START MICROFILMED 1985 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY GENERAL LIBRARY BERKELEY, CA 94720 COOPERATIVE PRESERVATION MICROFILMING PROJECT THE RESEARCH LIBRARIES GROUP, INC. Funded by THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION Reproductions may not be made without permission. CU-B SN 00495. 1 THE PRINTING MASTER FROM WHICH THIS REPRODUCTION WAS MADE IS HELD BY THE MAIN LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA 94720 FOR ADDITIONAL REPRODUCTION REQUEST MASTER NEGATIVE NUMBER g5. [585 AUTHOR’ The Wave . TITLE: American labor and rts foreign leaders. PLACE: LC San Francisco] pare: [1995 1 VOLUME Fgo2 CALL ‘0 MASTER NO. W34 NEG. NO. /5' 8% cop. | 1 The Wave. American labor and its foreign leaders; editorials from the i San Francisco Wave. [Sar Francisco, 1895] 32 p. 15cm. Cover title, 1. Labor and laboring clacses = U.S. 2. Trade-unions = U.S. IL. Title, 9) CU-B 69 EEE NE a ee— FILMED AND PROCESSED BY LIBRARY PHOTOGRAPHIC SERVICE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY, CA 94720 JOB NO. 8/5 [as DATE 4 NE REDUCTION RATIO N 8 DOCUMENT seem SOURCE THE BANCROFT LIBRARY - co LC Ee ——EAN 1 2s flag hi ss [ll3:2 = = I Oo 6.3 rg EL = [122 2.0 le& IL2s lis pis [FPEEF en MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS-1963-A LLL UU, if 1l EE AN Br i al 2 vill Aa AAAS TLL, pF pa x 7 Ze INO OR ERY | D B | LA ) LEA 1G ERICA BIT S ‘uornsanb 13A7Is 3) uo £3Alel ‘IN PUE JOH J10JEUAS UM} e(3p 31} Suiurejuod }00q 343} dW pus aseard os[e : S681 oe ‘Supuawmod 1834 uO IO) HAVAL 97} IW puss aseard yoIgm 105 (00°€§) sie[[op 21h} Puy ‘qUMIIY pasoouig ‘18D ‘oospuely neg ‘3uipyng I3Y201H ‘ozz mooy ‘“AAVA HHL 0], FO1440 JAVA »» OL 00°€$ HLIA QAVAAO0d ANV MNV19 SIHL LNO Td THE following editorials, taken from the Wave, will convey to the reader an idea of its American sentiments. We have other pamph- lets on other subjects, which we would be glad to forward you on re- ceipt of a postage stamp to cover mailing charges. The yearly sub- scription price of the [#7ave has been reduced from $4 to $3 per annum. We offer to subscribers signing the enclosed blank, and forwarding $3.00, a special inducement, in the shape of the official publication in book form of the GREAT DEBATE between HoN. RoswELL G. HORR of New York and WirLLiam H. HARVEY of Illinois, on the financial question, embodying over five hun- dred pages of interesting matter. The price of this work is fifty cents, which practically reduces the sub- scription price of the Wave to you, to $2.50 per year. Sample copy of the Wave will be cheerfully sent upon application. Subscriptions may begin at any time. In addition to the above work, we have a large list of books from which subscribers may make selection. 4 American Labor, June 224. “American labor refuses to parade on the nation’s birthday, because America is no longer free.” Then let American labor return to the European hovel, the filth, the dirt and the degradation of its home, which lies across the sea. Let the foreign born craftsman who has quit the scenes of his childhood for no love of liberty, but with a narrow hope of gain, return to the land of his fathers and vent his mutterings and his curses on the flag and the government under which he was born. ~ Give us back the American artisan who trudges to his morning work without the scowl of dis- content upon his brow; give us back in- telligent labor dominated by the high spirit of American liberties; give us back the craftsman who loves this coun- try for the country’s sake; give us back our American laborer with his tidy wife and self-respecting children who sup- port our schools and churches; give us back the rights which have been stripped and torn from growing’ Ameri- can youth by foreign craftsmen; give us back the right to teach our boys a useful trade without the interference of a newly landed immigrant; give us back American labor that understands our language and appreciates the holy spirit of our institutions; give us back the fireside where growing youth are taught to love dur land, and are in- stilled with a fire of patriotism that would shed the last drop of life-giving blood in defense of the honor and glory 5 of the stars and stripes. Give us back these things—return the dominating foreign pauper to his home—and the ear will never be polluted by any such mis- erable and damnable sentiments as those for which American (?) labor now stands responsible before the world. American labor! Curse the wretched and infamous scoundrels who have pol- luted and destroyed its independence; curse the foreign born malcontent who breeds a pestilential discontent among them; curse the artisan who hurls ana- themas at our flag and flouts and scorns our Nation’s anniversary day. As Americans we may come to look some- what carelessly upon our national holi- day, forgetful of the noble deeds and victories for humanity it perpetuates— the blood of Americanism may seem frigid in our veins, but when a body of citizens openly and with deliberate scorn refuses to participate in the usual fes- tivities of the day, and declares our gov- ernment a failure and the celebration of Liberty a farce, the hot blood of in- dignation boils in the veins of every true American citizen. Out of all the thousands of laboring men in this city, can there not be mus- tered a company of American artisans who will defy the edict of their unions, and show that their love and respect for the country is greater than their sub- serviency to the orders of the labor leaders? Such a little company of men would be saluted by shouts and cheers and hosannas of praise and commenda- tion, from one end