The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1910-02-10
GLORIOUS
Is American Freedom
when Nation is Com
rolled by Fifteen
-- Men
Grip the very Vitals
fo the People, Defying
the Courts and the Gov
ernI0ent.

Rev. Henry Frank, of the Independent
Liberal church in New York city, in u
recent sermon made some interesting and
caustic remarks the great meat boy
colt, which he ridiculed and derided as
a, spasm OF popular stupidity. In part,
he said:
"A strange predicament, indeed! The
whole American people, S0,0OO,O0O strong
held at hunger s length by fifteen little
men! o proud Americans, how glorious
is your freedom! When in the history
of the world his whole nation been
held in the palms of n few. True Rome
had its trlumvirate, and Cassius moancd
that there was room enough in Rome
when there was in it but one only man.
But when Rome had reached that stage
it was on the verge of dissolution When
three men held Rome in the grip of their
palms, Rome fell, in Caesars 8 person,
bleeding at great Pompcy IS statute! Yet
here is America, still in the vigor of
youth, with not sign of approaching
scnility, gripped at the very vitals by u
handful of it's many citizens .defying
courts, protests and uprsing.''
After ridiculing the folly of the meat
and food boycott, and parodying Ham
let soliloquy with ''To starvc or not
to starve, that is the question: Frank
OF the subject. He said:
There is a strike, however, which
might be undertaken by the Iaborers of
the land that would speedily bring the
trusts to their senses. Do not starve to
frightcn the trusts said he, ''but strike
to frighten them. If all the workers in
every factory Of food products, in every
slaughter house and abattoir in the land,
unite in general strike for an increase
of-VHagcs ir-proportion to the increase
in food stuff prices, and stick to their
demand till their wages are increasedl
They would enlist the sympathy of
the entire nation, and would perhaps
cause number of sympathetic strikes
in other branches of labor, till the gem
eral industry Of the nation would be so
affected the trusts would have to per.
mancntly lower the process of foodstuffs
or proportiinately raise the wages of the
workers. Then the workingmen would
win not by the beggarly process of vol
untary starvation, but by dgnifed de-
mand for their just rights and ameni-
ties.
The present boycott is not in the in
terest of the workers, but of the middle
class and the semi-rich. The workers
would never have been invited to partic.
ipate in this boycott if the semi-rich
could have forced the trusts without their
aid. Let labor learn to stand on it's own
dignfed interests and just requirements
The workers are the strongest power in
the land. They have not yet utilized this
power for their own interests as they
should, and it behoovcs them to look more
deeply into the economic principles in
volvcd before they lend themselves to Il
cause that demeans and emaciates but
will not benefit or ennoble
''The only wise conclusion to be drawn
is not that the trusts are to be annihil-
atcd, but that their relation to the gov
ernment must be transposed. Instead of
the trusts owning the government and
the as they are rapidly doing,
the government must own and control
the trusts for the general good of the
people,