AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR

AMERICAN LABOR AND THE WAR

Twentieth Century nations must adopt as a principle of government that peace is a basis of all civilization. Peace is not a by-product of other conditions, but it is a condition that can be secured by agents and institutions designed to maintain it. Peace is the fundamental necessity for all government and progress—industrial, intellectual, social and humanitarian. Without peace all these are as nothing. One of the main purposes of governments, then, must be the maintenance of international peace.

The workers of America have learned that unfreedom existing in any place under our government undermines and endangers the liberty of all. They have learned further that wherever oppression and unfreedom exist in the world, they threaten the freedom, the welfare and the peace of all other lands.

Labor Day at Plattsburg, N. Y., September 7th, 1914.

LABOR AND THE WAR

THIS gathering is a part of a plan for the inter­national celebration in various appropriate ways of the one hundred years of peace that have existed between the United States and Great Britain. Platts­burg was the battleground of one of the last decisive contests of the war we fought with England one hundred years ago, our second war for independence. By that war we established the dignity and the au­thority of our government in its contention for the rights of neutral nations.

The spirit of the revolution that had torn the very roots of feudalism loose from the soil of France, that had fired men's minds with big ideas and ideals—that spirit was of the immortal and could not die. Wher­ever the tricolor of the French republic was carried by its armies, there was carried the spirit of the revolu­tion, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Though modi­fied and perverted by minds of those that could not understand its fullness and bigness because they had been born, educated, and had lived all their days under the influence of autocratic institutions, yet the virtue of hope was eternal in the watchward.

When the great war lord who had defended the French republic against the interference of the sur­rounding monarchs converted that republic into an empire and sought to extend its boundaries over half of Europe, the immortal spirit of liberty that inspired the revolution of 1789 was the spirit that actuated the tremendous resistance to the domination of Napoleon.

Europe was at war against the greatest war lord the world had ever known. Big issues had nerved the peoples of Europe to desperate undertakings. The principle of nationalism was on the balances. The United States was caught in the grip of a contest that was characterized by tremendous intensity of feeling and scope of purpose. Our seamen were impressed, our boats captured, our commerce despoiled. Though but a stripling of a nation we resented the insults and established our dignity and authority as a nation.

We meet here to-day in commemoration of one of the last battles of the war—a battle in which untrained American soldiers drove veterans from behind their breastworks. While we glory in the victory of our country, yet we glory more in the years of peace and friendly relations which that battle helped to make pos­sible—we glory in the victories which the years of peace have brought us, in the ties of mutual welfare and co-operation and friendship that have bound our countries together.

It is peculiarly appropriate that Labor Day, the great national holiday of the masses of the people of America, should be in the week given to this celebra­tion. This was an additional reason for pleasure and gratification in accepting an invitation to participate in this celebration as one of those to voice the national feeling at the close of this epoch devoted to the pur­suits of peace, industry, commerce, humanitarian and social progress.

Labor Day is vitally associated with the interests of peace and the affairs of work and the common life. Labor Day is dedicated to the labor movement—the movement that was born of men's misery and neces­sity; it has been nurtured by their hopes and ideals; it has lifted from their backs weary burdens, thus en­abling them to stand erect to look upward and on-they have given it significance and value. Regular and ward. The day belongs to the workers of America—fitting observances of it are necessary to keep fresh and vigorous the spiritual meanings of the day that give purpose and direction to the labor movement. The nature of the labor movement has made it a powerful influence in these hundred years of peace. Its existence and operation are dependent upon the maintenance of peace. It demands the establishment of justice and insists upon greater recognition of hu­man rights. It seeks better understanding between all those engaged in industry—a necessary and a potential condition for peace.

