Jasper County Democrat, Volume 5, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 September 1902 — CAPT. WM. GUTHRIE ON THE QUESTION OF LABOR. [ARTICLE]

CAPT. WM. GUTHRIE ON THE QUESTION OF LABOR.

Extract From an Address Delivered at Hontlcello, Ind., Oct. 6, 1900. “In the Democratic platform adopted July 4,1900, the following plank in the interest of labor and laboring-men is found: “ Tn the interest of American labor and the upbuilding of the workman as the cornerstone of the prosperity of our country, we recommend that congress create a department of labor, in charge of a secretary, with a seat in the cabinet, believing that the elevation of the American laborers will bring with it increased production and increased prosperity to our country at home and our commerce abroad.’

“This will be a great move. A secretary of labor in the cabinet of the president of the United States would certainly be productive of great good to the country. “The labor problem is destined to be one of the great problems for solution. Civilization has found out that human labor is something more than a commodity. That man is more than a mere animal and that those who earn their bread by the sweat of their face have rights and are entitled not only to consideration, but to protection from those who would unjustly oppress them. “For years the republican leaders have professed to be the friend of the laboring man, claiming that high duty on foreign goods protected American labor. But the American laborer has never been able to realize any benefit. In fact, the manufacturing capitalist has been enabled by protection to sell his goods higher, but the laborer has never been given any share in this profit. “On the contrary, these protected manufacturers have always employed the cheapest kind of laborers.

“The truth is, that organized capital has ignored the rights of the laborer, and the republican leadeas have taken the side of capital. “An examination into the prices paid laborers will touch the conscience of any person who sympathizes with his fellow-man. The fact that men have to work in the coal nrirres for less than a dollar a day and on the railroads for less than a dollar and a quarter a day and frequently no Sunday allowed, in this great, prosperous and plentiful country of ours, is not only shameful, but it is to a certain extent criminal. It degrades and impoverishes the man, destroys the dignity of citizenship and endangers the stability of our free institutions. - “The dynasties and empires of the past disregarded the rights of their poor laborers, paid no attention to their cry for relief, but kept them in serfdom. “Will America follow their example? “How long will citizens look on without concern?

“How long will the Republic endure if organized wealth is permitted to continue to blight the hand and hope of its poor? “Why is it that the republican leaders have longcontinued to disregard the rights and interests of the laborer and mechanic, turning a deaf ear to his cry? “Is he not a factor in National affairs?

“Does he not represent five million families? •‘His hand has touched everything that we use. Everywhere and in all places we see his handiwork. We can neither sleep nor eat, nor appear in public without calling into use his products. “The clothes in which we were wrapped at birth, the cradle in which we were rocked and the coffin in which we will be buried, all come from his hands. “Who paves the streets, who builds the temples, who arches the streams and builds the railroads? Who constructs machinery and guides transportation? Who fathoms the deep and enters the mine? Who is first to answer his country’s call in time of danger? “The laborer and toiler, “These are his characteristics, these are his credentials. “No longer will the laborer be deceived. Eight hours are long enough to work. Eight hours of sleep are required, and he is entitled to eight hours of time in which to eat and read and enjoy, not 'A Full Dinner Pail,’ but a warm dinner and have flowers and picture books and music in a home of his own in which to rest his weary limbs and spend his declining days, “A few days ago I saw a great procession in a great city in Pennsylvania. Miles of processions! Miles of banners and transparencies and mottoes of all kinds! “One was, ‘We believe in the Declaration of Independence.’ “Another was, ‘The brown man owns hie own country and has a right to rule it ’

“But the one that impressed me me most and sank deepest in my mind was the following: “ ‘Vote the children out of the factories into the schools.’ “This motto rang in my ears. It would not quiet. It seemed to me that it started to ringing every school bell that I have ever heard. It seemed to me that every school bell that I had ever held in my own hand bad commenced to ring anew. “My mind carried me back to childhood days. I saw my old schoolmates, the little old school house, the play ground we delighted to play on, the books my father put in my hands, the teachers who smiled upon me and gave me instruction, and I thought of the happy, hopeful, cheerful boys and girls whose teacher I had been. And I thought of the intention of our great Republic, that ‘Knowledge and learning generally diffused is essential to the preservation of a free government.’

“And I said, is it possible that this state is ignoring this principle? That there are children in our great country that must work in the mines and factories and sweat houses? Who never hear the ringing of a school bell, who never breathe the air of the school play ground, who never have school books or hear school songs, or receive school instruction? Who never have planted in their mind and heart and soul the hope of intelligent manhood and womanhood? “Go, my republican friends, to the mining and manufacturing districts of Pennsylvania, go to the state that will cast its electoral vote for ‘High Prbtective Tari ff,’ for trusts and syndicates, for imperialism and Mark Hanna and view the scene. “How long will the American people shut their eyes to these scenes and turn a deaf ear to the voice of the laborer?

"From the mines and from the valley. From the factory and the glen, From the furnace and the alley Comes the cry of working men Asking only for their rights. “ ’Whom shall we call our heroes, To whom our praises sing? The pampered child of fortune, The titled lord or king? THEY live by OTHERS’ labor Take all and nothing give: The noblest types of manhood Are they who work to live. Who spans the earth with iron, And rears the palace dome? Who fashons for the rich man The comforts of his home? It is the patient toiler— All honor to him, then! The true wealth of a nation lain her working-men.’ ’’