Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-09-02
THE DAY OF ORGANIZED LABOR

On Monday next will be celebrated the legal
holiday that has more significance than any
other to American industry In its observance
of Labor Day Globe is not to be outdone by any
other city in the great southwest The COM
bined local unions are making every prepare
ton to execute program that will be a credit
to the greatest mining center and union strong
hold of Arizona. In the fact that organized
labor here is in 1ourishing condition there
is reason for qualification. Since the first
pages were written into the history of labor
guilds in free America, where liberty is life and
sturdy manhood and virtuous womanhood is re-
ligion, a general review of all events in the
labor pageantry of the past brings to mind an
overwhelming array of facts in favor of the
workingman's organization.
And in recounting the good results of labor
federations the benefits are not found to be on
the side of the workers only, but are shown to
have brought much good to employers as well.
That old slogan, United we stand, divided we
fall, - that was so much in utterance by the
American public a half century ago was never
more true than i'll its application TO the efforts
of the workingman to protect himself, his fam.
lily and his home against the despotism that he
might otherwise be subjected to at the hands of
those whose lot it happens to be to hold the
purse strings of the countrys industry.
1t would be unfair to say that all capitalists
would resort to tyranny if given unlimited OPP
portunities, for to the everlasting credit of the
United States there are a number of her men
engineering great enterprises, who are openly
and vigorously on the side of the employee and
do all consistent with good principles to make
the homes and the work Of the men in their SER
vice as pleasurable as possible. But it mist
also be admitted, to the shame of the generous
whole souIed element in the capitaistic class,
that just as among clergymen, not all are saint
ed, in the ranks of our great captains of
industry there are many who abuse the privi-
leges that thrift or circumstances have placed
in their control.
But whether the employer is fair or unjust,
the labor union is an institution that works
great good to both the director and the man of
toll who makes his success possible In organ
ization there is always strength and systematic
progress. Whereas workingnen, as individu-
ais, never have the opportunity to lay their
grievances before their employers, the union
labor affords medium through which every
worker may arrive at an understanding with an
official and one that the official is bound to re-
spect. The result is greater harmony on both
sides than would otherwise be possible
Time was when the labor union was not need
ed But that age is now past. And the epoch
when it again returns may fairly be regarded
as the millennium. A century ago the man who
worked at the trades was a creator. As a gen
eral thing, he worked in his own home and
turned out, with his hands and the skill of a
mind trained to do at least one thing well. a
product of which he might be justly proud The
buyer of his wares knew the maker at least.
by name and usually through intimate personal
relations. The individual manufactures of that
day came naturally to take a great pride in
producing something better than the other man
working at the same trade just around the cor
ner. If he was exceptionally clever in his trade,
the fame of his handwork might easily spread