Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 July 1901 — Organized Labor and Trusts. [ARTICLE]

Organized Labor and Trusts.

Whatever consumers may think of trusts, the union workingmen appear more and more to look upon these great industrial combinations as desirable rather than-otherwise. President Gompers of the American Federation of Labor takes this view and gives his reasons for it in the Independent. He says the labor organizations have a new strength because the combinations of capital are subject to a new weakness. The idea of the industrial combinations Is to organize all the factories in each branch of business into one great producing machine, setting apart this mill for one part of the product, that mill for another part, and so on. This closer organization conduces to economy, but it also makes the industry more vulnerable. An accident or a strike in one mill or In the factories devoted to a certain part of the product will stop all the other mills and “reduce the trust to a mass of silent and inert machinery, one part being so dependent upon another.” In this fact Mr. Gompers seeß a reason

why the the workingman should regard these great organizations with favor. The more complete the new industrial system becomes the more open to attack it will be, and the more inclined to give the workiugmen Justice if they are organized to enforce their demands. Mr. Gompers looks upon the era of trusts as one of “organized numbers opposed to concerted power,” but because of the weakness noted he says he has no fear of any blow the trusts can aim at organized labor. According to his theory the era of trusts is to be in the main a peaceful one, since the

combinations cannot afford to be unjust to their employes. Whether his theory is correct or not, his attitude Is slgnflcant, for he Is In a position to know the sentiment among labor leaders. Unless something occurs to bring about a marked change, the trust question will cut a minor figure In labor circles In the next Presidential campaign.

Lady Jane Ellice, the sole surviving bridesmaid of Queen Victoria, Is 82 years old. Lady Jane was born the same year as the Queen.