The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-04-11
LABOR TAKE COURAGE
READ THIS LESSON
"Grief May Prevail For q Night
But Joy Cometh in the
Morning."
Union smashers Are Forcing an
Issue to Make Labor's Tri-
umph Glorious.

Organized labor In the United States
today, is making gallant fight for tl1a
maintenance Of righteous conditions
for the toiler, and the Labor Worl1
congratulates every one of you upon
your loyalty to the cause, but with the
courts openly arrayed against you, and
putting strained construction upon
statutes to apply them to organized
labofs disadvantage, you surely must
recognize the necessity Of action at the
ballot box. We publish the following
that you may be led to profit from the
experience Of the brethren in another
country.
Smashing Unions in Australia.
Malcolm Donald McEacharn, ship
owner and capitals. Of Australia.
wanted to break the power Of the
trades unions. He thought that their
there was some justification for that
view. Strikes were common and fire.
quently the cause Of quarrel was tri-
vial. But the strikers were always
successful because the country was be-
ing flooded with British money and the
voice Of the boomsters was abroad In
the land. The union leaders were
ignorant Of all economic laws and mis-
took the existing condition for one Of
natural prosperity.
McEacharn knew better than that.
He knew that the burst would come
sooner or later, and he prepared to at
tack labor. He figured to smash thu
unions and remove the heel of aggres,
sive democracy from the throat of cap
ital Day after day he went on build,
ing the units of a. force to fight trades
unionism that was designed to sweep
organized labor out of existence. The
plan was colossal, but the solid pa
tience with which in the meantime he
bore the CALLING exactions of the
trades was quite as great.
Ruination Of Business.
And then one day he loosed his
thunders and struck hard and straight
and true. He chose the time Of bat
tie, the cause of battle. and the place
of battle. The cause Of quarrel was
childish, as McEacharn meant 1t
should be. A strike was ordered.
Union after union was called out, and
ship after ship was laid up, state after
state was involved in the quarrel. until
the whole continent stood under arms
In less than four weeks the fires OF
nearly every coasting steamer was
drawn. The trade Of Australia was
paralyzed. Four hundred unionists
were idle, and every man Of them was
drawing half pay. Also every unen,-
ployed man who looked like becoming
free laborer was paid weekly al
lowance from the general fund to pre-
vent remaining the ships.
But the shipowners union that Nc
Eacharn had organized didn't even try
to reman the ships. The land boom
had reached it's limit, trade was de-
clining, very large coal reserves had
been laid up, the funds and member
ship of the unions were known to a
dollar and a man. The shipowners
simply sat down on their hunkers and
waited. The trades leaders organized
plckets, but there was nothing for
them to do. The problem was a new
one. They couldn't solve It, The own
ers were not trying to run their ships
at all.
Bread Line Established.
Then it dawned upon the unions that
the strike had become a lockout The
besiegers were besieged. The weapon
OF capital was not free labor, but star
walton. Starvation won easily. Ten
weeks after the first shot the unions
capitulated to the grim foe, hunger,
that before then had bowed the head
Of many proud city. McEacharn ha j
meant to break the unions. And they
were broken all right. Funds gone
membership decimated, courage wilted
the once great trades unions of Aus
tralia were counted out. The capitu-
lation was announced In the largest
public hall the labor leaders could get.
John Hancock, big bodied and big
hearted-the finest platform man in
Australia-rose in that hall of silent
hundreds to tell the men that they
must return to work on the best terms
they could get. 1t was the shortest
and most pregnant speech he ever
made in his life. Friends" he said
men of Australia, we have not been
beaten; we have been starved into sub
mission. Unionism is dead, but any
tn1ns can happen in a democracy, AMI
from the ashes Of the funeral pyre that
the shlpowners have lighted will rise
the phoenix Of our liberties"
'ao'es Arc Turned.
One year later big John Hancock
took his seat in pariament-the first
labor member sent in by the first labor
political party in Australia. Van
quished. In the Industrial war, the
members of the battered trades unions
had reorganized their forces on a poli-
'tical basis and sought to win by the
ballot the privileges capital had denied
them. Some one discovered that where
all men have votes and the bulk ot
men are wage earners they only have
to decide among themselves what thew
want from the state to get It. That
was only ten years ago. And now thev
have gotten nearly all they wanted.
Labor Triumphant.
They attacked municipal councils
first and enforced the minimum wage
and eight-hour day on all of them
They attacked the state parliaments
next and gained factory legislation and
old age pensions and compulsory arbi-