Montana labor news., 1939-09-14
Text OF SPEECH OF
Mike MANSFIELD At
LABOR DAY Sept. 4

LABOR DAY SEPT. 4
1t is a pleasure to be back in
Butte once again and to see so
many of my old friends. The fame
of our city is worldwide and the
friendliness of its people p%roverbial.
AS a group you have the unique
gift of making people feel imme-
diately at home. When l first came
to Butte in 1922, I rustled a job as
a mucker at the old Colorado mine
on East Park street. The wage then
was $4.75 a day, and-after five
years in the service, l thought l
was o the road to riches, but one
shift in a stope on the $500 level
washed away literally any illusions
I may have had and brought me
back to reality.
Nevertheless, my ten years in
Butte as a mucker, miner, and
sampler were ten years well spent
and despite the heat, the copper
water, and the copper dust, Butte
still holds the number one place in
my heart. It was in the mines that
1 received my real practical educa-
ton, and it was from the miners
that l derived my philosophy Of life
to do unto others as you would
have done unto you. That's the de-
cent thing to do, and that's the spirit
of democracy.
Butte harbors the richest hill on
earth but not the richest people.
Most of us have had to struggle
continuously to make both ends
meet, and in the struggle many have
paid the supreme sacrifice long be-
fore their time. Life to US has
meant a period of brief successes
and reverses with the reverses be-
coming more and more prevalent
during the past few years. Never
theless you haven't whined or
begged, but, like true Americans,
you have made the best of every
situation as you found it.
In order to protect yourselves and
to safeguard your interests you have
organized into unions SO that you
could achieve together what you
could not achieve singly. This was
imperative and necessary, then, and
it is still today. Organization has
not been an easy matter, but it is a
significant one. Organized labor, as
a vital force, is a matter of recent
growth, and, as we all know, was
practically unknown n hundred
years ago. The organization of labor
in America had its seeds in the
struggle of the workers in European
countries for representation in their
government so that better working
conditions could be achieved.
On the continent one hundred
years ago, democracy was practical
ly non-existent. But, with the rise
of great industries, due to the In
dustrial Revolution, and the increase
in wealth because of the introduce
ton of the machines, we see an
effort being made by these newly
rich to become more active in gov
ernmental affairs. They had to con-
tend with the nobility-the ~so-called
landed aristocracy-and to break the
power of that particular group they
began to pay some attention to the
workingman. They did not care
about the worker as an individual
but only wanted to use him to salts
fly their own ambitious ends. They
wasted no tears on the fact that he
was living in crowded, unsanitary,
and squalid quarters; that he was
the victim of occupational hazards
and industrial diseases; and that he
and his entire family were all work
ing at miserable wages to exc out
a bare existence. No, they wanted
to use the worker to make them
selves more powerful, and their eff
forts were successful. However, in
order to get into power themselves,
some political concessions had to be
made to the worker and, once given
some initiative, the laborer began
to desire more. It was a difficult
proposition but by gradually organ
izing themselves and by judicious
use of their power, the workers
finally made the grade, got their
labor groups recognized, and pro-
ceeded to demand and secure neces-
sary reforms.
The point which I am trying to
emphasize is this: the really worth
while and democratic reforms in
a%ugurated were the direct result Of
labor's participation in governmental