The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1908-09-07

| C1lCAGO, SepC. f.-bT yam Is Id
Dor day guest and the whole cele-
bratiOn centers around him today.
When he arrived from Lincoln he
was met at the depot and escorted
! to the Auditorium hotel by spe-
cial committee of so. National
Chairman Mack greeted the Ne
braskan, and Kern accompanied
Bryan through the days events.
At noon the candidates were
guests of honor at a dinner by the
Iroquois club. With the state COM
mittee they Immediately afterward
proceeded to the balcony, where
they viewed the parade in which
practically all the organizations
participated.
The exercises were begun after
the parade disbanded and Bryan
had been cheered by the paraders.
He faced tremendous throng
when he started his speech.
In his introduction Mr.. Bryan
pointed out that labor organization
helps those outside of it as we'll as
members by securing increased
wages and improved conditions for
all. He did not wish to be under
stood as saying labor organization
is perfect, but argued that every
thing of human management has
imperfections and showed that
those with whom the laboring man
comes in contact are equally likely
to err. These errors, he urged,
should be restrained by laws that
will apply to all alike in moments
of temptation. Every citizen, he
said, should learn that the ballot
is both sword and shield to protect
him from injury and to enforce his
rights. He would yield to none in
insistence upon obedience to law.
Mr.. Bryan continued:
The first thing that is needed
for a better understanding of labor
questions is the recognition of the
equal rights of all, and, second
more intimate acquaintance. We
have rights that may be called nat
ural rights; they are inherent; we
have them because we are human
beings. The government did not
bestow them upon us-the govern
ment cannot rightfully withdraw
them from us. We all come into
the world without our volition; the
environment of youth largely de-
termines the course Of our lives,
and this environment is not of our
choosing. We live under the same
moral obligations and are respon-
sible to the same Supreme Being.
We have our needs that must be
supplied; we require food, clothing,
shelter, companionship. We have
our domestic ties and the tender
ness of these ties is not measured
by wealth or position in society.
Man has used petty distinctions to
separate society into different
classes, but these distinctions are
Insignificant when compared with
the great similarities that unite us
in common destiny and impel us
toward a common end.
THE labor organization has been
seriously handicapped by the fact
that it has been-and | am not sure
that it has not been done unwit-
tingly-yoked up with the indus
trial combinations known as trusts.
The proneness of trust defenders
to use the labor organization as an
excuse for combinations in re-
straint of trade has aroused the
suspicion that they have been
classed together for the purpose OF
shielding the combinations OF cap
ital. AS the result of IS years OF
!, antitrust legislation, only one man
has been given penal sentence
) for violating the federal law on
this subject, and that man was a
} member of labor organization
rather than a trust magnate. The
laboring man is justified in his de-
mand that a distinction shall be
drawn between the labor organiza-
ton and the industrial monopoly.
1.-THE trust and the labor organ
ization cannot be described In the
same language. The trust mag
mates have used their power to
amass swollen fortunes, while no
one will say that the labor organ
ization has as yet secured for its
members more than their share of
the profits arising from their work,
But there are fundamental differ.
ences The trust is combination
of dollars; the labor organization
is an association of human beings,
"In a trust few men attempt to
control the product of others; in a
labor organization, the members
! unite for the protection Of that
which is their own, namely their
! own labor. which, being necessary
70 their existence, Is q part OF
them. The trust deals with dead