Denver labor bulletin. [volume] (Denver, Colo.) 1915-19??, 1918-07-06
week and was painted in a certain

Now, that was not our Congress at |
tempting to impose upon us rule Of |
conduct; that was not our Congress,
responsible to US for its actions, say
ing to US what we should and should
not do; that was the German impe-
rial government laying down a rule
of conduct for the free-born citizens
of the United States. We could not
accept their orders, we could not ac-
knowledge their right to issue these
orders without Immediately acknowl-
edging that we were subjects of the
German imperial government. There
was time when the people of the
United States were subjects of the
government or the king of England.
They declared their independence of
that subsection, they are no longer
subjects of the king of England, they
are no longer subjects of any king
or potentate on earth-they are SOW
ereigns in their own right, subject
only to the will of Almighty God.
Labor Has Much at Stake.
Our institutions being at stake-we
as trade unionists having more at in
terest than any other portion of our
people, because it involves our right
to work out our own problems in our
own way-I feel that you have been
justified in taking the course you have
taken in the past more than a year in
providing the means whereby our boys
can be equipped at the front. In
years gone by, under the old methods
of warfare, it was nothing unusual
for an army to maintain itself on the
territory thru which it was passing,
receiving only the contribution of mu-
nitions from the workers in the rear.
That has been changed. 1t is va
riously estimated that it takes from
six to ten workers behind the trenches
to furnish the supplies for the boys
who are doing the actual fighting, and
that makes our industrial establish
ments more important than they have
ever been before and our workers in
the industries more vital to the sue
cess of our arms than in any other
previous conflict
In going thru this conflict there will
be sacrifices and there will be grum-
bling, but the sacrifices will have to
be made, and l know that most of you
have the same sacrifices behind you
that / have. l have gone thru scores
of strikes from the time l was a mere
child until | was a mature man. Many
of those strikes were in the early days
when organizations had not been per-
fected as they are perfected today,
when there were no defense funds and
no accumulation of money in a CEN
trail treasury with which to support
the men who engaged in an industrial
conflict, when they had to draw upon
their own resources, and hunger ex-
listed in every home in the striking
community. They went thru the suf-
fering, the privation. Altogether the
conditions were worse than the con-
ditions that existed prior to the strike.
The conditions before the strike may
have been bad, extremely bad, diff
cult for men and women working with
| all the energy they possessed to Sc
cure the means to exc out an exist
ence; but when that little means was
cut off, then the conditions were still
worse, temporarily, than they were be-
fore. But men suffered those incon-
veniences, they made the sacrifices
either to maintain the standards they
had already secured or to attain new
standards which they believed they
were justly entitled to.
Make Necessary Sacrifice
And so it is with us as a nation at
the present time. We are engaged in
i conflict with tyrannical power on the
| other side of the ocean. Before we
are thru with the struggle it will be
necessary for US to live under poorer
conditions than we lived under before
the conflict took place. 1t will be
necessary, if the struggle goes on, as
it seems that it will for considerable
length of time, to lower our standards
of living in order to meet the neces-
sites of the war. I hope there may
be no need for the lowering of the
standards, but with that spirit that
is instilled into the mind of every
trade unionist / feel confident that
when the time comes to make the
sacrifice of standards, when the time
comes to live more meagerly than we
have lived in the past in order to sup
port our armies at the front, the trade
unionists, yea, the great bulk of our
workers will make the necessary sac
rifice in order to maintain those de-
mocratic institutions we have estab-
lished, and lay the foundation for
higher standards of living in the fu-
ture. And whoever else may stab
our Uncle Sam in this great struggle
the wage workers will be found true
to the end.
1t is with that feeling of pride in the
trade union movement that / have ac-
cepted the invitation of your great
chief, who has done SO much wonder
full work, to be here today with you
to say Hello" to you as in the old
days and to wish you God-speed in
carrying on the work for the war so
that we may carry it on also to a
successful termination at the front.
|
4