of the line of march 6 to the other. And the heart of every American citizen would go out to them with all the living warmth of brother- hood. American Labor Again. June 29th. A reader, and only one, thank God, tells us he fears we have been too harsh in our strictures on the labor unions for their refusal to parade on the Fourth of July. We have no patience with the sentiment that would temporize with the sulky, muttering wretches who be- lieve American liberty a mockery and a failure. Is it possible to be too harsh or over severe with the fattened in- grate who stabs his benefactor in the dark? Is it possible to be too harsh with the creature, who, quitting the poverty, the wretchedness, and the tyranny that abides in the land of his birth, without raising his hand or imperilling one drop of his contemptible blood, comes into the full enjoyment of all the dearly brought liberties and privileges of American citizenship only to curse the government that gives him shelter? Must we be over nice and season our speech with honeyed words to placate a sentiment we hz2art- ily despise? Must we stoop and fawn, and apologize for the quality of liberty vouchsafed by our laws, because it does not dovetail with the propagan- dasr of a Deds, or the anar- chistic tendencies of imported citi- zens. ? Must we confess to the degeneracy of freedom and all our holy institutions, because the laws / of property rights are not suspended to allow labor to beat and coerce the employer into a subjection to its will? Must we declare our government to be a failure because it is unlawful for armed mobs to destroy property? The answer of every true American must come with a thundering and un- mistakable “No!” We do not quarrel with the principle that labor has the right to organize for lawful purposes; nor do we hold to any narrow antagon- isms toward the law abiding foreigner who comes among us imbued with a love of our institutions. But we reaffirm our burning, unquenchable hatred and dis- trust for the mischief breeding wretches who are responsible for the crimes com- mitted in the name of American labor! We reaffirm our antagonism toward those who scorn our liberties, and who declare our annual celebration of the victories of our forefathers to be a farce. And we only regret that there is no law in force to disfranchise such un- grateful curs, or send. them scurrying back to their homes as unfit to become American citizens. If this sentiment shocks the super-sensitive feelings of any delicately strung American, then we say, to the devil with such Ameri- cans! American labor! We have no such thing in America! The labor unions of these United States are controlled by the foreign born craftsmen; and their dominating influence in the ranks of labor is growing broader and broader every day. The American youth is de- 8 nied the privilege of learning a trade, and is turned forth a compulsory tramp in the land of his birth, while the newly landed immigrant is welcomed to the unions without the slightest inquiry into his character or his capacity. The most wicked and outrageous crimes, the most hellish atrocities perpetrated in the name of American labor are traceable directly to the foreign born element among the trades’ unions. The bloody Milwaukee riots of 1886 were led by a professional agitator, who had not been in America three months. The Chicago anarchistic riot, which began as an eight hour movement, was the work of the imported labor agitator. Sixty per cent of the Homestead rioters were for- eigners, unable to speak the English language. Murder and arson, and an at- tempted murder by the most cowardly and contemptible means, were looked upon as a part of honorable warfare in this conflict which disgraced the name of American labor. We grow weary of the sickly senti- mentality with which the press and public speakers be-slobber the ‘rights of labor.” The laborer has rights equal but not superior, to those of other men. His vote is the most treacherous cast in America. If our Government has been bad or is growing worse Or has aught that is ill within it, the labor vote is quite as responsible for this condition as are the corruptionists themselves. What is the use of trifling with the truth? The labor vote is the purchasable vote of the country. It is the vote that 9 will sell itself on election day. It is the vote that never can be depended upon to stand for any honest principle if there be money on the opposite side. No one knows this better than the labor braggart. The leaders of labor are gen- erally corrupt as hell itself. The press which pretends to represent its inter- ests, yields readily to the influence of money. There is nothing in America any more corrupt than labor itself, and if it will but mend its own ways, the whole country’s ways will be better for the mending. We are told that if labor is degraded in America, it is due to the importations of foreign laborers by the employers themselves. If this be true then more shame upon the American employer and shame upon the Ameri- can unions for admitting these men in- to their ranks with a knowledge of the purpose for which they were brought to this country. American Labor. July 6th. We agree with the labor agitator who declares that the government needs an overhauling. It needs such an over- hauling as will forever suppress the mischievous marplots who infest the ranks of labor. It needs such an over- hauling as will deny the right of suf- frage to the imported foe to govern- ment. 1t needs such an overhauling as will result in fixing the bars of exclu- sion across our gateways through which the foreign craftsmen pour to