The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-21

face OF the earth that has adopted
the principle OF the sherman law
Their is not another country That has
in all its code such a law TO be USED
against the trade unions. There Is
not another country in which the real
trusts have been able to carry on a
campaign of displacement OF union
men. with the assistance of laws pro-
fessedly designed for the protection
of labor. There is not another country
whose captains of industry have en-
ployed foreign labOrers by the million
to break down the standards OF Nv
ing among its own people.
The steel trust, the tobacco trust,
the flour trust, \ beef trust, the
leather trust, the anthracite coal trust
do they today pay the American
standard of wages to more than ~
per cent Of their IabOrerS? The farce
OF the contract labor law is seen IN
their hosts OF immigrant employees.
For many years 1t has not been worth
while for the managers OF any large
industry to send abroad openly to
make contracts with intending imm1-
grants. The necessary trick Is SIM
pie. A few laborers in their employ
can on instigation by letter
to this country all the labOrers of
their home villages or communes who
are disposed to emigrate, an intima-
on as to where work ma be found
being sufficient. Or, the padrones
and so-called intelligence bureaus OF
the larger cities, New York princi-
pally, are in position to import and
distribute gangs of almost n num-
Der of men to any part of America.
ON these sources of common labor
the trusts have drawn while pursuing
a plan on a comprehensive scope for
cutting wages, for maintaining the
twelvt-hour Shift, for depriving thu r
of the rights and power
exercised through the trade unior-
Toward the union, and consequently
toward American labor and the Euro
pecn labor most nearly it's equal in
education and independent character,
the trusts have applied the principle,
arIje out in their transactions in
other respects, Of buying in the cheap
est markets and eliminating opposi-
ton.
Temporarily, in some notable In
stances, this policy Of the trusts to-
ward labor has beer partially sue
ccssful. But it may now be conf
IDENTIFY asserted that in adopting it
they made a fatal mistake. Not only
have they added force to the ugly an
ing on the part OF the American COM
mon people, and made it more Of a
certainty that their contest for per-
manency will be the more costly to
them and the more doubtful in its
issue, but it may be prophesied that
all their deliberate efforts to crush
out trade unionism among their en-
ployes will come to naught.
Each stage in the progress of the
trade union in this country has seen
it's appropriate methods for promot-
ing organization. At first, to form
local unions and then combine them
in embryonic district or national I'M
ions, volunteer missionaries as organ
izers and other officials, chiefly ad-
vanced the cause. Next, while al
lotting to effort its fitting
sphere Of duty, paid officials were en-
ployed, especially to conduct the or
ganization of the growing national
and International unions. A step fur
Their was taken when commissioned
organizers became a egula factor
Of the unions and assisted the inter
national officers, together forming a
corps eqnipped for their duties as
men for a profession, familiar with
| the labor laws, experienced as nego-
with the markets for the output of
industries, and accustomed to watch
legislators. Another profitable step
was establishing a labor press, every
industrial centre today having at least
one union newspaper. In all. propa-
ganda proceeding from these various
sources brought the spirit Of union
labor into every community IN the
country.
As a result, recruits no longer come
to the unions only as individuals,
each entering as a single onvert and
casting his lot with men perhaps un-
known to him.. The present process
| takes in men and women by the thou
sands. First spreads the genera SEN
timent among the people of an unor-
! ganized occupation that the union has
q positive, necessary, and inevitable
mission with the working c1asse--
. and not in a far-off future. In look
ing to it for help, the worker see that
they are depending upon themselves
and their fellow workers, an not upon
Ladies Bountiful and Lords Chart
table. Millions Of other workers
have obtained a foothold In freedom
by asserting themselves in a body
why not they? IT'S the truth, the liy-
ing truth-act on it. And moved by
q common impulse, the fncoherent
multitude becomes an organic entity:
IN it isolation has given way to soli-