Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1919-11-05
TIE LABOR PARTIES
By Walter Thoma. Mills, M. A.,
Author Of Democracy or
Despotism.

Author Of Democracy or
Despotism.
Note: This is one of series of
seven historical articles on the La
Occasion for Their Existence"
i, Methods of Organization" Cam
pafgn Methods" Selection of Can
-didates," carrying on the Govern
ment." ''Their Achievements When
in Office" and What of the Future
for Labor Parties" The illustra-
tons will be taken from many plac-
es where organizations Of labor have
entered the field Of politics
xHR OCCASION FOR THEIR EXIST
There are two general methods of
warfare by which the cause of labor
may be advanced. One is through
resort to a refusal to work and by
this method compel the employers of
labor to grant concessions to those
who toll. The other is to appeal to
the ballot box and to use the strength
Of the citizenship of the workers to
advance their interests through i'm
proved legislation and through the ad-
:ministration of public affairs in the in
terest Of those who toll
Neither of these methods have been
developed to the fullness of their pos
sibilities. Neither one involves the ex-
clusion of the other. 1t ought always
other.
4 Certain But Limited Victory.
If all workers sould be organized
and could be persuaded to act in uni
son, then. simply by folding their arms,
any concessions. which it would be pos
sible for their employers to make, they
would be obliged to make without any
great delay. However, even in such a
case, any such use of this power takes
1t for granted that the workers are to
remain the servants of others, and that
all progress is to be limited to the i'm
provements in the conditions of service
and hence. in the nature of the case,
can not include the abolition of all con-
dttions Of industrial servitude.
The Only Alternative.
If the workers are ever to become
their own employers, this condition of
independence can not be secured by
simply improving the conditions under
which they are employed by others. 1t
must involve productive undertakings
Of their own and these undertaking.
must necessarily be under cooperative
organizations composed of a part of the
people, or under public enterprises or
ganized, supported and controlled by all
of tho people.
The Order Of Advance.
Effective efforts for the improvement
Of labor everywhere begin with com bin
atoms to improve conditions by taking
advantage Of the right to refuse to work,
except under satisfactory conditions.
It would seem that this is right so
fundamental that it could hardly be dis
puted. Whenever business man, a
wage-worker, or any one else is aked
to deliver goods or to perform a service,
under a contract which is not accept
able, it would seem that the right to
withhold the goods or to deny the serV-
ice could not be questioned.
Labor parties have never appeared
except when this most fundamental
civil and economic right has been denied.
In every instance the first demands of
labor have been for improved condi-
lions of employment. Resort to politi-
cal action has always been made to pro-
tect this right of labor to refuse to &C
cept an unfair contract.
It has been only after labor has
been defeated in some great strike, or
in a series of strikes, that political ac-
tion has been seriously undertaken.
Once undertaken, however, the purpose
of labor has everywhere rapidly adj
vanced, for the use of the public power
to defend the rights of workingmen
while on trike, to the demand that the
public be made itself an employer Of
labor, through the public ownership
and democratic management of the
great instruments Of social service.
That means that the workers in the
great monopolized industries may be-
come their own employers
This is the Record.
It was a series of Strikes culminat-
ing in the great strike of 1890, all Of
which were lost by labor through the
misuse of the public power by the en-
ployers, which created the Labor par
ties of Australia and of New Zealand.
More than 20 years later it was the
which led to the reorganization of lab
or and to the establishment of the
greatest unity within the ranks of
labor in both those countries.
1t was the misuse of the public power
to the disadvantage of the workers Of
both those countries which made pos
sible the new and more perfect forms
of industrial representation which now
prevail within the Labor parties. 1t is
a Labor party resting on these indus
trial groups which promises to place in
it's own hands at an early day for ad-
ministration of the public power in all
the British possessions of the South
Seas.
It was series of defeated strikes
through the Liberal party in Great
Britain.
It was another series of defeated
strikes in which the labor organiza-
tons had been betrayed which took the
Labor party in Great Britain from a
subordinate position in the Liberal
party organization.
1t was a further series of defeated
strikes which has forced the British
Labor party into a position entirely in
dependent from all other parties, and
has finally made the Labor party of
Great Britain the most constructive and
the most aggressive force in making the
nation itself, through the public owner
ship of the great monopolies, the chief
employer and the model employer of
labor. That means that the workers in
these industries are to become their
own employers.
It was defeated strike which made
possible the organization and the vic
tories of somewhat uncertain value of
the Labor party in San Francisco.
1t was a series Of strikes, with Ia
Dor placed at disadvantage through
the misuse of public power, which gave
the trade unions of Milwaukee, through
the Social Democratic orga nization, the
mastery Of that city.
It was series of undertakings. which
were brought to disaster through the
misuse of the political machinery Of the
state Of North Dakota, which led to the
creation Of the Nonpartisan league and
forced the farmers of that state, as the
drst Labor party in America, to go to
the ballot box with an Industrial or
ganiZation created exclusively for politi-
cal purposes and with program of de-
mands of particular advantage to their
own industry. That was carrying the
demands of an industry to the govern
ment, not as a petition to others, but
as an EXPRESSION of the determination