the disadvantage of the native-born American. Until every idle American Iv boy is equipped with a trade and se- curely fixed in his life's occupation we have no room for the stranger who crowds ’twixt him and his daily bread. There is a disadvantage in being an American boy in America. Your hoy and your neighbor’s boy possess no rights that organized labor is bound to respect. He is denied the right in many pursuits to learn a trade as an appren- tice. Should he master a trade at one of the schools established for the pur- pose of fitting a boy in his chosen call- ing he is denied admission to nearly all the trade unions. If he attempts to work as a non-union man—and work he must, or starve, or steal—he is declared a ‘‘scab” and the American employer who has the temerity to give him employment is boycotted and his factory probably closed. Yet this is free America. Well may the labor leader declare America no longer free. The labor organizations of the United States are free to all except the sons of Americans. The foreigner, a tran- sient guest, perhaps, attracted by a temporary demand for labor, without having taken out his first naturaliza- tion papers, may join a labor union, and in the councils of that body vote to exclude the American boy from learning a trade. Is it any wonder then that in the ranks of labor the for- eign-born members outnumber the na- tive-born and control our labor organ- izations? Is this not an outrage upon the youth of America? Michael Davitt once said, “A boy must commit a crime 1] before an opportunity is afforded him bv the state to learn a trade.” A young man who gave himself into custody in Oakland some time ago declared he set fire to some seventy odd ties so as to get to San Quentin where he might be taught a useful trade. Is this not a damnable condition of affairs and one which should be quickly mended? Can there be any question as to where the responsibility rests? There is no doubt that mechanics have suffered through the practices of selfish employers—em- ployers who reap advantage from the boy and girl labor, the half-taught ap- prentices who are drifting about will- ing to take the place of a man with the pay of a boy, to the disadvantage of a ccmpetent journeyman with a home to maintain and children to support. The trades unions, however, have it within their power to regulate this abuse on other lines, lines, too, that will evince a friendlier disposition toward the American lad ambitious to learn. The apprentice law of California is a mis- erable contrivance. The boy is not hound to serve his time. Too often the employer makes the post uncomfor- table for the apprentice as the day ap- proaches when he is entitled to pay. The boy quits, and with a smattering krowledge goes forth to compete with the skilled mechanic, and adding an- other incompetent to the ranks of la- bor. There are wrongs here which need righting and we hope to offer sugges- tions to that end in the future. Our present article deals with the influences 12 at work in the ranks of labor that are breeding an unhealthy discontent with our government. Labor Commissioner Peck of New York, writing on this sub- ject, said: “Our supply of native mechanics is daily augmented by the skilled labor of Europe, and while this foreign ele- ment is not equal to the skilled labor which is retained in Europe, it is, in the main, vastly superior to that pro- duced in our own country. Whether unrestricted foreign immigration be or not a national blessing may be disputed. but a visit to the work shops of the State will demonstrate the truthfulness of the statement that the large major- ity of our tradesmen and mechanics are foreigners. Indeed, in many trades and industrial establishments there is not a single American at work. The presence of so large a number of foreign born workers means the exclusion of Amer- ican labor.” And again he says, “Most of the boys and young men learning trades were either foreign born or sons of foreign workers.” It is to the influence exerted by this class we file objection. There is one comforting fact, however, which has been made apparent to us in this dis- cussion. Neither the unions nor their spokesmen speak for all their members. Among the ranks of labor there are men, both native and foreign born, who are dragged unwillingly along to extremes by the hot headed and irre- sponsible firebrands. There are mem- bers of the labor unions who take no part and who do not sympathize with the wild theories of the controlling in- fluences which are at work. They join the unions simply because it is neces- 13 sary to do so or be ostracised and shunned as a ‘“scab.” As we proceed in this discussion, The Wave would be glad to receive from the ranks of labor communications voicing individual sentiments. There must be some broad ground upon which all may meet and some method devised whereby the American boy will enjoy in America all the privileges vouchsafed to the stranger and the stranger's son. American Liberty and Foreign Labor, July 13th. Pursuant to the order of their foreign born leaders, the American labor unions refused to participate in the parade or exercises commemorating the birth of independence and the victories of our revolutionary sires. The freedom vouchsafed by the laws of our most generous country does not sit well upon the dainty stomachs of the imported craftsmen. They would dethrone our Goddess of Liberty, and in her stead set up a blood-bespattered bastard wench begot by Hate in the womb of Anarchy. They would pollute Justice, and strip from her impartial hands the scales with which she weighs the right; and, with her blazing