The Connecticut labor news., 1923-09-01
By MATTHEW WOLL, President, International Photo-En- gravers' Union; Vice-President, American Federation of Labor.

| graVerS On1On; V1Ce-PreS1QenC, American Federation of Labor.
 Labor Day, which has become Ia bor's greatest holiday-had it's birth in 1882 In 1884, the first Monday 1T 1 September was declared Labor Day 1 Since that time nearly all states have set aside this day as a legal holiday and Labor Day is now recognized as a national holiday. It has been set laside to give expression to the spiri' of labor as we manifest the spirit Isynbolized by all other holidays and (which represent the religious, civil and military spirit of the nation. Once more the workers are to ob- serve Labor Day-a day which has associations entwined in the most sacred and most home1y affairs of life and work. Labor Day represents the spirit that Is at the forefront of civil ization. The spirit of labor and of the 1 labor movement advance morality a step farther in the progress of civil 1 ization, for 1t declares that most acts l which the present morality of trade encourages as virtues are founded largely on error, prejudice, selfish ness and other vices:
 The spirit of labor is~in advance of
 
 men must be brothers across the wages line, as we'll on each side ot 1t, and brothers in mills, mines, fac other relations of life. It carries the Golden Rule into the market, and in sists that the Gospel which men pro- fess in their families, they shall also profess and practice in the factories, fields and workshops. It holds that the e~inhdels and heretics of today are those who, as possessors of the land, lords of the factories, monopohsts ot money and privilege, are denying the brotherhood of their fellowmen.
 Parons, politicians, professors many of them-are still tied up i'll the 1ock-stitch of self-interest with organ ized abuses. They halt-they hesi- tate-they decline to carry forward the spirit of brotherhood into the new affairs of the new world. They profess the spirit of labor in theory; they fail to put 1t into practice in their pews and everyday vacations of life. Many do not see that if the spirit of brotherhood is true in religion and in all other thoughts and practices, 1t must be true in industry as well.
 Business men boast of the spirit of brotherhood of American citizenship but fail to see that 1t cannot be lived up lto in the business of government if 1t is) not observed in the business of all private ventures. The spirit of brotherhood propounded by our busl- ness societl Is founded on brother heod-for itself.
 Professional men, who have come to pride themselves on maintaining a Judicial attitude" almost invariably show that the sort of brotherhood they sanctify IS one that will not dis turb the ease and comfort of the rich
 And so Labor lifts it's head and raises it's hands to society and says: "1 want brotherhood too-a real brotherhood in all relations of life and work"
 The spirit of labor. is not self-seek- ing. In demanding equal rights, equal equal duties, equal respon- abilities 1t desires nothing more than to put things to right It does not break with the past, but seeks to build upon 1t. All the rights, iber ties and virtues that have been gained in the glorious past by the nations heroes and martyrs are the founda- ton stones on which the American labor movement builds. Because many HODle IQdItyIS III all dSCS ldpC gone to the dungeon and the fagot to show their acceptance to the Master l who taught publicans and sinners we are brothers, we have martyrs to die | for the faith that the workers are brothers. The labor movement is the rallying | of the believers in this spirit. It IS 1 aot the outbreak of turbulent or gnorant discontent; 1t IS not the out burst of an uneducated or unprlncl- oled mob; 1t Is not the disloyal revolt of destructive foreigners" l Who, after all, are the real and de ,tructive foreigners in,o land? Who Ire the real and true Americans with n our midst? The real and true Americans are all who join ih the march from slavery to freedom, SOC al, political, economic, industrial, led oy the Pilgrim Fathers, the Quakers, he Catholics of Maryland, the Hu- suenots, the German refugees of I848, he Englishment, Irishmen, French men, Germans, Italians, Hungarlans and men of other nations, who, the moment their heart beats accepted he new truth, became baptized in the brotherhood of Americanism.
 On the other hand, there are those men, who for generations back have