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If Iff. $i£r Cv. P1 ri CiW .t rt Z&' fr' Spw •B "V THE LABOR WORM) J- PaMkM Imy ittlpttla* Established in ism by SabrU Oh Akin. taatatn OfMii 604-T Manhattan Bid*.. Xhtlutb, XlM Zenith Pfcon* It SUBSCRIPTIONS! One Tear. In advanoe,. H.N Six months, in advance. *10 Three months, In advanee\......• JB Single Copies, ft'Oeat* AdvertWng Hates Made Jtnown oa Apt* pMoatton. 1 Entered at the Postofflc® at Dalnth Minn., as second cj^sa matter. WILLIAM E. McEWEN, Publisher. HARRY H. TURNER* Editor. THEY ASKED FOE FOOD, HE GAVE THEM A JOLLY "I'm glad to be here if by being here and saying so I can convince you that the so-called chasm be tween yon and the people who seem for the time being more fortunate is not a chasm at all and that there is between you and them a deep feeling of sym pathy, a deep and earnest desire that you shall have that equality of opportunity, that means of getting on your feet, of earning your livelihood, of supporting your families that we hope every man under the Stars and Stripes will enjoy." t. These are President Taft's Words to the unemployed on New [York's Bowery recently. Doesn't such a sickening plaus ible jolly as this lay bare to the public eye how little there really is to this representative of the *'princes of plunder." To tell men with threadbare (clothes and empty stomachs, that the "temporarily" rich feel sorry for them is strictly in keeping with the general policy of this obese pander6r to public senti ment. He probably had Payne, Aid rich, Cannon et al in mind when he said it. CLASS DISCRIMINATION CAN HAVE BUT ONE END When one lone man, Astor by name, was thought to be lost in the Caribbean sea recently,, the secretary of the navy sent a war vessel to see if anything had hap pened to the millionaire or his floating palace. The government was hot wor rying about the crew on board. Just about Astor. While the warship was fussing around and the wires were being iheld open for the least news con cerning the gilded puppet's whereabouts, a most awful mine disaster took place at the mine of the St. Paul Mining company at Cherry, 111. Over four hundred miners !Wer« entombed by an explosion, shown to have been directly due to neglect of common precaution for their employes' safety by tile mine owners .and their agents duo absolutely to a wilful viola tion of the state mining laws. While the men were entombed hi the mine and when there was a possible chance that they might be rescued and from that time to the present day the government has not concerned itself with the horrible catastrophe. Is there cause for wonderment that some people, rent in their heartstrings by loved ones cruel ty taken from them, their bodies find minds weakened by hunger find privation, allow themselves to become extreme in thought and faord even to the point of vio ieneo. the light of such contrasts |lie utterances of an extremist Iwho advocates the removal of dol lar-sorting officials by the bomb l^/and -the revolver do notv appear so fanatical after all, yourselves in the. places of jfvjihe bereaved and starving, you p^-jwho scoff at anarchy! You well-fed, comfortably clad Ij^J&toek gambler or mine owneVl Would yoir want your delicate 'wife or tender children to hang around thp pi| ^tt^th hoping against hope foryotir return to your home^the bitter wind searching their acafat' dotfcmf and pinchiftg their starved frames! Wpuld you, withyour fifteen year-old son, a "breaker" 'boy, by your side, want to die a slow death of choke damp, knowing that your taking off was the di rect result of the greed of others Naturally, you would not.' Then can you turn a deaf ear to the wail that is rising from the cheerless homes at Cherry this "merry" Christmastidet If you can, do it knowing that you are only helping to postpone, not to avert, the inevitable out come. Truth burled under tons of bul lion and justice blinded with wads of yellowbacks may stay buried and blinded for some time. But not for always. The handwriting on the wall is becoming plainer ps each day goes by. POSITIONS OF CAPITAL AND LABOB REVERSED The impression is general that capital employs labor and that labor is dependent on capital for existence, but just the opposite is true. The existence of capital depends on labor. Capital is but. a child of land and labor. Years ago the theory was held and generally believed that there existed a wage fund which capital reserved