sword, compel by brutal force obedience to disorder’s rule. They want another and a different kind of freedom. They demand the kind of freedom that empowers labor to cut and shoot, and kill with poison. those who would work while they dis- pute and wrangle. They demand the 14 kind of freedom that grants them li- cense to destroy and burn the mills and factories of the citizen who will not yield to their unjust exactions. They demand the kind of freedom that sus- rends all law, and strikes down th: arm of order, while they unleash the hounds of anarchy and crime, and set the hungry, yelping pack upon the world. Hell would be a paradise beside a gov- ernment such as they demand. Their freedom is the freedom of brute force and oppression; the freedom that adds to savagery the fine brutalities of civilization. But what was labor doing on our In- dependence day? Here is an advertise- ment clipped from a San Francisco daily, the tone and tenor of which blend so harmoniously with their imbittered mutterings as to suggest a cowardly desire to unofficially attempt that which they dared not, as an organization, do: WANTED—10,000 courageous men and women who will parade as a public protest against artificial booming, poli- tical corruption, and industrial oppres- sion. Mint steps, July 4, 9 a. m. “Courageous men and women!” Courageous devils! Mischief breed- ing, unAmerican scoundrels! Enemies of property! Foes to government! Ir- responsible, hare-brained, foreign-born anarchists, with the vile blood of the serfdom of a hundred generations flow- ing in their veins! Such creatures have no more conception of the meaning of 15 Freedom than an untamed savage has of mercy. They will parade at times, will these marplots and skulking malcontents. Here are the headlines from a San Fran- cisco daily announcing one of their festivals last week: CELEBRATING A TRAGEDY. Coeur d’Alene Miners Well Pleased With Their Work. Jollification Over the Blowing Up of the Frisco Mill and Slaughter of Non Union Men. These are the victories for freedom that American labor would perpetuate and keep green in memory by annual holidays. July 11th was the annivers- ary day that marked the blowing up of the Frisco Mill in Idaho, and the cold blooded and wanton murder of the poor devils who had taken the places of the strikers in the mines. This is a sample of the bold achievements of labor. Here is indeed an honorable vic- tory, more worthy of their recognition than the long privations and unequal but victorious struggles of the revolu- tionary heroes. Curses on such Am- erican citizens. And they demanded, forsooth, that their liberties be further extended. 16 But what did these ‘‘courageous’ cit- izens (?) who gathered in San Francis- co? Under the shadow of the trium- phal arch, erected in honor of the day, there gathered a crew of as despicable wretches as ever assembled outside of a penal colony. They were bent on mischief, were these scoundrels. Bent on marring the festivities of the day, and resolved—so far as their devilish and harassing tactics could—to dis- organize the parade and precipitate a quarrel. They crowded in upon the national guard and attempted to block its passage; they cruelly cut and slashed the horses with murderous knives; they struck at the passing militiamen, knocking one down, and, with appetites whetted at the sight of a fallen foe, would have beaten him to death, per- haps, had not his comrades fixed bayo- nets and charged upon the mob. They hurled insulting epithets at the passing companies, and with gibes and jeers and jostling impudence employed every contemptible means available to harass and annoy the participants in the par- ade. Courageous citizens indeed! And this is possible in an American city in the nineteenth century! Hunt through your daily papers for an account of the day’s work of these miscreants. You will find it mentioned in but one. Now let your eager eyes that shed an indig- nant light, anticipating a flow of patri- otic resentment, search for an editorial that your American spirit will approve. You will find none. Not one word. Not even a scanty sentence framed in a 17 half-apologetic vein. No arrests are made, no comment by the press. And still the foreign-born labor leaders ask us to amend our liberties and extend unto them further privileges. Some day America may amend the privileges which it to-day so freely grants to all who come within its bor- ders. But when that day comes, the encroachment of foreign labor will be restricted to the narrowest scope. When that day comes the American boy will be guaranteed and reinvested with the rich inheritance and all the privileges sealed unto him by the blood of his forefathers, his right to which import- ed labor now denies. When that day comes the American citizen will rest se- cure in his inalienable right to life, lib- erty and property; and the hand, that is raised to disturb or prevent his com- plete enjoyment of either, will be man- acled by the irons of the law before the cowardly blow can fall. When that day comes the rebellious disturber who pol- lutes the ranks of labor with his in- herited discontent, will be hustled back to the land of his birth as unfit, for lib- erty, unfit to dwell in a free country among free men, ana peace and happi- ness will reign again among us. American Labor. July 20th. A reader of The Wave who has fol- lowed our articles on labor, has this to say: I have read with considerable satis- faction your articles anent the refusal of the labor organizations of this city to participate in the celebration of In- 18 dependence day. I approve of each and every word you write, as