The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-04-15

Now, my friends, when | say we can
not escape this struggle on what grounds
do | base that statement? Not on guess
work; | base it on facts. | want to
say to you, men of labor, you who rep
resent Americas toiling thousands, that
know something of the labor end of the
game also, something of unorganized Ia
Dor in a Southern mine where | work
ed day after day for twelve hours day
side by side with colored men, and got
dollar a day for the work That is
not especially high wages. We were
not organized; we We're poor, common
white trash on the one hand, and poor,
worthless niggers on the other hand, and
we were making people rich while we
worked there. We were good enough to
do that. | didn't like it; | don't deny
that for moment. / broke away and
went to Alaska. | was one of the bunch
of men who went up there aud fought
their way over Chilcoot Summit and
down White Horse Rapids. was one
of those who did well. Most of them
went broke. When we passed on over
the great frozen stretches of Alaska in
the spring of 9S we stopped on a cliff
that looked out over Behring Sea to the
utmost limit of the Western continent
of North America, And the great cold
there worked the same magic the great
heat does in the desert. 1t lifted up far
over the tops of the icebergs and the
ia, seventy miles away, and we saw on
the horizon the cliffs of that old Asia,
that ancient human hive from which
came forth the men that made Western
civilization. | didn't know what it meant
then. | turned back and went through
the valley and over the mountains of
Alaska and made a stake, so | am free
/ to be here today. Now know what it
meant. 1t meant that the great front
Ter, which for hundred years gave an
opening to the surplus labor of America,
had passed forever from the world. 1t
meant that that great Western move
ment that came out from the East, that
came across Western Europe and laid the
foundation of human liberty and Justice
in that tight little island" then forced
its way across the ocean and establish
ed on the Atlantic shore the thirteen
colonies; then passed across the Mississ-
ippi and the Rocky mountains. until its
waves met the waves of the Pacific,
would rest here. 1t rested there awhile,
and then the old hunger for opportunity,
the hunger of the boy to try his life
against the life of the world, drove the
men of '0S over the Chilcoot Summit but
it will not drive them in the future any
where. They will 90 out into the ocean
and drown.
Today, as you sit here discussing the
great interests of humanity bound up in
the cause of organized labor, in every lit
tie town of the country, in every farm
er's home, there is bright eyed boy
thinking of the future, thinking of leav-
ing his narrow surroundings and try
ing himself against the world Where
will he go? He will not 90 to the front
Ter; he is not thinking about it; it has
ceased to exist He is thinking of San
Francisco, of Denver of Chicago, of New
York. of the industrial centers of Amer
lea, and he is coming there tonight; he
is marching, while you sit here, to come
into the labor struggle of the great in
dutsrial cities, with no knowledge of the
struggle of labor for a hundred years to
get hours and wages, without any knowl-
edge of the strain and labor of count
less men and women to make conditions
fair What does he want? He wants
opportunities. He will work under any
conditions, he will take long hours and
small pay, and hope for promotion some
time. He is the ready tool of this com