to eihploy labo#r and the amount of wages paid labor in any given year de pended on the size of the wage fund. But a lot of ignorant la borers who had never read John Stuart Mills started the Rockdale Cooperative society and employed themselves and knocked the wage fund theory into a cocked hat. The fact is' the wage earner produces all his wages plus profit for his so-called employer be fore, he gets a cent bf wage. To make this clear to you, take, for example, our great railroads whieh employ labor for a month or more before labor gets a cent's worth of wages, and all this time labor is housing, feeding and clothing itself. Would it not be nearer to the truth to say that labor. employs capital and gives it a month's credit and labor does this in all branches of industry. The two primary factors of production-are land and labor. Labor applied to land at first produced wealth. enough to sup port labor and some over, vjjhich labor, saved and used as capital to aid in the production of more wealth. Capital. is labor's saving to aid it to produce wealth with less exertion. Did you ever hear of capital settling a new country and .de veloping its -resources? Never. Latior, and labor alone, does this. The question is sometimes asked, whatv would- labor do with out capital This is best an swered by another—If capital was all destroyed today aiwl the natural resources left untouched, 4 MERRY CHRISTMAS "Merry Christmas, dad," your boy will probably yell Saturday morning as he springs from his warm bed to see what Santa Claus has brought. And you will sleepily reply "Merry Christmas!" But is it a merry Christmas? SURE IT IS— For the railroad stockholders who have seen fat dividends rolled up by the heavy Christmas traffic on the roads of th£ country—all except those of. the northwest For. the:Stockholders of the express companies—those para site corporations who have been carrying the people's Christmas presents at their own rates. FOr the 1000 widows and orphans of the victims of the Cherry mine explosion? They are homeless and starving this "merry" Christmas tide. For the wrsres and children of the miners who are locked out of the Homesjtake mine at Lead, S« JP-» because the pwners of the Homestake mine have suddenly resolved to crush the union? SURE, IT'S A "MERRY" CHRISTMAS FOR S&ME! PEOPLE —NOT. WiU L^gal Force Compel ft is unfortunate that we as a nation are so constituted as jto need tuoh salutary lesson* the recent Cherry, 111,, mine 11disaster'to awaken us to the utmost drying necessity of de-, manding to no uncertain terns that an employer's liability to bis ^employes shall not cease with his pay day obligation. nation which has aa its proud how long would it be before labor would produce every tool needed to produce wealth Why, in less than no time, because we know that the average tool and machine of production is used up in much less tlian 20 years, or in other words the life of capital is inuch shorter than that of labor and must be reproduced. And who reproduces this short lived capital? Labor, from land. And at the same time labor re produces itself. For who is in sane enough to claim that capital can reproduce itself. Christian nation that in place of a quickened conscience which should dictate a better plan for the preservation: of the men's lives and limbs, the men themselves and their friends are put to the necessity of asking, Insisting and demanding that laws shall be framed and enforced, forcing such employer^ to take such precautions that will make less dangerous the working place of men, who have to labor to make a living. We, as a nation, have evidently been^too trusting of the hearts of men as a nation we Labor is labor's only true em- Eor the coal mine owners of the country -for -whoijalthis nice, zero^fltoiistmas -Weather has -boosted wie^iirice of-coal. BUT ARB rYtU SUAE? r' it' a Christmas-- Fors tl^-^ves and7 children of the striking switchmen of the northw^V who ^ere forced by an instinct of self-preservatitm to strike' against, the greed of the railroad managers? For the employes of the express companies and their fam ilies? These employes are working long hours, on express cars and on delivery wagons to help swell the dividends on the water ed. stock of one of the biggest pieces of public pilfering that ever t*as sanctioned by congress. ployer. To satisfy his wants the laborer must work, therefore, he employs himself. Unnatural laWf made conditions are