must every person with an ounce of patriotism in his body. It occurs to me, however, that instead of sending these unfortu- nate and ill-disposed persons back to their European hovels, as you suggest, we ought to improve their condition. They are here at our solicitation; we cannot expatriate them, and it there- fore behooves us to make the best of the situation. In this regard permit me to suggest to you the propriety of preaching the ‘Gospel of Peace.” If you can only inculcate into their minds, and, for that matter, into the minds of all of us, the importance of respect- ing other people’s rights, among which are those of acquiring property and a competence by means of one’s labor; to rear and educate one’s family, and wor- ship God, as the conscience may dic- tate, you will have done your fellow man an invaluable service. Toleration should be the pole star to guide us in our path through life. To follow it means respect for our neighbor’s rights: depart from it, and anarchy may be the ultimate result. How are you to reason with the man who will not reason? How preach the “Gospel of Peace” to the anarchist bent on destruction, who with defiant hand shakes his flaming torch in the very teeth of law and order? How are you to preach the ‘Gospel of Peace’ to the man who cries “War!” and who will have no peace? Can you reason with the labor leader whose very living depends upon the continuance and the aggravation of the misfortunes of la- bor? Will logic turn the bullet from its course, or kindly phrases soften the temper of the soured wretch who hates preperty and spurns government? It 19 is the Herr Mosts, the Debs, and the like of them against whom we inveigh. They do all the harm and damage, and reap all the profit for the doing of it. The great body of labor is not as bad as its leaders. The imported agitator has sown the seed of discontent; he has taught the American laborer to believe that he belongs to a class against which all laws and government are at war. The imported leader has brought with him all the hatred which the Eu- ropean serf bears towards his master and oppressor, and has taught our American laborer that he must hate the rest of the community, because the rest of the community hates him. The American laborer has been taught that for self-protection he must burn and cut and shoot; he has been taught that to secure justice he must trample upon the sacred rights of others and damn the government under which he lives. Our strictures are aimed, not at hon- est labor, not at honorably conducted labor unions, but at the ignorant and vicious men who profit by the strife they breed. Our quarrel is with the damnable principles advanced by these mischief breeders, and swallowed by credulous workingmen. There are some things so clear, some principles so outrageous, that we wonder at labor stumbling blindly along behind its false leaders for so long. What need is there in America for labor to fly to arms or acts of violence for the purpose of as- serting any reasonable right or mend- ing any real wrong? Such a course re- 20 * pels the citizen who loves fair play, and the only honest men who can fall into sucha line of disorder are the misguided The great mass is made up of the dis- solute and degraded, the plunderer and the criminal, the anarchist and the thief. There is no excuse for such a policy. In America every citizen is en- titled to a vote. The Lazarus, poor and covered with festering Soren. stands before the ballot box the qual of the richest man in all the land. Lodged in the hands of the people is the right and power to make the laws. If our legislatures fail in their duty brute force will not cure the — Because our courts fail to construe the law as the uninstructed and flery lead- ers of labor have declared it should be that does not argue the corruption on Incapacity of the judiciary. Majorities govern here in free America, but neither majorities, nor courts, nor leg- islatures can destroy the rights guar- anteed by our Federal constitution. The labor leaders have gone too far for argument. It is time to protest, and protest loudly, against their atti- tude toward the government. Ameri- can labor has, in some States, ordered its members, under penalty of fine, not to join militia regiments. In other States members of unions have been advised to crowd the ranks of the Na- tional Guards so that should a contest come with labor, the Government would find its defenders its real oppon- ents. In other places, companies made up of organized labor are drilling 21 evidently preparing to resist the arm of the Government when labor next goes to war with order. American Labor. July 27th. The ordinary citizen who never comes across—much less, reads—the papers published in the “interest” and for the “education” of labor, cannot have the slightest conception of the pernicious and treasonable stuff that is crammed into their columns. Debs is likened un- to Christ, our Government to hell, and the right of labor to trample on the rights of capital, or to shoot a “scab” is more sacred than the laws, the con- stitution or the holy writ. According to the labor papers we are a race of “slaves and cowards.” Because Debs was committed to jail our ‘Federal courts are fanning the flame that will ultimately consume this government if a radical change is not made.” ‘“Patriot- ism is dying” and woe is our lot. The whole fabric of our government is fall- ing about our ears, soon to overwhelm us, unless the foreign born labor leader comes to the rescue. The trend of argu- ment runs to the decay of liberty and the crying necessity for some unspoken change, involving the performance of noble and heroic acts on the part of labor, which will deliver us from the fearful, omnipresent, intangible, “tyranny and oppression’ visited upon us by the “privileged classes.” We are “trampled upon” and ‘ground down’ and, unless matters mend, the land will be soaked in blood. 