Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-02-24


with clubs, and appointed than ~
oyerscers over the rest OF the people
In the district. who were slaves.
These slaves, after long years of
bondage, finally rshelled. and called
strike, but werh hrAtca ine4 \ ~
mission by those armed With ~
clubs. With the means Of disee1nin~
ating Information In the written
form. the slaves were able TO com.
munieate with slaves OF other dis
trictn, and IN this manner formed
union so strong that the combined ef-
forts OF the elubbers In all districts
could not hold them In check. In the
general strike that followed--the hrSt
real strike for freedom on record
the slaves we're successful, and finally
regainod their freedom.
That Is where the labor movement
started. They had strikes then for
the same reason we have them now.
The fundamentals have not changed
one iota. The employers tried TO get
just ms much out of the empioye Tor
as little as he could. The worker
contended he was entitled to fairer
share Of what was created by his Ia
Dor than he was getting, and those
conditions will probably always be
with US.
"They say that we strike too much,
and In so doing throttle industry,
and cause the loss of millions of doll
lars In industry and wages. I have
been Intimately connected with
strikes for over 20 years, and I never
saw strike that | liked; but strikes
there must be just SO long as strikes
are necessary To maintain the prin-
ciples upon which unionism are
founded, and there Ii no power on
earth that can prevent them--judi-
cial or otherwise.
Take the right of strike away
from the workers, and they become
slaves chained TO their Jobs at what
ever wage the employer chooses to
call living wage, but which we call
subsistence, for II wages are to be
confined to what the employer thinks
we are worth In the prime of life, who
will take care of Us when the prime
Of life Is past7 We must have n
SAVING wage, that we may lay
enough away that when our active
life Is spent we may continue 10 live
without becoming objects of charity.
Labor will not now, or at any time In
the future, go back into the slavery
they have escaped from"
Commenting further upon strikes,
ninety per cent of them to the fall
ure OF those concerned To get around
table and talk over their differ
ences. After the strike Is over, he
said, comes the realization that some
,.tfa do
hot-headed leaders on both sides for
much Of the trouble between employer
and emplOye, but said labor organ
izations, while they had their faults,
were rapidly discarding radicalism as
that term Is generally understood,
and now the rule Is that mild-man-
nered persons who say but little but
think much are found at the heads
Of the labor organizations. Time
was,n said Mr.. Lakey, "when the fell
key and whip anybody In the house
was the one who was elected presi-
dent Of the union"
The high cost OF living cannot be
placed upon the worker nor upon the
employer, to any great extent. The
middleman who sits between the en-
ployer and consumer and exacts enor-
nous profits which he does not earn,
Is the man 20 eliminate, said the
speaker This specie Of parasite con-
trolls cur markets, sets prices, and in
general Is the big factor responsible
for present-day unrest. Illustrating
this point, Mr.. Lakey said that an
thracite coal mined in Pennsylvania
cost Sits ton at the mine, but when
It was put into the Easements Of
(Continued on Page Four)