Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1916-08-10

fuses what II costs to take him and
his belongings away. and in many
cases, 1t means Inc breaking up of his
.l.lL4e nome.~
tenant Farmer Slavery.
/ am now gong 10 talk about the
WORKERS. known throughout this coun-
try as tenant farmers, who are ex-
plotted IN a way sucn as has never
oeen known in any industry in this
country before. Every single one of
these men is a menace to the job of
every man sitting In this hall today
ana every other protected worker in
the country. In some states and COM
munities the average living wage is
estimated at something slightly over
$500 per year. We found in the state
of Texas that farm tenancy has in
creased in twenty years almost fifty
per cent; and that dfty-t three per cent
Of farms operated under this tenancy
system increased from $1,000 families
to $4,000. We found that family is
known as a working force-that the
children are worked from the age of
: years and women under conditions
that are revolving to the thoughts OF
civilized beings. We found in these
states in which the tenant farmer evil
has grown so fast that entire families
this working force-make something
less than $500 year, this amount be-
ing the product of the continuous hard
labor of the whole family.
"A Mans Property Right Ii His Job.
When, however, I speak of a mans
property right in his job do not refer
| to these people that are held under
this system of slavery or yearly con-
tracts where the owner of the farm
dictates a certain crop that the man
shall raise, and that represents the
economic conservation at the end of
| every year, so that he must rub it of
and begin to total over again. No, I
do not refer to them, but I refer to
the property rights in their jobs of the
machinist, the skilled mechanic and
linen of other crafts. From the moment
such a worker sets the first stick Of
his home-I don't care whether he
owns it. or whether it is built up
economic interests run it. He begins
to maintain property and property
right in that community. From the
minute he buys something in a store
1
time he rides upon a street car, he
pays taxes. From the moment he
sends a child to school, he is begin
ming to pay his share, and more than
his share, for the education Of his
children. Every sewer that is built
belongs partly to him and that taxes
are larger in the case of a producer
and worker is shown by the govern
ment statistics His property is easily
ascertainable, and outside of the ques-
ton Of personal property tax he pays
the tax imposition which falls upon
any activity in any municipality. And
| If a man now is discharged from his
| job, he loses every one of these prop
erty rights. Sometimes we think they
forget human rights and only conserve
property rights, but I want to stand
here in your presence and say that I
am ashamed Of the government that
protects great property and looks per-
haps with consideration upon the
smaller property Of the working man,
which he loses If he is subjected to the
/ within of an employer, who can dis
charge him without just cause. Cap
plause.)
So, say again that the question Of
the right of protection against arbi-
| trary discharge, the right to use the
only means that God has given US to
live and to work out our own saliva
/ ton, comes as a part of the inherent
right Of life and in any properly or
ganized industrial system, the right of
that protection could never be denied.
The Eight-Hour Day.
| AS a result Of the study I have been
kable to make it is my belief that there
1'is one other point which transcends
these original rights of every man who
tolls The Commission on Industrial
Relations declared concise1y what
every Government, state, municipality,
ETC., has decl4red. what every board Of
hygiene appointed by the government,
what every educator has declared, for
the last twenty years at least namely,
that the physical we'll being, the men
tai development and the recreational
needs of men and women demand that
they should not be compelled to work
more than eight hours a day. CAP
plause.)
I predict that the march for the
eight-hou day is going to receive an
impetus within the next three months
that will carry it into countless In
dustries in the United States, and no
man or woman can successfully deny
he fundamental truth of what have
uttered upon this subject.
Can any person truthfully assert that.
the demands of public or domestic ne
eessity call for man working a create
er number Of hours than consistent
with his health. and no man under our
system of life has health and strength
in any industry in which one must
work without that full intelligence
that God has given US and that we
hope to constantly extend? If there
be truth in the great declaration that
knowledge is power 1t would give the
lie to every school building in the
United States. 1t would be charge
Of fraud against every university in
this Republic, II we said that any in
dustry demanded that a man should
work so long that he could not have
full play for his mental development;
it would be blow at the very founda-
ton Of the race. (Applause.)
Every constitution of free men says
that we are entitled to pursue and
practice a healthy clean pleasure in