22 God knows whether the authors of this detestable nonsense believe what they write, but it is conceivable that many a poor, credulous and hard-working man is deluded into accepting these things as true. Prod inquiry among the mem- bers of the labor unions of your ac- quaintance and you will stand aghast at the strange doctrines of right and wrong to which they give adherence. It is bad enough to known that disappointed men, ascribing their misfortunes to ev- ery cause but the right one, have delib- erately adopted these views, but one must shudder at the thought that such infamous and baneful rot falls into the hands of impressionable youth. We pity the poor lad— perhaps an unde- veloped genius capable of rising above his environment—whose young life is soured and imbittered with such damn- ably vile and unhealthy literature. Pic- ture the hearthstone transformed into a. breeding place for crime and treason; the home into a plague spot where the mutterings and cursings of the father pollute and warp the understanding of the son. Picture the family gathering, where the little ones are taught to re- gard their lot as hopeless, their fellow men as cruel and oppressive and the government of free America as a tyranny. There is scarcely an American worthy of the name, who would not rather see his best beloved son lowered into the grave than have him grow to manhood with a mind poisoned by in- fernal teachings such as these. Here is a sample article from a labor publica- tion called Industry: 23 to an Why should a race of slaves aristocracy of wealth celebrate the Dec- laration of Independence which they have permitted to vanish? Why, ih deed, except that they have mot t po mental and moral acumen to realize their loss. * * * "The money makers, the special privileged class, will know that there is a brooding storm of dis- content over this Nation, which, when it breaks, will bathe the land in blood. * * * The wealthy class, plutocracy. possessing the army and navy, feel comparatively secure against any up- rising of the masses. It has ever been So vet how many revolts against tyranny have been successful. Upon this kind of stuff is American labor being fed from one end of the con- tinent to the other. Note how ingen- iously the wretch makes the American “Army and Navy” interchangeable and synonymous with the “wealthy class and ‘“plutocracy.” Here is another ex- tract of a somewhat different character, but no less striking and mischievous: Debs was lucky to get off with a simple jail sentence. John Brown was hanged and Christ crucified. This bit of profanity leads up na- turally to Deb’s latest pronunciamento. It carries the ring of rebellion and nicely illustrates one of the methods of urging the ignorant to violence by de- claring them cowards, slaves and the like. He says: “ST.AVES AND COWARDS.” The great mass of American working- men are in abject slavery. A few real- ize this and protest—still others realize it and are content—while countless numbers of them are totally indifferent as to their condition and oblivious of their surroundings, and if they are even 24 one degree above the beast of the field or give any thought to anything, they give no appreciable evidence of it. Still my heart goes out to them in sympathy. I always think they are about as good as they can be. They are the victims of centuries of greed, centuries of ty- ranny and plunder, and if they are sunk to the level of total depravity the blame is not with them. They have got to be lifted and educated and re- deemed. The process is slow and pain- ful. Thousands of them are satisfied to crawl and grovel, and will resist any attempt to lift them out of the mire into the sunlight. : If my jail life will help, I have no ob- jection to being shorn of what little liberty I enjoyed. The future is being moulded and fashioned in the present and I have perfect faith that it will be brighter and better. I wish no political nomination in ’96, nor at any other time. I want nothing from the people—I simply want them to do something for themselves. TI care nothing about empty honors. Besides I don’t know that there is any particu- lar glory in being president of a nation of slaves and cowards. S E. V. DEBS. Woodstock, I1l., June 30, 1895. The above extracts are all taken from the Voice of Labor which that very engaging journal quotes with approv- al. The Voice is labor’s chief exponent in the local journalistic field and is edit- ed by Mr. M. McGlynn. In the ranks of labor Mr. McGlynn poses conspicuously as a leader. He is president of the San Francisco Labor Council, and speaks for labor—whenever, forgetting to shriek personal abuse, he descends to ordinary speech. We have always rated Mr. McGlynn as clever, and he is. 25 Although he takes exceptions to our articles on labor in some particulars, he very wisely, for his popularity’s sake, does not dare uphold the criminal acts of striking labor unions, nor does he dare deny the privilege of labor to cut and shoot and burn if it be ex- pedient so to do to gain a victory over capital. Therefore he is prudentially silent on this subject but noisily abus- ive otherwise. Let us for a moment review some of this good man’s utter- ances. Referring to the recent an- nouncement of increase of wages in the East, he says: Did you ever know of a case where the employer of a