The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-11-01
WHY WORkllVCMEr] TaR0U GHOUT THE
WORLD ARE GOING INTO POLITICS

II UVNLU AMI
Ply WALTHER THOMAS WINS, M. A.
Author of Democracy or Despotism.
| (Article No. ~
THE OCCASION FOR THEIR
EXISTENCE.
Note. This is one Of series OF seven
articles on the Labor parties. The
series covers "The Occasion For Their
i Campaign Methods 'Selectionof
| Candidates. carrying on the Govern
| ment,' Their Achievements When in
| Office" and What of the Future for
Labor PARTIES The illustrations will
be taken from many places where or
ganiHa tions Of labor have entered the
field of politics.
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
administration Of public affairs in the
interest Of those who toll.
Neither of these methods have been
developed to the fullness of their DOS
sibilities. Neither one involves the
exclusion of the other. It ought al
ways to be one and the other-not
one or the other.
A Certain But Limited Victory.
If all workers could be organized
and could be persuaded to act in uni
son, then, simply by folding their
arms, any concessions, which it would
be possible for their EMPLOYERS to
make, they would be obliged to make
without any great delay However,.
even In such case, any such use of
this power takes it for granted that
the workers are to remain the serv-
ants of others. and that all progress
! IS 10 be limited to the improvements
IN the conditions of service and hence.
in the nature of the case, can not in
clude the abolition of all conditions 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
undertakings must necessarily he I'M
der cooperative organizations COM
posed of part of the people, or under
public enterprises organized, sup
ported and controlled by all of the
people,.
The Order of Advance
Effective efforts for the improve
ment Of labor everywhere begin with
com binations to improve conditions bv
taking advantage of the right to re-
fust to work, except under satisfac.
tory conditions.
1t would seem that this is q right
so fundamental that it could hardly
be disputed. Whenever a business
man, a wage-worker, or any one else
is asked to deliver goods or to per-
form a service under a contract which
is not acceptable, it would seem that
the right to withhold the goods Or to
deny the service could not be Dues
toned.
Labor parties have never appeared
except when this most fundamental
civil and economic right has been de-
MED. In every instance the first de-
mands of labor have been for i'm
proved conditions of employment. Re-
sort to political action has always
been made to protect this right of la
Dor to refuse to accept an unfair con-
tract.
1t has been only after labor has
been defeated in some great strike,
or in series of strikes, that political
action has been seriously undertaken.
Once undertaken, however, the pur-
pose of labor has everywhere rapidly
advanced, for the use of the public
power to defend the rights of work.
ingmen while on strike, to the de-
mand 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 theirown employers.
This Is the Record.
1t 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
employers, which created the Labor
parties of Australia and of New Zea-
land.
More than 20 years later it was
the recurrence of a series Of defeated
strikes which led to the reorganization
of labor and to the re-esta blishment
of the greatest unity within the ranks
of labor in both those countries.
1t was the misuse Of public power
to the disadvantage of the workers
of both those countries which made
possible the new and more perfect
forms of industrial representation
. which now prevail within the Labor
parties. 1t is a Labor party resting
| on tfaso in6,lsfrial cro,ns which