The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-04-22

Now, men, we can win. We can win
because we are right, and because there
are more of us. The whole problem to-
day is whether we have got as much
sense in getting together and standing
together rs the scab employers have on
5hc one hand, or as the free working
men of Great Britain had on the other
hand. | was talking to wise and clever
pirate of industry, one of the able men
whom God gave great gifts to, who had
the mind that sees, the mind that grips
the mind that Analyses, and he said
Robbins, you cannot win" [ said
'Whv?" "Why?" he said "the fool
working men of this country haven't
got sense enough to keep together, and
as long as we keep you divided we can
skin you any day in the year."
A long time ago one of the wise men
of the world said, "a house divided
against itself cannot stand" 1t is as
true of the great temple of human labor
as of any other house built by the hands
of men. That great temple has been
laid course by course, and bloody fling.
crs have handled the bricks, and hungry
women have starved that it might be
built, and little children have been de-
prived of daily food that it might be
established among men. / do not be-
lieve that the house of labor will fall;
but ] do know that the house of labor
must cease to be divided if it shall hope
to stand. A long time ago it was said
that the stone that the builders have
rejected has become the head stone
of the corner; and the stone which the
builders of empire have rejected in the
history of men has been the great group
of toll. That stone that was when in
the great council of the people of Great
Britain, there was present the members
of that despised group-the group of
toil-who stood there in parliament for
great human values, the greatest values
for the empire that had ever been
advocated in that great house of Par
Lament in the history of mankind. My
friends, great labor man of England
with whom some men delight to differ,
but who is nevertheless the best ex-
preston of my thought of what is best
in labor, is member of the ministry in
Great Britain-John Burns. He came up
from the people, and whether or not he
is able to stand against the temptation
of the times, nevertheless, he is the first
man who ever sat behind the council
table of Great Britain with an intimate
personal knowledge of the life of men
and women who toll. How long will it
be before America, the great industrial
nation of the world, has at the council
table of her nation some man who. in
his own body, has suffered the burdens
of common toll, who bears on his own
back some of the testimony of the com.
mon lot of poverty and labor? Men, il
well becomes the Republic to have some
man of labor at its council table. if fol
no other reason than to bear that tes
timony from the men and women who
have made America what she is today
It was said by that brave man and
follower of the simple carpenter of Naz.
areth, Charles Stelzle, on this platform
rhis afternoon. that the leisure class die
not make good. My friends, I wanv :,
add to that just this; The leisure elias:
in the history of mankind never did make
good; it never will make good, because IL
never can. Whenever a boy or girl i:
raised under conditions where he does
not have to work for what he gets
whenever he is surrounded by privilege
and opportunity, he becomes careless and
indifferent, and his mind and body is
not capable of the service that the work
ing child, if he has good food and COCO
air and decent conditions, is capable Of
giving to the world.
The battle is in better shape today thar
ever before. More men of labor under
stand what their great work is to be
More men outside of labor's rank are II
sympathy with the ultimate purpose
the citizenship rights of the manhood and
womanhood of labor than ever before
Let us gather courage, let us dare to be
lieycd in each other, let us dare to be
lieve in our leaders. My friends, the
other fellows don't dicker and divide thei,
forces in the face of the enemy on the
day of battle. God grant that the day
will come in the history of organized