considerable number of men voluntarily raised their wages? I never did and don’t expect to in a hurry. It generally takes very con- vincing arguments and lots of hard knocks to squeeze any extra dimes out of employers, be times never so good. It is apparent that if Mr. McGlynn ad- mits that employers of men voluntarily increase wages during good times, his occupation would be gone. Here is an- other from the same issue: The raise of wages eomes with bad grace from Mr. Carnegie, who predicted all sorts of direful results if the tariff was reduced. The tariff cuts no figure one way or the other; what Mr. Carne- gie and the balance of his ilk want is to make a show of good times; and see if it won't side track this agitation. They're on the run, boys; shoot it to them. © There is concealed behind such utter- ances as this a horrid fear on the part of the McGlynns that labor may take it into its head that their leaders are 26 unnecessary and false prophets. It is readily conceivable that the voluntary increase of wages taking place through- out the union, without the intervention of the labor leaders, has been something of a blow to these wretches who are de- luding labor into a belief that the high- way to increased compensation lay by the path which they direct. Recently a number of strikes have been precip- itated in the East, and we do not hesi- tate to affirm our belief that they were engineered by the thoroughly fright- ened professional agitators, who were fearful lest a voluntary increase of wages should rob them of their follow- ing of poor deluded devils who had been supporting them in comparative ease with monthly dues. We cannot refrain from making a few more extracts which will indicate the progress that local labor is making toward securing freedom and improving the quality of our liberties. Both ex- tracts are from the Voice of Labor: The Brewery Workmen are in high spirits. They reported that the union had succeeded in persuading a number of former patrons of the Jackson brew- ery to discard that beer. They also re- ported having sent a committee to Mr. Moore, proprietor of the Auditorium, for the purpose of correcting a false statement made by the proprietors of the National brewery to the effect that the boycott against National beer was off. The committee was received kind- ly by Mr. Moore, and in the course of his remarks expressed himself freely. He inquired carefully into the merits or demerits of the long drawn-out bat- tle between the men and the bosses. He was truthfully informed that there was 27 no contention regarding either wages or hours; that the difficulty hinges en- tirely on one point, and that is, the un- ion asks that the bosses take their men through the union employment bu- reau which they ( the bosses) stubborn- ly and unjustly refuse to do. He in- quired how it would be if the union sent an incompetent man, would such a person be forced upon the brewery fore- man? The committee replied: ‘“Most as- suredly not. We desire to furnish only first class men who will not only be a credit to the union, but worthy of their wages and satisfactory to those who employ them. We are not dictators and have neither sympathy nor mercy for those who are. At the close of the conference, which was very pleasant, the committee withdrew, feeling as- sured that so far as possible Mr. Moore would favor the union. The Bakers, No. 51, are still knifing Log Cabin rubber doughnuts and bul- let prof bread. The delegates report- ed the scabs working from fourteen to sixteen hours per day, and that the boss was making them sweat for their disloyalty to organized labor. We submit these extracts without further comment, only bidding our reader ponder well over them. Murdered by Strikers. August 17, 1895. In the National Cemetery at the Pre- sidip a stately granite shaft has been erected by sympathetic citizens of Sac- ramento to Privates James Byrne, Peter Clark, Wesley CC. Dongan and George W. Lubberden, who were mur- dered by the derailing of a railroad train near Sacramento on July 11, 1894. The granite shaft bears an inscription stating that these soldiers of the Uni- ted States army were ‘murdered by 28 strikers.” The remnant of the villains who were engaged in that outrage, un- der the lead of a scoundrel named Harry Knox, who has thus far escaped punish- ment for his share in it, are now hold- ing meetings to protest against Gen- eral Graham's inscription of the words “murdered by strikers.” They do not deny that the four gallant soldiers of the United States army were murdered by the derailing of a train, nor do they dare to say that the derailing was not the work of strikers, who alone had an interest in stopping railroad communi- cation; but they are shocked to see their crime described in plain English, and commemorated for the instruction of posterity. They are not the first murderers who have objected to be called by their right name. Most assassins shrink from that. Like other miscreants, members of the American Railway Union were willing to take the lives of soldiers in a cowardly underhand way, not having the courage to meet them face to face, or to fight like men; but when their infamy is described in the only words which fitly describe it, they whine and howl that they are traduced. Their sensitiveness is tardy. It would have been more to the purpose to have recoiled from committing the murders than to complain of bearing the igno- miny of them afterward. If language has any meaning the strikers did murder the soldiers. Not all of them were engaged in the act, for so many were not needed. But the 29 actual murderers were delegated for the