The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1912-05-17

number twentythree. There was no
heart under the ribs of the huge ma
chine. Our young lives went into it
like the fresh sweet apples into the
cider mill. Baldwin, Russet, Bellflower,
and Blush, a stream of yellow profits
flowed steadily, and as one crop was
used up another came on. When be-
wildered at my first task | could talk
it over in natural fashion and 90 back
to my toll soothed. | had a place for
defense, though even then the 'gaffer,"
as his title hints, bad the advantage
What chance has Il poor man now if he
goes a little wrong or is cruelty belied
or iealously misiudged? He is helpless
and dares not risk his childrens bread
by any protest; as well send an un-
armed soldier against a Gatling gun as
one lone workman against a rich cor
poration. His spirit is broken before he
can get through the barred gates to ask
for justice. So the workers had to affil-
late, band together, to try to help each
other and deal on equal terms with COM
bined wealth and allied ownership, of
the tools of the trades asking for col
lective bargaining, shorter hours, and a
living wage. These men, in their guilds,
are fine grained and fraternal. There
is naught in their pledges or obligations
but it is based ON the Book, or ballasted
with the moral law. Their plans are
rooted in the nature of things and sup
ported by Revelation. They shame
many others in some reaches of kindly
brotherhood.
| can remember when men were over
worked by the trick of setting a swift
expert to do a share, and forcing all
others on the same job to keep pace
with him. Oft have | seen those natur-
ally little slower straining to keep up
and at last dismissed, crushed by an un-
fair rule. Now proper measure of
work is fixed by the union and the
slave driving abolished. The strong are
helping those who need aid. Is not this
the second great commandment Is it
not the latest born of our Sayiours
'heavenly twins?" Does it not quadrate
with the Golden Rule? Is their motto
not eloquent: Each for all-all for
EACH? | will undertake to find some
thing like this in my New Testament.
Paul knew it and it is only Jesus idea
of the Fatherhood brought down to date
and written on a wage -earner'S work
ing card" l was a member of labor
union" forty years ago. am mem
Der of one now, and | expect to die in
good standing in the Methodist church
and in the Bricklayers' local for in
both | find my kind of folks, and the
sacred is balanced by the secular.
Looking back four decades | see gain
in almost every department of labor.
The toilers who carry civilization for
ward are not foes to the church. Let
no man affirm this They are not cal
lous to religion. l have broken bread
with them on the wall, and to them at
the altar. | know their hopes, fears,
ideals. Some are ignorant, some foolish,
some camal; all sinful and sadly astray
like the rest of humanity, but stumbling
gropingly upward, and, at the core,
sound as nut, full of mercy and love.
| note a distinct advance on their part
toward the Kingdom. 1t is dawning on
them that the church is their real
friend, that the road to the goal is
long and steep and all up grade and
they need help.
| wish every clergyman had to learn
a manual trade. Working with the
hands sweats out many sickly theories,
makes the mind eupeptic and puts one
on the granite of actuahty. He sees
the formidable front of things as they
are" Even the preachers speech is
often foreign dialect to them. It il
academic, bookish, cloistered. The aver
age minister of this age goes from higl