Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-04-07

with reproduce the speech IN conue
Mr.. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
When | received an invitation from
Mr.. Broenig to attend your gathering
| accepted it at once without any hesi-
tation. | accepted it very willingly
and very readily, in the first place be-
cause | am a member of the Church
that for twenty centuries has been
made up for the most part of working
people. For the one millionaire, we
have five hundred thousand men and
women who are earning their bread
as members of the class that you,
ladies and gentlemen, represent here
today.
In the second place l accepted this
invitation very willingly because l
myself am the son of father who
knew little but labor in his life. |
come from the class that you repre-
, sent, ad deem it an honor as well as
a pleasure to be able to speak to you
here today.
In labor there is honor, there is
dignity, and no laboring man the world
over need hang his head for shame
because he is child of labor and
working people have right, of which
no State, no country can deprive them,
of forming organizations or asocla-
tions or unions as the only adequate
means of protection.
This, then, is first principle In con.
nection with a great body OF men and
women whom you represent-that you
have right-a perfect right-to form
associations, and by means OF those
associations to protect your rights.
AS you go back and study the story
of labor, watch it coming up through
the past 1000 years, the whole story
is that of a rise from conditions OF
slavery to the present-day conditions
of comparative freedom. Let us be
frank. The men of labor from the
very earliest days of slavery have had
to fight. In those early days, when
the Saviour of the world came into the
world, the laboring men were slaves.
The capitalists of those early days
were the freemen, whose slaves were
not regarded as men with rights, but
simply as chattels to be sold at auc-
ton. Consequently the present-day
advance that we have made, in spite
of all the difficulties that surround
the labor world, must be considered
great indeed.
In the Middle Ages there existed
aggregations of laboring men in
unions that were known as guilds, and
/ want to say to you, my friends rep
resenting unionized labor, that in those
far-off ages, while the men were not
getting the money they are getting
today, they were comparatively better
off. There were numerous guilds OF
butchers, bakers, tailors, stonemasons,
and so on, and through them all there,
ran a spirit that is sadly lacking in
our world today, the spirit taught by
Jesus Christ twenty centuries ago, the
spirit that made employers regard
men as brothers, not as something to
be employed, somebody out of whom
he is going to get maximum for a
minimum.
If you wish to understand the pres
ent economic conditions with which
we are confronted, you must go back
to the 18th century and there you will
find the beginnings of this growth
with which we are encumbered today.
In the 18th and the early years of the
10Th century capital had strangle
hold on labor. If you study conditions
in the great manufacturing centers,
like Manchester, for example, you will
find that capital had such power with
the British Government that workers
were by law at times deprived of the
right to form unions or to strike for
higher wages or better living condi-
tions, and the daring ones in the ranks
of labor found themselves behind
prison bars. 1t was the same old
British principle-might makes right
Then unions began to rise up in
America. The present fairly good
conditions of labor in America are due
directly to one thing, and that is to
the power, to the force of your own
unionism. You can thank your own
unionism for it, and thank nobody else.
(Applause.)
The working man has right to a
living wage. A living wage for the
working man is what will keep that
man in condition of frugal comfort.
The working man has right to a
wage which will keen himself and his
family also in frugal comfort.
When the working man goes into
the market to sell his labor there is
injected into that labor something
more than that labor itself. He has
a right to receive for his labor what
will support himself, his wife and
family in comfortable circumstances.
There are men who say today, "What