The daily Nome industrial worker. [volume] (Nome, Alaska) 19??-1918, 1916-09-06
LABOR DAY.


of things the labor movement would
be none the worse 1t simply pro-
yides now and then a great Labor
Leader an opportunity of throwing
off steam and boosting politically his
friends and enthusiastically himself.
Leaders in the labor movement are
as prone as others to take their
own personality as the center from
which all activities radiate.
Gompers is a type. Labor Day
he relieved himself of lot of
drivel concerning Wilson and lot
more about Hughes. Now it does
not, as matter of hard fact, mat
ter an iota whether Hughes or Will
son will be the next president as
far as the rank and file of labor is
concerned 1t is possible Gompers
may be less a persona grata at the
White House if Hughes is the sue
cessor of Wilson'S fTst term, but
that is a loss can be borne without
tears by the working class.
But in none of these speeches is
there any effort made to preach the
required solidarity of labor without
which union action is a joke. Nor
can we be so blind as not to see
that recent increases in wages have
been due not so much to union &C
tivity as to the fact that the de-
mand for labor has increased. More
over ii should be insisted upon that
while to some extent wages have
been increased. they nave not kept
upward pace with the steady rise iii
food and other necessaries.
1t is ridiculous TO claim these in
Creases as great achievements for
labor organizations when as a mat
ter of fact, it is all part of the ope-
ration of economic laws over which
as vet little or no control is eXer-
cised.
And it would be we'll to realize
that the reason why no greater
achievements are to the credit or
craft unions is because of the lack
of solidarity and reactionary lead
ers who fail dismally to realize that
an injury to one is the concern OF
all.
Gompers is ludicrously astray in
his idea that the passage OF the
eight hour day is by any means
triumph for labor, because other
wise the brotherhoods would have
went on strike. The real reason
why the eight hour day is passed is
in order to avoid the public incon-
yenience and the political loss OF
prestige which would follow even
temporary tie-up of the roads. The
main thing that stimulated action
was the convenience of the shippers
and the success of the democratic
party rather than any such thing as
the intention to better labor be-
cause labor was determined to be
bettered.
On the contrary, the railroad
brotherhoods have got an act OF
Congress. A toy with which they
NAV amuse themselves until it suits
the companies to take it away from
them through the courts. They
yielded the penalization of over
time, an essential to the enforce
ment of the eight hour day, ana
the railroads will be enabled to ac-
comodate themselves for the present
to the change.
The striking fact in connection
with the railroad crisis is the lack
NJ solidarity. Where were the
switchmen, the telegraphers, the
carshopmef, the section hands, the
bridgemen and host OF others!
They were to continue assisting the
railroads to operate, just as the
union engineers, firemen and con-
ductors aided the railroads to ope-
rate when the federated shopmen
went out on strike some years ago.
Here's a good subject for labor
day address. Instead of flattery and
bull peddling, there ought to be SO
much more humiliation that Labor
which produces all wealth, and
Schwab himself admits 1t, that Is
SO powerful and so numerous, is SC
divided into petty factions and SO
dominated by petty officials that in
stead of controlling industry, the