the cause of the impression that labor by any but labor's self is employed. Abolish the unjust condition^ imposed upon labor by lkw. Abolish the 'Unjust system of tax ation that taxes the possible Sav ings of the working class IPO per* cent, and taxf/s the miUionMre class but one-fourth of one per ceut and you will see lalior And capital in their true reraiion—* labor| as the employer of capital, BOYOOTTTS LIKE OtJNS MEED OAEBTOL TJfB Like all Weapons of defense, the boycott has its objectionable feat ures, but, on the other' hand, it has its valuable purpose in right ing wrongs that eaiinot be reached -by any' other meatus. Laws can not be made to meet all of the de mands of business and social and industrial life. Everyone must acknowledge that there is justice in. withholding trade from a firm or man who conducts, his, business contrary to the best intents of the public, even thou^h he may notr violate ahy statute lawj^ocial ostracism has itd useful purpose in impoiing a penalty on those who violate the canons of good manners social propriety. Here is $ cAse in j»oint in" the business world in which is shp^i the method ^by which the lading B^Hibh firms, who were pititihaa chasers of raw eoeoa, sought to mp MWtjm- Tlviir MorUl Liability 4PTV It is a sarcastic commentary «m an enlightened nation, a iboast(biUions properties and which seeks to carry, the doctrine of the .meek -J* and lowly Nazarene into benighted lands, that: the consciences ©t those who own and operate dangerous places of occupation are so petrified that they Will knowingly allow men to earn dividends for them In places so filled- with'personal danger that those workers are rated the highest as life or accident insurance risks. We repeat, it is a sardonic commentary on an enlightened j-have was a good old America^ trait to do the right thing as a matter of equal and exact justice in society from bri*nfen to another— and we have iput our faith patiehtljr believed,t^ist it in a chimera, torn of a mistaken notion that inherently men loved fellow-men $etter thp.n money that humanity was a matter of ma^^velopihent and not divi ':j dend*etrlving. And now, in the naine of happinesB to the greatest number and that a smirch should be removed from our nations escutch eon, we must demand thaf an employer be forced by law to see the liability he is under morally to see a liability thro^gh the authorities that common decency should make him see .without the policeman's prod. wipe oufe -the terrible system of slavery Wliieh prevailed in the cocoa islands of Principe and San Thorne. "After investigating the reports of inhuman cruelty and finding them. to be true, the Brit ish dealers refused to use the co coa from these islands and by the. boycott brought to the attention of the local Portuguese govern ment and the planters a sense of theit* responsibilities,, which re sulted in the wiping out of many of the evils in labor conditious the production of cocoa. The boycott was the only ef fective- way in. which the evil could .be reached, and the course pursued by- the Britijah firms would certainly meet the hearty approval of every friend of hu manity. The boycott is a weapon to be carefuUy used and before it is applied every means should be exhausted: to make sure t^at its application' rests "on justice. So long- as wrong exists the boycott will be necessary to eliminate evils that cannot jj^ther wise be re ached. v'•••• .Hvv PAIMBNT OF/^DITES NO® CLIMAX OF PNION DUTY There is nothing so injurious to a labor union as, the nonrat tendance of the membership at the meeting^ A man that pays his dues does not comply 'with his obligation, if that is all he does He should attend tb-^ meetings, speak to non union men, encourage others to join, and at all times endeayor to build up the organization. By so doing he is helping" himself and strengthening hipiself. Tl^eire is no persori^so injurious to the union.',as the fellow wiio is out knocking all the time..But fair, honest criticism is sometimes beneficial to the labor union. Very often when the members dp not aitend the^naeetings the officers become* discouraged and sometimes dishdnest^ because they feel as if anything they do is all right, inasmuch as the members do not Uiink it Worth their while ,„t we $ of dollars in church !S58!f fcof|ci|£j iuubittr If Good Wishes Cotint a HlxJ ey should attend all1 meetings^ help out t!he officers/ speak «jll' of the union on the, street toy