The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1919-05-31
OLE HANSON'S TRUTH.

A great deal of cuff has been
credited to Mayor Ole Hanson Of
Seattle since the ST. ike in that city.
The western mayor has broken into
the magazines and HASN'T the lecture
platform with bound: Some rough
stuff has come FROM him since he
jumped into page-one position and
some of it has sounded a good deal
like the talk of man trying hard
to cinch his hold on the limelight.
However, Ole Hanson has said one
little say that is worth something.
Employers ought to read it and
learned writer's of advice to labor
ought to give heed to it, Said Ole
Hanson:
THE trouble started with the en-
ployers in the lumber camps. The
men were vilely treated; two camps
out Of three were denounced by the
government as unfit for human be-
ings, when war compelled the gov
eminent to take an interest in work
ers.
The men packed their vermin-
infested blankets from camp to camp.
They lived under disgraceful, I'M
healthy conditions. In the periods
between, work no lone would receive
them, or check their dreadful packs,
or cash their pay checks except the
basement saloon The worst kind of
saloon was the only place for these
men to go; they knew no other home
And no human being took the
trouble to seek them sout there, ex-
cept the l. w. w. agitator. No one
else knew that they were alive or
cared what became of them. In the
lumber camps the I. w. w. literature
was the only thing they had to read.
''Do you wonder that the I. w. W.
teachings became their Bible? They
did not know, what | know, that the
/. w. w. is in no sense {. labor or
ganization; that it does not seek to
help labor; but seeks to make in
dustry of all kinds and government
of all kinds impossible, by making
it impossible for the employer to do
business on any basis whatever"
''The trouble started with the en-
ployers in the lumber camps" says
Mayor Hanson. 4 year ago in St.
Paul the American Federation of
Labor listened to the report of the
executive council. which recounted
the story of the timber workers in
the northwest. The convention of
the previous year, at Buffalo, had
directed the COUNCIL to continue its
efforts in assisting the timber work
ers to organize and to secure the
eight-hour day. At St. Paul the
council reported that the timber
workers had struck to secure the
eight-hour day. but that the strike
had failed Of it's object
The war entered in then and lum-
Der became g. war need The govern
ment took hand in the situation
and in agreement with federation or
>ganizers and the companies ordered
the eight-hour day into effect.
Few places in American industrial
life have baked against progress as
fiercely as the lumber regions. Iso
laton, desolation and desperation
have gone hand in hand. The result
has been lumber barons" and hope
lcssly exploited slaves of the camps
But we have got past the poin
where lumber camp policy can b,
tolerated. That is the policy whic]
ruits most readily and surely II
Bolshevik desperation.
That nation which would avoit
the results of desperation must b.
free from conditions which caus,
desperation. BY united effort, al
acting for the greater good of all
American cam be freed entirely O
the kind Of reaction and brutalit,
that compelled Ole Hanson to say
'the trouble started with the employ
ers.'