Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1913-05-14
PRIVILEGE IN HUMANITY'si
S5sS33a v CAUSE.

s. J. d u
The writer listened to the closing
debate in the House last March, or
the provision Of the appropriation
bill which provided that no govern
ment money should be used in thu
prosecution of labor unions or farm
ers cooperative societies, and hi
has read many editorials for ant
against the position taken by Presi
dent Taft in his veto message, blu
he has neither heard nor read any
thing on the subject, which state
the democratic position on the ques
ton better than the following edito
rial from the Telegraph-Herald o
last Sunday:
The sundry civil appropriation bill
just passedby Congress carries a pro
vision that none OF the amount ap
prOpriated shall be used in tn,
prosecution Of labor unions or farm
ers III co cooperative societies as organ
izations in restraint Of trade ant
commerce. .s. 3. Il.
"a bill with Identical provisions wa
vetoed by President Taft because O.
the alleged discriminatory provision
In favor OF Especial classes OF Law
breakers" and demand is made up
on President Wilson to do what Mr.
Taft did. y: AS.
But President Wilson. will not heet
the demand. Indeed it is well under
stood in Washington that the measure
as drawn has his approval as to these
exempt ions. And it would be diff
cult, taking into consideration tht
equities, to justify an executive Veto.
It is a fact! of history that when tn
Sherman antitrust law was drawn, i
was not in the mind of Congress thai
its provisions applied to labor unions
That discovery was to be made later.
The law was drawn to prevent the
formation Of great indus trial combina
tons with purpose to monopolize trade
and commerce and secure control $ol
the industries and the market places
or the nation for the profit to be
gained by such control These greal
trusts were organized, as their history
attests, to put additional taxes, in the
higher prices demanded, upon the
necessaries Of life-the food and cloth
ing OF the people and the instruments
Of production and distribution, and
to earn dividends on values that had
no real existence.
Their history attests that while
they put up prices on the one hand
they depressed wages on the other
and compelled their workers to dc
their tasks in unhealthful and I'm.
sanitary workshops. s.ss.. ,ss
No one can successfully gainsay the
statement that the trusts were or.
ganized to take food out Of the mouths
|of consumers. For the effect Of rails.
ing prices arbitrarily on the neces.
saries Of life is to make 1t more diff
ficult, when not impossible, for con
sumers to supply their necessities.
Moreover, as the experiences Of the
southern tobacco growers attest, the
trusts, by monopolizing the buying
market, dictated the prices at which
the producer: should sell his product,
and fixed prices which left him hardly
enough to maintain bare subsistence.
4 The labor union is organized to put
bread into the mouths of children; I'd
make it possible for the bent toiler
to straighten his back, to enable him
to send his children to school and to
put In his home some Of the comforts
that make life worth living. y. Y
The time has gone by when the
rlght OF labor to organize Is debat-
able roposition. Every man grants
that right because every man recog-
nizes that what Is good for the labor,
Ing man is good for society, of which
he is the largest unit. The grea,
trusts have at their back the power
OF aggregated millions to supplem en1
their other powers. The wage worker
has no power Of money and only the
power Of his hands. "a
The progress of farming is today de
pendent upon the extension Of the co
operative movement. The federal gov
eminent is using all the vast re-
sources Of its agric ultural department
to encourage cooperation. And to en-
force the Sherman antitrust law
against farmers cooperative societies
would be to make this progress i'm
possible, and to turn back the hands
OF the clock. Sl{
The labor unions enjoy no monopoly
Their membership approximates only
1000, 900 II and there are moore than
1000, 900 wage-woorkersi in the nation
The only representative farmers or
ganization4 comprises some 5000, 600
members and no one has yet had the
temeritys to assert that it fixes prices.
To assert that the trusts on the
one hand and labor unions and farm
ers' cooperative societies on the
other are identical in purpose and
effect, is to assert that white is
black.
And to charge that the latter pre-
sent the same menace to free com
petition as the trusts is to qualify for
examination by a brain specialist.
# To exempt the labor unions or the
cooperative society from the oper-
alton OF the Sherman antitrust law
Is not to permit to 60 unpublished
dynamiting outrages, destruction Of
employers property, or boycotting.
These offenses are all covered by
other laws for the enforcement vi Of
which provision is otherwise made.
To prosecute the labor union for
conspiracy in restraint OF trade is
to take, out Of the hands of labor it's
only weapon of defense against avar-
lcious capital. Il
And to take from farmers the right
to cooperative organization is to deny
them right to buy cheaply in the
aggregate and to take for themselves
profits which now go to elevator COM
bines.
President Wilson will serve equity,
Justice and humanity by giving execu-
live approval to what President Taft
vetoed. Il l.s l5
KING OF ENGLAND A HOME RUL-
s%s Err.
The threats of forcible resistance by
hose opposed to Home Rule and
their attempts to induce the soldiers