The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-10-06

cal acts against American citizens and
haven't told half the tale. Right here
it becomes necessary to say for the
ten t~housandth time that there are
scores of honest, law-abiding union
men who deplore and are in no way
responsible for the long Infamous e c
ord of the Labor Trust" under Its
present management, but they don't
seem to stop it.
The men who manage, who pull the
strings and sguide the policy have
made the record and it stands, as
made by them.
Examine, If you please, the record
Of a string Of members of the Amer
lean Federation Of Labor and you Will
view a list of crimes against Amer
leans, s%tupendous beyond belief. They
defy the laws, sheer at the courts,
incite mobs and are aVowed enemies
Of the peaceable citizens Of all classes.
This band Yields an iron bar over
their subjects and drives them to
idleness whenever tAey want to call a
strike or exact extra pocket money
for themselves. .
Men don't want to be thrown out
of work and lose their livelihood, but
what can they do when the smuggling
and numbering committee stands al
ways ready to do them" if they try
to work.
The poor women and helpless chill
dren suffer and no one dares present
their case to the public. They must
suffer in silence for they have no way
to right their wrongs, while the no
toriety-seeking leaders carry out their
work.
These men cannot thus force OPP
preston on the weak and innocent or
use them to bring newspaper notice to
themselves and money to their pock-
cts unless they can hold them in
line"
Therefore, with the craft Of the fox
and venom of the serpent they devise
the union label" and tell the public
to buy only articles carrying that
label.
Smooth scheme isn't it?
They extract q fee from every
union man, and in order to get these
monthly fees, they must hold the
workers in the union" and force
manufacturers to kick out all indie
pendent e
Can anyone devise a more COM
plete and tyrannical trust?
If allowed full sway, no i%ndepend-
ent man could keep working in a free
factory, for the goods wouldn't sell,
no matter how perfectly they be made.
Then, when the factory has been
forced to close and the employees get
hungry enough from lack of wages
the workers must supplicate the
union leaders to be allowed" to pay
their fines (for not becoming mem
bers before) and pay their monthly
fees to the %purse-fat managers of the
Labor Trust. Thereupon (under Or
ders) before the factory be allowed
to start they must force the owners
of the business to put on the union
label" or strike, picket the works,
and turn themselves into sluggers and
criminals towards the Independent
workers who might still refuse to
bend the knee and bow the head.
In the meantime babies and moth
ers go hungry and shoeless, but who
cares. The scheming leaders are
trained to talk Of the uplifting of la
Dor" and shed tears when they speak
of the brotherhood of man." mean
ing the brotherhood Of the Skinny
Maddens," "Sheas," "Gompers,". ct
al, always excluding the medium or
~high-grade Independent workers.
Perhaps you have noticed lately
that the makers Of the finest hats,
shoes and other articles have stopped
putting on the union label. Natural
ly the Labor Trust managers have or
dered their dupes to strike, lie idle,
scrap, fight, slug and destroy proper
ty to force the makers to again put
on 1.-The label" But for some reason
the buying public has been aroused
to the insults and oppression behind
1t, and in thousands of cases have re-
fused to buy any article carrying.
what some one named the tag of SER
vitude and OPPRESSION
The bound and gagged union slave
is fined from $500 to $4,000 if he
buys any article not bearing the
union label" Nevertheless, he,
time and again, risks the penalty and
buys free" goods simply in order to
help the fellow WorkingElan who is
brave enough to work where he
pleases without asking permission on
Bonded knees from the bulldozing
leaders who seek by every known
method of oppression and hate to
govern him.