to get non union men to join watchl-he men who handle their money see that their secretary-treasurer is bond ed, and in every way take an in terest in the-union, thereby, Wild ing up the Jocal that it may be a benefit to the membership^ FATE OF 3. IBOAEIOT '15 1 MJQHT WEIit B$ HIS The non-union man is a traitor to his fellows and a mercenary traitor at that. It is the existence of the,union that gives him his opporunity to market his treason When a strike comes. For then the high wages he gets tire not given in return for l\,is work, but for his willing ness to betray the common tjause. Of course, a workingmah is found here and there' -..Who is enamored of well-sounding gen eral principles suited to a,n ideal world, and who asserts hw. inde pendence as an indiyidiial by keeping out of his trade union.. He forgets that man is greg arious animal, a social being, and that civilization' means ^he sur rerider of individual liberty in exchange for the greater benefits to be derived from associated ef fort for the welfare of all. PROSPERITY SHINES FROM EVERY COLUMN One of the neatest, most pros perous appearing and typograph ically excellent exchanges that has come to our exchange table in a month of moons is the Christ mas edition of the Freeborn County Standard, published |at Albert Lea, Minn., by H. G. Dayf brother of Frank Day, for so" long favorably identified with, state affairs as private secretary to the late Governor John Afe Johnson. ... In both news and \advertising. cohiniiisprosperity looms up like^ a milk wagon on* a rainy morn- ing witft iaMlk ten" ce^its a qiiart^ The people of Albert Lea and Freeborn county are evidently wise to a good thing when they see it and are giving Brother Day the support he deserves. "BUlST" PROVED FLAREBACK The Cadogan-Hatcher J^anufae| turing company, operating a large printing and bookbinding plant at Quincy, Ill.r was taken posses sion of by the sheriff recently.' -This concern refused ta grant the eight-hour day to its printers^ find at the time of t^ strike for the shorter workday the manage ment made the boast that it Would '4 bust'' Quincy Typographical Union. rr,And Our customers and friend?, in Duluth and elsewhere, and "all their neighbor^ are in line for the Merriest Christ mas eVjer. ii#Si® 3£ a *7 4 I It And you've bteen too bugy to do all your' pitriatmas shopping—We stand read^ ou* until o'clock Christmas with the best servi«»^-the bestsaMO#l^ #e. w'er people H.n.i jy WW* 1 $1.00 a Week. At the Coliseum Buffet ,!ito S it "busted" it the same way the old woman kept saloon in Indiana. Anxious Friend Oayman, you ought to do somethins for that un controllable thtrtt of yours, atict you ougrht to do It Quick. Gayman (putting on his hatJ^I'm ready to join you right now, old a tfK W: "V,V OS ELCORA mttpYQpA,_ It ivilt surely iib if you maie Grately^i tfie headquar ters fpr your Christinas shopping. ?a,ere y00'11 flnd j?8* wiat y°u Useful Ghristmas GIfts. AjV &YP At & Ti l:s Purs, Bathrobes, Smoking1 Jackets, Fancy Gloves, Neckties, Slippers^ Silverware—in fact almost anything tliat will truly add to the comfort and charm of the great festival. ji y1' j° 1 if Our Qredit System will perhaps appeal to you more" now than at, any other time during the year. "We trust you and will gladly attend to your every want. $1.00 Down 4^KT*FFffc Your Word afi.SUPEfOOR«Li h. a. nelson^, Mgn^ ... Ctristnaas Greeting... A Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Tear to my many friends and patrons, v'^ay you live as long as you want and never want as long as you live, is the 'biggest and best wish of ennie TheSeasdn's Greetings ~T At this holiday time are tendered our many patrons. A Merry Christmas and Glad New Year to all. Be sure and start the New Year right by using a hroOm made hy a Duluth factory. A Merry Christmas '•t: All Our Friends The Zenith Cigar Company desires to extend the season's greetings to the many patrons whbse support )ias made the past year et suecesfui one for the firm. May good digestion wait on appetite at your Christms dimier table, with a good smoke afterwards, made by We Thank You For Your Liberal Patronage v.• /"A A Merry Christmas to You All. Md86. Brokers. 215 West Superidr St., foremrly O. W. Ei Duluth Fashion DELICIOUS BMOKftfc LUXUMOUt ANO DAINTY :«MS honok1 by Havaaa L«*£. Bnuis: & ?t ... Security. 11 East Superior Street --^r -VvN- 'v::• 0$ 'I?, i'-'v.® mm't *WM*i Kf na iMiitih FWiMBud HataalB. Phanm 1SH