Montana labor news., 1939-04-27
DAY SYMBOL
OF THE ASPIRATIONS
or WORKING PEOPLE
By VERN SMITH


In 1885 the labor movement was
split, Knights of Labor and ALL,
yet in that year the American work
ers, by united action, and by a
nationwide general strike, starting
on May Day, assured themselves of
the eight-hour day. That's why mil
lions celebrate May / as Interna-
tional Labor Day.
In order to join the united strike
movement, the membership of the
larger wing of organized labor in
those days, the Knights of Labor,
had to violate the instructions of its
highest officials. The K. of L. Grand
Master Workingman Terrence Pow
derby circulated his written orders
that all Knights should obstruct the
May l strike. They ignored the
circular.
And the decline of the Knights of
Labor dates from that period, when
the Powderly leadership was SO
filled with spleen and irritation
against a rival labor organization
that it struck a blow at Labor as a
whole in order to destroy unions it
did not like. The K. of L. had nearly
three quarters of a million members
in 1886, but ten years later its scat
tered remnants had hardly nuisance
value. The moral is obvious.
Labor united and won the eight
hour strike, fifty-three years ago. In
general, we still work the eight
hour day, ideal of half a century
ago. But today, with 100000 I'M
employed, the struggle for shorter
hours is as vital as ever. Eight
hours is too much now.
Today Labor counts its forces in
armies of millions instead of the
tens and hundreds of thousands of
1886.
But today those same forces that
framed up and hanged the Chicago
martyrs for their part in the great
movement of 1886 have enormously
developed, and have become both
reckless and desperate beyond all
comparison with half a century ago.
In those days the forces that grew
into Fascism exterminated small
groups of "Anarchists'-today they
annihilate whole cities, conquer ma
tons, eliminate all union organiza-
ton where they gain power.
Today Fascism at home and
abroad, and the Economic Tories
who pave the way for Fascism, place
before Labor a more serious prob
lem than hours, wages and condi-
tions-these reactionary forces place
before Labor the problem of its very
existence.
Half a century ago there were
eight Chicago Anarchists" framed
and hanged. More than 5000 labor
leaders have been beheaded by Hit
Ter, and Franco will not say whether
he intends to shoot 800 or 100000.
In America we have not reached
that stage yet, but we are getting
there.
Congress fairly bursts with bills
preparing for Fascism. H. R. 5138
sets up concentration camps; H. R.
1854 fingerprints aliens; H.. R. 1905,
H. R. 1907, H. R. 1909 regulate, in
spect, hamstring and prohibit labor
and political organizations, and there
are more varieties of national Grim
inal s~yndicalism laws proposed than
there is room here to count.
A Philadelphia court has turned
the clock back to the Danbury Hat
tiers case of a generation ago, and
has ruled that if a strike damages
the business of an employer, the
union must pay for the profit he lost.
On the Pacific Coast, too, in Cali
a similar damage suit is
leveled simultaneously by some
Nevada City contractors against the
ALL Operating Engineers, ALL
Transfers, AFL Pile Drivers and
CLIO Mine, Mill and Smelter Work
ers.
Here, too, the whole state of Ore
gon, the cities of Los Angeles, Oak
land, Antioch, and a third of the
counties of California anguish under
laws prohibiting picketing, some pro
hibit striking as well, some of them
require a license for labor organizers,
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