The Western news., 1908-06-17

who seek congressional honors are not
yet afraid of the labor vote, except in
possible instances in some large city
where the district is largely a labor
district. But ordinarily, as has been
shown in several late instances, the
labor fights on members of congress
have been failures.
And right here I wish to call atten
tion to subtle undercurrent of poll |
tics which comes in when these ia
bor' fights are inaugurated. The timid |
and conservative voters of a party !
which may have the support of labor
against an opposition candidate are
very apt to shift their votes and
| plump" them for the opposition can
didate just because they fear the effect
of possible labor victory: or vic
tory where labor might claim to have
been the means of winning Curious,
isn't it? But this has been proved
so often that it is almost automatic.
Labor has not yet gained the conf
dence of the conservative or the timid
business element, and they would
rather have it's enmity than it's sup
port.
The future of the labor vote would
seem to be most advantageous where
it attached itself to the right party"
where it stood no show of electng
it's own representative. Which party?
that puts up a candidate who repre-
sents honestly square deal to all
men. Sometimes this may be one party,
sometimes another. "Principles, not
men," used to be the old war-whoom
1t isn't worth it's salt as a maxim. The
best set of principles in the world can
be ignored by any man who wishes to
disregard them. The worst platform a
political party ever wrote can be
shelved by a man who has the nerve
larly supposed to favor the democratic
party. Well, at a recent presidential
election, every ward in my city except
possibly one, went one way; the most
awful landslide in the citys political
history. Wards which were counted on
for thousands in favor of the demo-
cratic ticket went the other way. And
labor wards didn't do a thing to the
democratic ticket. And after the cleo
ton our downtown organization held
a meeting. And Billy" Brennan,
shrewd politician and brainy, opened
the ball with some such remarks as
these: I'm glad to see so many smil-
ing faces here today. | want to con
graduate this organization and the
country on the victory we have won.
The republicans put up a democrat,
and the democrats put up a republican
and the democrat Won" Applause.
Intelligent labor wants nothing more
than square deal" Convince them
that a man is for them and they will
vote for him. But ignorant and preju-
diced human nature in whatevdr
groove, can not be brought to see it's
own interests against its prejudices.
Ignorance is a force which can not be
intelligentily applied. The leverage of
the labor vote will not be vital force
in this country until the bulk of its
forces get nearer together in the way
of dismissal of racial, religious and
: social differences. An engineer get
ting salary of 5000 or $3.50 a month
does he consider the section hand or
ack-walker" who gets out of his
way as his equal? A man who gets
maybe $50 or $40 a month and handles
7 a pick or shovel! | don't say that he
: doesn't, but does he? Is that average
: human nature?
Another thing that helps suppress
S the strength of the labor vote as tt
d a free expression is the bread-and-but
S ter question: the "full dinner pail ar
i ing in to this cry? | don't! Suppose
e the head of factory or plant says he
l. will have to shut down If a certain
/ man isn't elected. The employe may
0 reason to himself: ''It doesn't make
t any difference to me who's elected, bu
if this plant shuts down I lose by job
:, If | lose my job I'm on the street.
e To expect him to .assert the God-giver
e right of the franchise" as some orator!
put it, is to expect him to ignore the
S rule that "self-preservation is the frs
s law of nature" You can't hand tha
e ''poppycock' to man with wife ant
i family depending on him for their ex
e istence I don't mean for their com