work by the Union, one of them is under sentence of death for his share, and others have escaped the like fate through the technicalities of law. The responsibility of the whole body of strikers for the assassination is clear as day. When a body of men, ani- mated by the same purpose, engage in illegal acts for its furtherance, they are all responsible for crime which may be committed by the leaders or represen- tative men of the body; it is a mere subterfuge for those who did not hap- pen to take a personal and direct share in the criminal proceedings to plead that they are innocent. Every striker who was resorting to intimidation and violence to interrupt railroad commu- nication on July 11th was in the eye of equity and conscience a murderer of the soldiers who were slain. There have been times in other coun- tries when the joint and several respon- sibility of members of mobs for crimes committed by a few among their num- ber has been asserted with the appro- val of enlightened pnblic opinion. When the mutiny in India was sup- pressed, officers of sepoy regiments were shot and blown from cannon, on proof not that they had participated in the massacres of the English, but that they belonged to regiments which had committed those massacres. At the suppression of the Commune in Paris, which burned the Tuileries and murdered priests and generals, every tenth man among the prisoners was 30 shot without a trial. If the insurrec- tion instigated by the American Rail- way Union in July, 1894, had taken place in any country in Europe, martial law would have been declared, the leaders would have been executed by sentence of drum head court martial, and Harry Knox would not be here to vex our ears with his blatherings. At the rate he and his confederates are progressing, we shall come to that by and by in this country. The sooner the rabble of the Ameri- can Railway Union understand that this is a country of law and order, and not a satrapy of labor unions, the bet- ter for them. For the patience of the public is being sorely tried and will not last much longer. People are getting weary of the gabble of ragamuffins, who, because they are ignorant, and many of them poor, undertake to over- ride social order, and to trample on the decalogue. This has always been a country of law and the great mass of the American people propose that it shall continue to be a country of law. If the laws are bad and fellows like the American Railway Union strikers, who claim to be a majority of the people, carry their grievances to the polls they can have the law altered and shaped to suit their wants. No king or lords or army or navy stands in their way. Harry Knox, mean creature as he seems to be, has a perfect right to demand that the railroads shall not be run by the people who own them, but by their hirelings, and if he can persuade a 3I majority of the people to agree with him, laws may be devised to carry into effect the spoliation he desires. But so long as the laws remain un- changed, the American people will in- sist that Knox and his crew shall obey them, and if they commit murder pub- lic opinion will call them murderers and nothing else. These brawlers who pretend to speak for labor, while, in fact, they are the worst enemies of honest labor which the country con- tains, are engendering a general feel- ing of exasperation which may present- ly make them sorry they did not hold their peace. They are leading dispas- sionate citizens to distrust all organi- zations of labor; this feeling, if it con- tinues to ripen, will lead to organiza- tions among employers which will intro- duce the working class to real hard- ships. At the present time it is being freely asked why the vagrant law is not invoked to prevent such men as Knox and his fellows from creating dissension and trying to sow seeds of disturbance. It would be more econo- mical to send a few of them to San Quentin for a good long term, than to call out the United States troops to sup- press the next insurrection they foment. The San Francisco Wave, which well fills its particular niche in the field of literature, has clothed itself in a new dress which so changes its appearance that its oldest reader would hardly rec- ognize it save by the familiar sound of its contents. Long may it wave!—Fres- no Republican. 32 The Wave San Francisco rolls in up- on us with increased size and other evi- dence of improvement. — Los Angeles Record. The San Francisco Wave has under- gone another change in its typograph- ical makeup, being considerably im- proved thereby. It is one of the solid journals of the Coast, and is constant- ly progressing. May its success be con- tinued.—Lake County Bee. Last Saturday’s issue of that noble weekly, the San Francisco Wave, was as large in page size as the Argonaut. The cover had been discarded. Fine paper composed the leaves. If succeed- ing numbers of the Wave are as ex- cellent in matter and as bulky! in build, it will soon take rank as the boss non- pictorial weekly magazine on this planet.—Oakland Echoes. The San Francisco Wave is making rapid strides and is now one of the most successful journals om the Coast. Its articles are well written and are fear- less in their expressions of certain con- victions. The Wave will have a bright future, because its editorial policy is such as will command public respect and patronage, as evidenced by the support it has received. Its enlarge- ment is the best testimony of its popu- larity, and the new form will afford more space for subjects which typo- graphical limitations have heretofore put out of reach.—Solano Republican. | END OF REEL. PLEASE REWIND.