The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1941-02-13
Linconl 1.-The
Continued from Page One)

Negro slaves in the slave mart and
then and there to dedicate himself to
''hit that evil"
Because he had been worker and
had shared the life and lot of work.
ing people, he became deeply imbued
with the belief that the fruits of labor
belonged to those who toiled.
"Inasmuch as most good things are
produced by labor" said he, at fol-
lows that all such things ought to be-
long to them."
Even as he grew to manhood and
saw the growth of industrialism dur
ing the middle period of our national
life and the struggling efforts of
workingmen to organize into unions of
their own creation, he was sensitive
to their struggle and understanding of
their aspirations. When at one time
he was invited to address a group of
strikers in bootmakers' strike in
Connecticut, he could utter the words,
"Thank God we have a system of la
Dor where there can be a strike. What
ever the pressure, there is point
where the workingman may stop"
This has a special meaning for labor
today, as it jealousy seeks to pre-
serve the right to strike as the basis
Of free society, when totalitarian
governments everywhere are abolish
ing this principle.
And, finally, Lincoln at the very
height of his career could appreciate
the Importance Of a union of labor
and education as the necessary con-
dition of really sound society. In the
midst of the Civil War he gave his
support to the Morrill, Act, which pro-
vided for a system of landgrant col
legcs for the mechanic arts and agri-
culture throughout this nation. In that
spirit he spoke to the farmers of Wis
consin three years before in his we'll
remembered "Mud-Sill" speech:
"The old general rule was that edu-
Gated labor did not perform manual
labor. They managed to eat their
bread, leaving the toll of producing it
to the uneducated But free labor says
no.
Gree labor argues that as the
Author Of man makes every individual
with one head and one pair Of hands
it is probably intended that the head
and hands should cooperate as friends
and that that particular head should
direct and control that pair Of hands
CAS- each man has one mouth to be
fed, and one pair of hands to furnish
food, it was probably intended that
that pair Of hands should feed that
particular mouth; that each head is
the natural guardian, director and pro
tector, and each mouth inseparably
connected with it; and that being so
every head should be cultivated anC
improved by whatever will aid it's ca
pacity for performing it's charge"
1t was logical that one Of the most
understanding estimates of Lincoln
the worker should have been writer
by him who was the founder of the
American Federation of Labor and its
inspired leader for more than forty
years.
Wrote Samuel Gompers Of the Grea
Emancipator:
"And there emerged from povert!
and obscurity a gaunt figure, the
figure of man whose spirit will live
rs long as there is hope in the heart!
Of men and in the minds of men t.
demand achievement and the mainten
Gnce Of freedom, justice and democ
racy.
"Lincoln lived for the attainment O
these principles; Lincoln died in The
struggle for these principles.
''Lincoln's spirit and high ideal:
dominate every moment of men ant
events which have for their purpos'
right and hope in the lives of The
toiling masses of America, aye, of the
whole world"
Great souls and ou 1t a II d n s
Fenuses often defy our complete un
derstandng. Yet OF the Great Eman
cipator it can truthfully be said tha
no person can understand the source:
Of his inner strength and of hi!
noble leadership without understand
ing something Of his early eXperenc,
as a worker.