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

labor when, after we have decided what
is hest, we will stand together, submit
ing and surrendering, ii need be, our per
senal choice in the interest fthe COM
Forward to the unity of organized labor,
not behind any party-thank God, dare
to he free! | have voted the Republi-
Fcan ticket and the Democratic ticket.
and I though ! was doing best for the
human vahles of this country any time it
comes to the front But, men, we
have no power worth considering on the
political field for any party or any prin-
ciple until we get together. | don't
know what the future holds. Even
such wise man as this old leader of
labor, Samuel Gompers, knows not what
the future holds. | do know that there
is no future of any kind for us until we
know enough to lay aside personal diff
ferences, agree on a program and then
stick to the bitter end
Men of labor, when we fought our way
over Chilooot Summit and went over the
glaciers of Alaska, there was one truth
hammered into us every day of the three
years we fought the trail. and that truth
was that men can only win when they
stand together. One man in Alaska is
a lost soul-he is as much lost as an
unorganized man in a big factory. You
know the condition of the uporganized
man. He has that lovely liberty that
some scab employers of labor preach so
much about-the liberty to work twelve
hours a day for fourteen cents an hour
and then have his wages lowered SO that
his employer can contribute $500 to the
building of some nice charitable institu-
ton. 1t is that liberty the cat has in a
tub out in the lake. The cat doesn't
want to stay in the tub-of course not.
The cat is at perfect liberty to jump
out in the lake any time it doesn't ike
the tub. That is the way with the un-
organized man or woman. They do not
have TO stay in the shop; they can 90
out and starve any time they choose
In that Alaska struggle, if one man lay
down the other could not go on. You
could not do anything without your
partner going hand in hand with YOU
Out of the struggle of that mighty time
and it was mighty struggle, there
came byword in Alaska, and every one
of the twenty thousand miners who
rislled their lives along the trail would
risk his life for that word. We used to
say, well, there are Just thpee things in
this world | hate more than any other
three things, and the first one of them
is gutter, the second is gutter and
the third is a quitter-damn him."
Now, friends, isn't that really the doe.
trine of the men of labor? As a matter
of fact, the man with money and labor
can go it alone. He can stand the strain,
but the man of labor and the woman of
labor have got to stand together or they
won't go anywhere ! wish that this
great convention would realize how i'm
portant in one aspect the organization
of women is. There are six-million wo-
men in gainful occupations in the United
States today. What about them? They
are being used today for the purpose
OF breaking down hours and wages in
every trade where they are not organ
lied. Why is it that some of the sweat
shops and big stores can work a girl
overtime during the rush season three
or four hours and send her back to her
little tenement home at the end of the
rush season? Why can not they work a
bod carrier that way? Because they
have to pay him time and half for
every minute over eight hours, because
he is organized. And the women who
: : - heir" exploited, who are being rob.
bed, who are being -aisinherited from
their right to home and to mater.
nifty, from having little children they can
call their own, are being robbed tonight
simply because they are unorganized,
Friends, high court in this land has
said that the great organization of the
United Hatters OF North America is a
conspiracy in restraint of trade be
cause those men toll other men and wo-
men of labor, in the interests of labor,
in the interests OF humanity, in the in
terests of themselves, not to wear Leowe's
hats-they are blooded-stained hats. |
say to you, my friends that goods made
under anti-social conditions. where there
is child Labor, women working overtime
and men being paid less than a fair wage
are of greater injury to this country
today than crime and pestilence in any
other form. The time will come when
the great moral value of organized labor
will be recognized in this land We talk
of wages and hours. That is the first
thing we have to talk about. | know
two hat factories in America, one or
ganized and the other norganized. They
are within three blocks of each other.
In the unorganized factory about a year
ago big stiff OF foreman Instituted a little