The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-02-14
URGES A new PARTY
T0MAKE LABOR FREE.
One Must Be Born to End
Industrial Slavery, Says
the Rev. j. III. Holmes at
a Lincoln Meeting.

New York. Feb. 14-The Rev. John
Haynes Holmes Of the Church of the
Messiah. speaking at union church
services in memory of Lincoln in the
Hudson Theatre, declared that q new
political party was badly needed now,
a political party with a social vision,
not the Socialist Party, but one which
would give itself to the abolition of
industrial slavery.
IF Abraham Lincoln were here to-
day." said Mr.. Holmes, che would lead
the movement to strike the shackles
from the moral slaves of the present
day just as he struck them from the
chattel slaves of the past for moral
slavery is the great issue of our time
and les at the very root of the prob
lem which has already brought on the
industrial warfare, with the employers
on one hand and the workmen on the
other, struggling for living wage"
Mr.. Holmes was the last speaker on
Woman and Child" He seemed to
strike the spark which set the enthu-
siasm of his audience alight and many
times he had to pause to let the ap-
plause die away. go ''-i
'Lncoln's proclamation struck the
shackles from 5000, 900 slaves" he said
To-day We are face to face with an
moral slavery it is not possible for
mans wife and child to be sold to a
distant land as were the wives and
children of the chattel slaves. But
our modern slavery is far worse than
this. Employers believe at present
whether the moral integrity Of their
employees is preserved or not.
why, even the owners Of the chat
tel slaves in the old days did better
than that. 1t wasn't profitable to al
low their slaves to be ill-treated or
worked to death. Simon Legree, who
dashed his men and women slaves to
death, wasn't good business man. A
piece of machinery must be carefully
preserved. But the women and
children-the human machines-they
are used up by the employer Of to-
day and cast into the rubbish. heap.
This moral slavery is more terrible
than the chattel slavery of ante-bel-
lum times.
''Iet us take a walk into one of the
modern factories. We see the men and
women toiling in long rows beside the
wonderful pieces of intricate machin-
cry. It's dangerous for them, yes.
Every minute there is the chance of
losing an arm or hand, perhaps even
their lives. Now, safeguards can be
placed On every type of machinery
made today. I think to protect the
workmen from the machines they op-
crate is a step in the right direction.
Employers liability laws are needed
needed badly. Employers pay the ex-
pense Of repairing the machines that
are broken in their establishments.
Why should they not pay for the re-
pair of the human machines that are
broken there?
"It is not the problem of a wicked
Individual but of a damnable system.
The slowest ship in a squadron sets
the pace for the squadron. The
meanest man in business sets the pace
for all his competitors.
collective action is the only re-
course. 1t is up to us to back the
trades unions to the limit, for they rep
resent the collective action. The eth
les to-day in the world of industry are
the ethics of open warfare. ] do not
believe in bloodshed and the destruc-
ton of property. But let me tell you
this. All of the property destroyed
in strikes is not destroyed by the
strikers, nor are all the shots that
kill fred by them.
81 am strongly inclined to believe
that we and our children will one day
look back on the bloodshed that char
acterizes the labor wars, and say
that it was the same kind of blood
as was shed at the Boston massacre
at the opening of the Revolutionary
War. And they are fighting for
what? For the living wage. Think
of it-living wage-which means a suf-
ficient wage on which to live.