The Green Forest tribune., 1908-08-21

my grandfa h r's Expert Calls It farm in Ohio Monkey Moon was startled one '''''i'' J night by a fear - some apparition. The cows had de layed coming home until after dark, and l had been sent for them. Coming home through the lane With them l 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-iuspiring. I left the cows to their fate and ran home terror-strick- en. And afterward, I was told that what 1 had seen was only hollowed- out pumpkin, with holes cut for eyes and mouth. and a 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. I am in sym pathy with labor and labor unions Not that I flatter myself this fact will make any difference to either la Dor or capital. am, of course,z op- posed to violence, and the '.sympa- thetic strike" Violence is both wrong and absurd, and when thing is both bad and ridiculous, the limit of folly is reached. Sympathetic strikes" usual ly take the liberty of utterly ignorin g 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 whole
 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 a boy I worked at a 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 mortifying to pride and comfort, but the poverty of the very poor is he'll
 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 keymoonshine' True, this vote oc- casionally elects a mayor in some of the cities. but these exceptions only prove the rule. And I will show you by the logic and reason of the situ- ation, in America, that this is a fact Politicians who will attempt to demonstrate" that a candidate is eith- CT strong" or weak" by reason of the support os antagonism of this ele- ment in politics are either knaves, or men who cannot see further than their own noses. It is idle to call atten- tion to what has been done in Europe by the leverage of the labor vote for the conditions there are vitally diff ferent. The question of what lis" the labor vote, how it will be cast, and how far it can be depended on. has been will-o-the-wisp which has lured many an aspiring politician into the quagmire of disappointment and de- feat. It is, in its last analysis, a negligible quantity in the voting strength; that is. a quantity to be disregarded, as it stands at present And this statement is made with a full appreciation of it's actual strength in numbers. But numbers do not al ways spell cohesion; nor do all the stalks in a field of corn stand the same way.
 During the period of my active par ticipation in politics I lived in la