The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1911-02-16
In America First of All

|
In many things America has Jagged
behind the progress of the world. Here
cntrenched power has seemed to cling
harder than. elsewhere. Here labor has
seemed slow to awake.
While the Legislative bodies of Ger
many, Austria, england, france, and n
| dozen other countries are filled with tho
| representatives of labor, in America the
workers whisper in the lobbies, cringe
| at the back doors and crawl before polit.
ical boodlers while begging for favors.
While in other lands old age is cared
for, the unemployed given help, children
| buried from industry, the courts shu;
out from industrial disputes, and those
| who fight on the battlefield of toll re-
pensive losing hazards Of class justice
in the United States We are all still
under the rule of the injunction, we
| watch babies work in Southern cotton
mills, while old age pensions, and in,
surancc for the injured, and the compul,
sorry idle are scarcely thought of by ..,e
| political rulers.
Yet, in spite of these things, it may
we'll happen that when the nations OF
the world march beneath the banner OF
| Industrial freedom that the foremost
place may be given to the United
| States.
1t is for us who know that road to
say.
lndustrially America stands in the
| foremost. Nowhere else has concentra-
ton proceeded so far. The trust is
| marked ..made in America
America is the melting pot" of the
earth. Its cosmopolitan peoples have
| been gathered from every hunting
ground of the wage-slave trader. Here
the crushing power of greed is pressing
them into compact mass that knows
| no nation save that of the disinheritcd
workers.
Though the growth of the Socialist
vote has been small, the vital inspira-
ton of the Socialist philosophy has en-
| tered into every mental fiber of the
| American worker 1t has inspired its
literature. 1t has torn asundcr old
political machines. 1t has furrowcd vast
| fields of thought and deed and har-
| rowcd them ready for the sowing OF the
crop.
True, the organized labor movement
has long held back from intelligent use
| OF the ballot. 1t has kept its political
ann tied to its side until sometimes
ii seemed to have withcrcd and lost
| the power to move. out now the thrill
OF life is entering into the unused mus
tf.ln CT
But it is moving. 1t is alive
We know how America moves. Some
times in panic, sometimes almost in
hysteria, always with swift suddenness
that startles and almost frightens.
We are on the eve of such a move
ment today. The avalanche that has
been so long gathering is waiting but
touch to bring it tumbling into the
valley. The plant that has lain dor
mant for the century is sending I'M
the great shoot ready for the blossom
ing.
The old society is crumbling wreck
Its political organizations are breaking
into fragments without form and void
of reason.
In dim way these wandering ideas,
and political outcasts are looking toward
Socialism. The light which appears
dimly as beacon of hope to labor. and
as n torch of destruction to the strabis.
mic eyes of the profit grabbcrs is the
Socialist movement. Once the true
character of that movement becomes
apparent. once the curtain of falsehood
and misrepresentation that now obscurcs
its view has been torn away there will
he such mighty rush of peoples to-
ward its illuminating light as this old
world never looked upon before.
We are at the turning point of Ameri-
can history. We are where much can
be done with little effort, for the little
effort will release mighty forces.
If those of us to whom the truth has
been given will but realize the power
that Is within reach of our hand, the
opportunity that has but to be graspcd.
the possibilities of the years that are
upon us, America may yet lead the pro-
cession of nations into the cooperative
commonwealth