The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-02-17
VOICE OF uNIoN1sM.
'.Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might
win,
By fearing to attempt

forced to battle for freedom from those
who would live on the fruits of his labor
without themselves contributing thereto
says the American Flint.
The oppressed at all times have doubt
ed the wisdom of change although their
condition by no means could be made
worse. individuals time and again have
suffered and died for prapa eating a rem
edy, and cross cruelty, gibbet, guillitine,
bayonet and bullet have silenced the voice
and erased the teachings of those who
taught that labor should be free.
TITS true that conditions have changed,
are constantly changing, as have the wea-
pons of our oppressors, and just as true
that we must change and that we, too,
must change our weapons.
The injunction and blacklist of the
modern master is as brutal as the lash,
in the hands of a Simon Legree.
The garnishee, chattel mortgage and
loan shark are as cruel as the landlords
and evictions of ireland.
Starvation is as inhuman as cruciixion
bullet from a Krag -Jorgenson or a
Mauser in the hands of a soldier may be
more expeditions but 10 less effective
than the axe and block of the headsman;
and an arm or leg is just as useless after
being separated from q worker 8 body
by buzz saw, railway train or any of
the proit-making machinery as when sew
cred by Ratchet welded by one of King
Leopold 8 (rccently died, thank Cody
murderers.
Against these brutal weapons the work
err has battled for centuries, and one after
another of his struggles has been made
futile by the superior weapons of his
adversaries, the greatest of which has
been the press; with which the burden
bearer has been lulled to sleep and his
sting extracted.
Our voice must be as loud as their
voice. Our pen keen and cutting, and
our papers the means by which we short
en- distance, save. time, and draw closer
together until we realize the true mean
ing of organization, systematization and
solidarity, and present a united front to
any foe.
We have been taught by the capitalist
and his hirelings who have prostituted
their intellect for the glitter of gold, that
it is wrong for us to strike and boycott,
but right for them to blacklist and en-
join, and through their paid hirelngs to
bullpen us and perforate our bodies with
a leaden diet.
And Still the worker sleeps and doubts
the ACCESSIBILITY of change
Those who WELD the pen have ever
pick the pigmies.
oil ~
powers of education have been the great
est.
History records Il time when the few
existing books were locked and chained
and but few permitted access to them.
1t has never been considered wise by
the few that the many should be educated
and though this is as true today as ever,
the opportunities for the masses are
greater than ever, if they will but realize
their mission and their strength to fulfill
it.
''He who would be free himself must
strike the blow'
Man did not always have the powers
of communication he now has of speaking
and writing. Printers' ink is compare
lively modern invention, and with it
and the telephone, the telegraph and
other modern means of communication
and transportation which enables us to
quickly congregate to discuss and dissem-
mate our knowledge to each other, we
may yet herald bloodless victory.
The voice of the toiler must be heard
in meeting hall, in shop, in mill and in
mine.
The men, mighticr than the sword, must
be welded by the worker himself until
the truth is burned into the hearts of
men:
''Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie.
Which we ascrbe to heaven; the fatal
sky
Give us free scope; only, doth backward
Our slow designs when we ourselves are
dull.''
The fact is much to be deplored that
with most boys and girls the boy who
spends the greatest amount of money