Little Falls herald., 1912-10-18
Third TERM RS
Joke ON LABOR
Brandeis Shows Right to Organ
lie Is Not Recognized.
THE PLATFORM is SILENT

the PLATFORM is SILENT
Noted Lawyer Exposss the FlImsIness
Of Promises Made 10 Worklnqmen by
Psri<lns and hls Candidate, Who
Stands for Privats 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 platform
can there be found one word
approving the fundamental right of
labor to organize or 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 fo1
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 privatt
monopoly from which the few have
ever prodted at the expense of thu
many and for the dethronement
which the people have. in the past
fought 80 many valiant battles. Tha
cursed product of despotism, the ne
party, proposes to domesticate in O.:
republic, proclaiming, We do not fvs
commercial power Certainly orgal
lied labor has had experience with tt.
great trusts which should teach e:
men that commercial power may be ST
great that it is the part of wisdom tx
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
Fitchburg, Sept. 18.
OF Supreme Importance.
He urges q careful study Of tho new
party platform, particularly its effect
upon labor. noting not only WHAT IT
CONTAINS. but WHAT IT OMIT5,
adding, when you make that exami'
nation you will ind that there II 4
significant omission and that this skill
fully devised platform TAKES FROM
LABOR MORE THAN IT GIVES"
Labor Record Of Trusta.
+ u. Mr.. Bransleis then lays bare tho u
Dor record iof tho trusts, declaring that
"great tuste-the steel trust, the sug
ar trust, the beef trust, the tobacco
trust the smelter trust and Z whole
troop Of lesser trusts-have made the
determination Of organised labor from
their factories the very foundation
stone Of their labor policy. The abili.
ty to defeat labor's right to combine
! seems to have been regarded by the
trust magnates a. q 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 the Amalgamated Asso
citation Of Iron and Steel Workers
Had the association been dealing with
competing employers the result would
have been different. The United States
Steel trust was prompt in introducing
this plan. June II, 1901, six weeks
after it began it's operations, it's execu'
, tive committee passed this vote, which
was offered by Charles Steele, a part
ner of George w. Perkins in the firm
Of J. P. Morgan & Co.:
"That we are unalterably opposed to
any extension of union labor and ad-
wise subsidiary companies to take firm
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 filed by
American laborers loyal to their union
we're given to others, and, as the Stan
ley committee found, "Hordes of Ia
borers from southern Europe poured