The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1911-09-04
MONDAY, SEPT. 4, 1911.
SOME LABOR DAY THOUGHTS

SOME LABOR DAY THOUGHTS
Today the American people pause
IN the rush of enterprise to pay HON.
age to labor. Not in all states, but
in so large a majority of them that
the custom is national in its signiti-
canoe, Labor day has become an es-
tablished holiday. Not only is it a
day Of recreation but in a general
sense, a day Of celebration-not of a
particular event, but Of the develop
Ment of q condition that has many
elements. 1t is. not a day devoted to
an eight hour labor law, an anti
sweat shop law, an an.i-child labor
law, a factory sanitation law, or a
b!-mon1hly pay law. Nor yet is it a
day to be devoted to the particular
celebration of the recognition of con-
Citation or compulsory arbitration,
or strike prerogatives. But 1t is a
celebration in honor of the progress,
even ii not the completion OF ali these
and more too.
The progress Of labor has been
slow and difficult. From the days
when Roman slaves-who were in
very truth the laborers Of that civil
lisat:oa-were scourged, scared with
no: irons which their own hands were
forced to heat, and even killed at the
within or caprice Of the master, to the
present condition and dignity OF la
Dor is a step a thousandfold greater
than the progress Of civilization dur
Ing the same period. Labor is no
longer the covering, cringing SER
want. It is the equal, If not even
more. Of the master. The condition
OF labor is the hall mark of our
civilization and its progress marks
the advance Of the destiny of man.
1t would perhaps be oyerstating
to say that the present condition Of
labor is due entirely to the develop
ment Of unionism. But the student
Of labor history 10 forced to admit
that much Of 1t has come either d.
rectly or theoretically from that
source. Labor unions are not a mod
ern institution. The Oldest ~fraternal
organization in the world was orig
inally a labor union. The artisans
that Hiram. king Of Tyre. hired to
King Solomon for the building of his
temple. were a turbulent lot. There
was naturally a latent quarrel be-
tween them and their fellow work
men. So the stone masons-who were
the larger portion Of the scores Of
thousands who labored on that great
building-Sermed q guild with the
square and compassionate Of their
tade-as emblems and with such Sc.
cret signs as would enable one to
recognize another ven If strangers.
That this first labor organization be-
came the foundation Of the brother
hood Of man, does not detract from its
Swn original splendor nor mar the
luster Of the institutions which have
sprung from it.
Uniontsm has not moved forward
With unchecked strides since the
e1ilding of Solomons' temple. Indeed,
its condition for twenty centuries aft
er that time was no better, If as good,
as when the hewers of wood and the
bearers of burdens wrought in the
forests Of Lebanon under the over
seers of the Jewish king. The last
century has seen all, and the last half
OF it nearly all the advance in labor
conditions that is seen today.
Turning from the past with its slav-
cry of labor in which the English
law of master and ervant has its
foundation. with the horror of its
sweatshops and underpaid and under.
fed toiling millions. even as the first
half of the last century saw it. to
the present condition of equality OF
power. and then to the future, It is