The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1914-09-25
IDEALS OF LABOR.
To Make the World Better For
Those Who Toll.
FROM BONDAGE TO FREEDOM.
Organization Is Slowly but Surely
Striking the Shackles From the
Limbs of Workers-Unions tho Bea-
con Liuht-A Labor DAY Reverie.

Striking the Shaokles From the
Limbs of Workers-Unions tho Bea-
con Lieht-A Labor Day Reverie.
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
it's ideals. Not every close range view
Of the movement will show whittier 1t
tends or what it means. But the sweep
and the scope of this movement as it
surges irresistibly through the ages re-
veals it's 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
vision of greater human freedom and
opportunity. Increased wages mean
increased opportunities to live. The
stomach must be satisfied before the
mind can grapple 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-
velopment and a more able and re-
sourceful nation.
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 as
they may be.
The extension of the labor move
II ment through organization means bet
ter living for the numbers now de-
prived of their rights and opportuni-
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 crea-
lures with hope. AS the unions in
crease in number and in strength their
possibilities for further helpfulness to
greater numbers of the heavily OPP
pressed increase in proportion. Labor
day, 1914, found the trade union
movement stronger than ever before.
| 1t 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 unskilled 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 posi-
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 intrusted to our safe
keeping. Let us carry on the great
work OF human freedom during the
years TO come. We are charged with
the responsibility of forming more and
greater unions. for they are the agents
| Of iuctioa OrUonizo tiOn results in free
better paid workers. able and capable
to order their own lives. 1t protects
the lives and insures the welfare of
the men, women and children of our
| time and mnkes hriChter and better