Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1916-02-10
The FARMERS
Elm Grove, FeD. ., 1910.
70 the Editor of Free Speech,
Majority:

Majority:
Dear Slr:-President Wilson said
we all owe our service to the country
and what he meant was that we
should be willing to give our lives
whether our country was right or
wrong. There is no question every
American citizen would defend his
country from invasion, but what. in
terest have we in the invested wealth
that has been wrung from the tear
drops of our children? The invested
profit from the whiskey ring or the
brothel If we as citizens owe to
the government a service and that
service calls for our lives, then the
government owes to us the means to
keep that spark of life prepared for
service.
The last fifty years of private own
ership of production and distribution
has proven a failure, the workers
have not been able to get a balance
food ration, they have suffered sick
ness, imp6verishment and death, rs
per cent of workers in direful power
ty; so per cent within 10 days of
want. And the Trades Unions were
unable to bring about an equal dis
tribution of food and happiness, with
all the starving of their families. I'm
prisonment and suffering for union
sake, the individual of trades union
must find a better agent to get that
happiness promised in the Declare
ton of Independence. Labor's only
salvation at one time was to unite,
but since the manufacturer has gone
from the individual and firm to
trusts, 80 per cent of labor is unpro-
tected. The builders trade can sue
coed, their price is fixed locally; If
they get short hours and high pay the
local rent is raised. If they go on
strike and lose, they can compromise
on the price and still be union men.
But with the iron worker and glass
worker it is different. When they go
on strike for the price, it is to win,
or give up their union. They have
but the one price in the U. s. That
| is what has made so many scabs in
those trades, and sent SO many men
on the road. The Butchers union
showed the weakness of trades union
by compromise and leaving out the
engineers and firemen. The glass
. workers scale must be signed for all
men or none. AS our Saviour said,
"AS you do unto the least of them So
do you unto me-" The farmer can
not depend on the trades union to
| aid him, as he is small capitalist
and worker in one, and sells his crop
in the open market to compete with
all corners. But the farmer is begin
ming to cooperate as the profit sys-
TEN has left him nothing but IL or
16 hours work and the cullins to
live on.
Trade unionism was at the zenith of
its powers in 1888 to 1892, since then
it has been outlawed and the indivi-
dual members have been driven from
place to place. 1t is but a waning
factor in the economic distribution.
At its best the union asks too much
suffering and sacrifice from the work
ers, when he has the ballot to direct
the government to distribute the pro-
duct equal to ALL If the workers and |
farmers will come to gather on the |
cooperative commonwealth it will |
bring the negro equal on the economic |
field. The white man has the negro
handicapped so per cent in opportun- |
ity. 1t has been a struggle for the |
white man to keep the wolf from the |
door, and yet the negro and his fam
lily must live. Society forces him to-
wear clothes, send his children to
school, and feed them, and when he
comes forward to exchange his labor
for the necessity of life, he is pushed
back by society to but few avenues Of
trade. With six million negroes in
the q. S. the burden of the white man
(as Keplin says) win be lifted and
my friend the heartaches of the wi
dowed mother as she lays her children
in bed crying for bread will be over
and the farmer who has gone sick
with no food for his family or stock;
that yes, one half of the world does
not know how the other half lives.
We see the misery but pass it by. be-
cause we can not change conditions.
We can offer him a hel,ing hand in
the cooperative commonwealth for
then we share one another's labors.
and divide the fruit it bears. 1t was
necessary to try out the principle of /
the trade union to prove its unfitness.
We have tried the democrat and re-
publican party and all the relief they
offer Is war to exterminate each
other. We have tried the porfit sys-
tenn until three men can close down
the workshops Of this country at a
days notice.
It seems that Germany has England II
beat on the cooperative plan OF dis
Hibution, and there seems to be some