The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1912-10-09
THIRD TERMER'S
joke ON LABOR
Brandeis Shows Right to Organ
ize is Not Recognized.
THE PLATFORM IS SILENT
Noted Lawyer Exposes the Flimsiness
of Promises Made to Workingmen ny
Perkins and His Candidate, Who
Stands for Private Monopoly.

Stands for Private Monopoly.
"The new party pledges itself to So
cial and industrial justice and specific
ally to work increasingly for effective
legislation looking to the prevention of
occupational diseases, overwork, invol-
untary unemployment and other in
furious effects incident to modern in
dustry,' but nowhere in that
long and comprehensive l.atfcrm
can there be found enc word
approving the fundamental right OF
labor to organize CT even recognizing
this right without which all other
grants and concessions for improve
ment of the condition Of the working
men are futile. The platform promises
social and industrial justice, but does
not promise industrial democracy. The
justice which it Offers is that which
the benevolent and wise corporation
is prone to administer through it's vel
fare department. There is no promise
Of that justice which free American
workingmen are striving to secure for
themselves through organization. In
deed, the industrial policy advocated
by the new party would result in the
denial of labors right to organize.
"The new party stands for the per-
petuation and extension of private
monopoly from which the few have
ever profted at the expense of the
many and for the dethronement Of
which the people have, in the past,
fought 50 many valiant battles. That
cursed product of despotism, the new
party, proposes to domesticate in our
republic, proclaiming, We do not fear
commercial power Certainly organ
lied labor has had experience with the
great trusts which should teach all
men that commercial power may be 80
great that it is the part Of wisdom to
fear It,"
The above declaration was made by
Louis D. Brandeis- before the conven-
ton Of the American Federation Of
Labor, Massachusetts state branch. At
Ntchburg, Sept. 1s.
OF Supreme Importance.
He urges a careful study OF the new
party platform, particularly its effect
upon labor. noting not only WHAT IT
CONTAINS, but WHAT IT OMTTS.
adding, when you make that e1ami-
nation you will find that there Is a
significant omission and that this skill
fully devised platform TAKES FROM
LABOR MORE THAN IT GIVES"
Labor Record Of Trusts.
Mr.. Brandeis then lays bare the Ia
Dor record Of the trusts, declaring that
great trusts-the steel trust, the sus-
ar trust, the beef trust, the tobacco
trust, the smelter trust and a whole
troop of lesser trusts-have made the
determination Of organized labor from
their factories the very foundation
stone of their labor policy. The abili-
ty to defeat l2bor's right to combine
seems to have Ecen regarded by the
trust magnates as a proper test Of the
efficiency of their capitalistic combina-.
tiOn."
Mr.. Brandeis shows that in 1899,
during the Colorado smelters' strike,
the American Smelling and Refining
company closed its mills where the
strikers had been employed and trans
ferred the work to other mills, thus
breaking the strike The United States
Steel corporation had similar success
in 1901 with tue Amalgamated Asso-
citation of Iron and Steel Workers.
lad the association been dealing with
competing e:.lloyers the result would
haze been d.-->reEt. = le United States
Steel trust was prompt in introducing
this plan. June II, 190-, six weeks
after it beoo9n its operations. its eXec>l-
tive committee passed this vote, which
was offered by Charles Steele, a part
ner Of George ". Perkins in the firm
Of j. P. Morgan & Co.:
THAT We are ulalterobly opposed to
any e.tencic1 CT union labor and aG-
wise subsidiary companies to take fri
position when these questions come up
and say that they are not going to rec
ognize it-that Is, any extension Of un-
ion in mills where they do not now
exist"
Union Men Not Wanted.
The result was that the bulk Of
American union laboring men in the
iron and steel industry were made to
understand that they were not wanted
at the works of the United States Steel
corporation. Places once filled by
American laborers loyal to their union
were given to others, and, as the Stan
ley committee found, ''Hordes of la
borers from southern Europe poured
into the United States"
Hence about 50 per cent Of the un-
skilled laborers in the iron and steel
business are foreigners Of these class
es. the profits going to the steel corpor-
alton. Mr.. Braudeis declared that the