices also, and thus press
your comrades in other industrial de-
partments to pay those prices. and
force them to demand higher wages
and strike to- obtain them And
here we would go roundand round this
interminable labyrinth forever. The
solution of the labor problem is not tC
be found here.
Another point in this higher wages
contest deserves attention also. 1t is
that the higher the wages, money be-
ing fixed, the less men can be employ
ed, and therefore the less wealth ear
be produced To illustrate; Suppose
the colony was but one large family,
and all the money in it one thousand
dollars. Now, if men would work at
one dollar per day, we could employ
one thousand men one day, and in the
evening of that day we would have
the product of one thousand men to en-.
joy. Again. if they would work fol-
ten cents per day, we could employ ten
| a. ho1 khA
one day. and then in the evening We
would have ten times the product OF
the day before to enjoy. But, if the
men strike and demand two dollars pei
day, we could only employ five hund-
red one day, and the result would be
only half the product of the first day.
A second strike for. five dollars per day
would starve the colony. Workingmen
do not comprehend the folly of strik-
ing for more money.
Now, the only sure remedy for la.
boris condition is change of the com,
mercial system from competition to co.
operation Labor and its product:
should remain in the possession an6
control of producers and never pass in
to control of money manipulators. The
so called market, be it place or meth
cd for interchanging these products
should never be in the hands of parties
whose interest is antagonistic to sait
J producers. But, above all, we should
} never allow money, much or little, t
interfere with production and ex
change. Labor is the only factor, an(
should not subject itself to money.
} MORE ANON.