Denver labor bulletin., 1916-05-13

| IN an duuTtss on Sclilt Idsf5 VI Inc
Labor Problem" delivered by Otto F.
Thum, member of Denver Typographical
Union No. 40 and former city commits
sioner, before the Denver Philosophical
Society in the ordinary o fthe Brown
Palace hotel a few nights ago, the
speaker made some deductions that are
of peculiar interest at this time. He
had novel method of illustrating the
growth OF labor production and and rate
of wages, demonstrated by a mechanical
device he had prepared to illstrate his
speech, that made a very deep impress
ion upon the intellectual audience Space
will not permit a reproduction OF the
address in full, but the following will
prove interesting and instructive to our
readers:
When We consider that the average
wage of the average worker in America
is scarcely over $500 year, We must
certainly pause and reflect what is to
become of the worker of the future. 1t
is the one phase of the labor problem
that not only demands a remedy, but
one that will find a remedy in the very
near future. Nature is strong. With
only one-tenth of the workers earning
sufficient money to preserve the health
of the worker, the perpetuity of civiliza
tion is involved. Unless it can maintain
| its workers, no nation can be main
tanned.
Our eHroes of the Past.
Past generations have been guided al
most entirely by men of the professions
as the dominant spirit. The lawyers and
the doctors. and the ministers and the
manufacturers and the business men
| generally, have been the heroes of the
past ages. and, together with the mill
/ IL A., ~
mats, have succeeded in foisting upon
the masses system that robs the work
ers OF everything. including the power IN
earn a sustaining living. And the end is
not vet The trend of wages is ever
downward. either in money actually paid
to workers or in the amount of the debts
which II is necessary to pay. The aP-
| paIling amounts that must be paid TO
! Shylocks by the workers, even before
their own meager wants are supplied, is
becoming more and more burdensome.
1t is easy, indeed, to be historian,
but most OF US would rather be prophets,
and so / want to give you what is my
belief as to the future, believing as I do
in the ultimate supremacy OF Labor.
We Are All Imitators.
As before stated, up to the present
time the professional classes have been
the big fish in the stream. If You want
ed your son TO be somebody. you never
risked his future by teaching him one
of the useful trades and urging him to
become a laboring man No he was
urged TO choose one of the professions.
And Why Because we are all hero
whorshippers. We ape the successful.
The men in the professions having, at
some time or other in the history of the
human family, accomplished some great
achievement for the benefit of humanity.
IL follows that We must all attempt TO
initiate them. And we name our babies
after such, and wear whiskers with the
same cut. and affect the hat and boots
of the victorious-literallyi initiating him
from head to foot And so we have
gone on from one generation to another
initiating victorious personages and
emancipators. Show us a man or
scheme that is successful and we initiate
/ him at once. Hero worship has been
thrust upon every known object except
labor, and it is Labor's turn next
Labor Is Forced to Rebel.
1t is my deliberate opinion that very
soon after the close of the present disas-
trous. and altogether useless, but terribly
expensive war. Labor will spring into the
hero class. Billions upon billions of dol
lars have been expended, and more bill
lions will be wasted, in the effort of one
country to crush another. Debts will be
multiplied in every direction. They will
mount higher and higher This is in
eyitahle.
These great debts. if discharged at all,
will have to be paid by Labor. Present
product will have to be doubled. Pres
ent profits on Labor will have to be
trcblcd and quintupled. in order to mere
" meet the interest accruing on these
great debts. while Labor will be forced
to toll for the same and perhaps Il much
lower level of wages. Finally-and that
soon-certainly within the memory of
men now living. Labor will rebel.
Driven in desperation to make last
stand. Labor will repudiate every known
debt forever and forever.