Los Angeles herald., 1910-08-22
w. G.. T. u. Department
By JULIA A. GARRISON

In writing of the different depart
ments of work in which our w. c. L.
u. women are engaged there is none
at the present time more important
than that of Temperance and Labor
The aim of this department Is to keep
our membership in touch with the best
social thought and practice of the day;
to advance the interests of labor and
enlist the cooperation OF wageworkers
everywhere in the overthrow of the
liquor traffic. The methods are con-
ferences for the study of the labor
question, circular letters, addresses,
articles for the press and the study In
our unions of standard books on the
history OF labor, and especially of the
present labor conditions; also the study
of the basis upon which our penal sys-
tenn rests with the hope that in time 1t
shall be established upon higher and
more righteous principles.
Women all over the country are TAX
ing a deeper interest in labor problems
than ever before. Working women
wage earners-of whom there are more
than 100000 in the United States, are
beginning to organize for their own
protection against the rapacity and
greed of their employers who would
exact long weary hours of toll for
wage barely sufficient to keep soul and
body together. They are organizing to
protect their sons and daughters who,
in this age of money worship, of greed
and gold, are obliged to sell their man
hood and their womanhood In the
great labor market in order to secure
and hold a job, which perhaps others
have abandoned and gone on strike
because 1t was such poorly paid job.
1t has been said: 1.-THE labor question
is always more than an economic ques-
tion-a struggle as to hours and wages
afNtkN Rn1
ton wherein the souls of men, made In
the likeness and image Of God, are at
stake. The question as to what kind
of men and women employees are be-
coming through influences imposed
upon them by the conditions of their
toll, takes Precedence over any question
of profit"
There is a commodity in the market
which has the magic power of creating
more than it costs to produce 1t. This
is the labor power Of the human being
the wage worker. He sells 1t for q
certain amount of money, whichSco
petition reduces to the average neces-
saries of life required to produce 1t;
to so much food, clothing and shelter,
which are absolutely necessary to re-
cuperate his lost powers on the next
morning and to reproduce new gen
GRAFTON of wage workers after this one
I
to the employing class, and is called
"the surplus value"
Students of sociology are finding out
| in recent years that there Is nothing
valued so cheaply as human life and
energy, This fact is being demon
strated by workers in mines, factories,
sweat-shops, and even in the vast
army of ordinary toilers.
Where is the story and where is the song
OF the heroes of peace and the martyrs of
wrong?
They fight their battles in shop and mine,
| They die at their post and make no sign.
And tho living envy the fortunate dead.
AS they fight for a plttance Of butterless bread.
They herd like beasts in a slaughter pen.
They live like cattle, but suffer like men.
Is that life that has nothing to hope or gain
But i1l-paid labor and beds of pain?
Fame. where is your STORY and where is your
For the martyrs of peace and the victims of
wrong?
Rev. Charles r. Brown, in his $50
cial Message of the Modern Rulpit,
saws: "It is universal law that men
| should bear one anothers burdens
| any effort to effect a permanent es-
| cane from that obligation is as futile
as the effort to avoid the responsibili-
ties imposed by the law of gravitation.
It is universal law that the strong
should bear the infirmities of the weak,
not allowing them to be crushed by
disproportionate burdens. Society
must accept it's life. if it is to con-
tinue to live at all, upon those terms:
1t is a universal law that we are all
.members one of another. Truly mo
man liveth unto himself
In sharp contrast to these main
springs of action is the policy of greedy
capital, (which binds heavy burdens
grieyous to be borne and lays them on
mems shoulders, but they themselves
will not move them with one of their
| fingers" Evidences of these burdens
are seen in the methods of the sweat
shops and tenement house misery; in
the enslaving power Of mines and fac
tories; in the monopolies of coal and
oil supplies. These methods present
pictures more awful and lurid than any
| the world has ever seen before.
Senator Young says: "The practical
application of love would permeate So
ciety until private gain In the means