Idaho labor herald. (Boise, Idaho) 1913-1914, 1914-11-26
IDEALS OF LABOR.
To Make the World Better For
Those Who Toll.
FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM.

Organization Is Slowly but Surely
Striking the ShackIes From the
Limbs of Morkers-unions the 5ea
con Lisht--A Labor Day Reveris.
One day of the year is set apart as
the day of the workers of America.
That day was made possible and given
significance by the labor movement.
No other force in all the world has
done more to bring hope and better
ment to the victims of power
Look down the ages. Wherever
there was oppression of those who
toiled with their hands there was the
labor movement. Down the ages
marched the millions who bore the
burdens yet who were denied oppor
tunity and who suffered injustice. But
they marched steadily onward and up
ward-they marched out of bondage
into the realm of freedom.
The meaning of every movement is
its ideals. Not every close range view
of the movement will show whittier it
tends or what it means. But the sweep
and the scope of this movement as j.
surges Irresistibly through the ages rt
veals its ideals and show what 1t has
been worth to human beings. Steadily
the movement has freed them from
the power of the masters and has
brought more and more freedom into
the lives of the people. For freedom
must start within the individual and
proceed outward. 1t must first be in
the hearts and minds of individuals
and then it can be manifest in their
deeds and relations to each other.
The purpose of the movement is the
great ideal sought by all the seers. The
methods by which the ideal is to be
made real are practical and material.
BY, organization the workers secured
definite and shorter workdays. The
gain sounds very commonplace, but
when translated in terms of human
lives its purpose becomes one with the
vision of greater human freedom and
I opportunity Increased wages mean
Increased opportunities to live. The
stomach must be satisfied before the
mind can grapbles with problems of
work or reach out after the ideal
Every new agreement that provides
for better physical protection of our
people makes possible greater ideal de-
velOpn1ent and more able and re
sourceful nation. zAs So
Progress for the working people has
come from organization. The unions
have been the schools of the common
people. They have taught them their
rights. pointed out their possibilities
and shown them that they hold their
future in their own hands. The unions
have been the enemies of things as
they are. the champions of things az
they may be.
The extension of the labor move.
ment through organization means bet.
ter living for the numbers now de-
priyed of their rights and 0pportuni-
ties. The unions carry cheer and com.
fort into the dark places where the
workers are seemingly hopeless. They
go to those whose very bones are
weary with much labor and whose
minds are made numb and dumb With
the struggle for daily existence. The
unions gather such into their folds
make of them independent. free craa
lures with hope. As the unions IN
crease In number and in strength their
possibilities for further helpfulness to
greater numbers of the heavily op-
pressed increase in proportion. Lab.r
day. 1914. found the trade union
movement stronger than ever before.
II found the trade union movement
making new and more successful at
tempts to organize those who have
never been organized-the wage earn
ing women and the unskilIed workers
AS the work of the federated unions
becomes greater its successes become
greater and of greater consequence to
all humanity = -
We have done much. but the future
looms big with opportunity and duty
The welfare and the hope OF the peo-
pie are bound up with the manner in
which we shall deal with the possi
bilities that lie In our hands Let us
acquit ourselves as men and women
worthy OF the rights and freedom that
we inherit from the past and mindful
Of the ideals ihfrusted to our safe
keeping. Let rs carry on the grea'
work Of human freedom during the
years TO come. We are charged with
the responsibility Of forming more anc
greater unions. for they are the agents
Of justice, Organization results In free
better paid workers. able and eapable
to order their own lives. It protects
the lives and insures the welfare Of
the men. women and children Of our
time and makes brighter and better
days for the countless millions yet IN
born Samuel Gompers In Americas
Eederafionfst