By some strange chance of fortune, when the time for this celebration was near, when men's thoughts were of peace and the ways of peace, the countries of the western civilization are suddenly plunged into a titanic struggle, a stupendous death grapple for ex­istence with weapons so deadly that human lives are being spent with mad extravagance. Civilization had been pressing home the sacredness of human life upon the consciences of men. Knowledge had concerned it­self with the problems of life that men might know themselves and the world in which they live in order to gain better mastery over the elements and condi­tions. Science had sought to wrest from nature un­derstanding of life that, men might have life more abundantly. It had studied the nature and causes of disease in order to conserve and safeguard human life. Trained minds were delving deep into the secrets of physical forces to bring them under the control of the will of mankind. They harnessed the waters and the winds to the wheels of civilization. Minds rich in culture and love of humanity were studying the ills of society that every child might have the right to be well-born, to develop its full physical stature, and to cultivate its mental and moral possibilities. In all things the purpose of civilization has been to glorify and enrich the lives of the people—all of the people. There were minds that were just upon the verge of giving the world the rich harvest of years of thought and study. There were hearts disciplined by life and understanding that were ready to interpret the beauty and the truth of life in the world's poetry. There were souls that were ready to voice the heart of things in music. There were fingers whose skill could in­terpret life on immortal canvases. There were the yeomanry in the fields, the factories, and the work­shops giving all that was of value in muscle and in mind to the production of things necessary for the main­tenance of life and civilization. These—all these—are sacrificed to the service of the war lords. In a mad moment the countries of Europe are savagely con­demning to terrible suffering and hardships and almost certain death these lives and talents that have been saved, cultivated and enriched at the expense of so much thought and effort. Bodies that have been pro­tected by sanitary regulations secured after long, hard struggles; muscles and minds conserved by short work­days; young men that represent so much in sacrifices, in aspirations and possibilities, are now part of the marvelous machinery of war and devastation. Can this be our boasted civilization? Can this be the Europe of which Tennyson sang: "Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay"?

War with its bloodshed and mangled flesh is a ter­rible thing. There is not a man marching or fighting now in the battalions of Europe who does not abhor cruelty and savagery. Yet let us not for an instant forget the whirl and the thrill of war, the compelling magnetism that attracts all to war even while it re­pels the wonderful emotion that leaps to life in men when the fatherland is in danger; that subordinates all else to the high allegiance of service to country; the thrill and the wonder of it all as men lay aside personal interests for the common welfare; the bravery of it that goes straight to the heart. All these things steel men to hazard the horrors of war, and yet, is this tre­mendous European war a war for the fatherland, or is it not rather a war of aggrandizement and conquest? A war to divert the peoples from their constructive work of humanizing and democratizing tendencies?

This stupendous conflict has shaken to its very foundations the structure of civilized society the world round. We of the United States have felt the pinch of it. We have had to adjust sharply to meet emer­gency conditions. World civilization is organized on an international basis. Civilization is based upon coöperation. Markets are supplied from international sources. Buyers come from all countries. Prices are fixed by international forces. Money, the medium for facilitating this exchange, responds to international influence. All supply and demand problems are now world-wide in scope. No nation lives unto itself alone. The problems of each nation are the common problems of humanity.

Means of communication and transmission of infor­mation are and must be international in order to be of value. All countries of the world are bound together by ties of common interests in industry and commerce, mutual needs and interdependence.

The big things of life and civilization are interna­tional. There are no national lines recognized by knowl­edge. The fellow workers spirit that has prevailed among the toilers, the teachers, and the students of all lands has done much to break down national and racial prejudice. To their credit be it said that the organized bodies of labor and learning vehemently pro­tested against this war. Organizations and associa­tions for the promotion and propagation of welfare and of knowledge are international. Sociology, eco­nomics, medicine, hygiene, sanitation, recognize no territorial boundaries. Humanitarian movements to further social insurance, to guard against industrial diseases, to prevent unemployment, are and must be international in scope. The custom of international exchange of fraternal delegates, professors and students has a very potent influence in establishing world friendship and good will among the people of all nations—conditions which minimize the possibilities of war.

But political organization has ever been less flexible and less progressive than economic and social organiza­tion. Social and economic organization adapts itself necessarily to immediate needs and changes. Political organization is more artificial. Old forms are often retained so long that they are encrusted by a hard shell that permits of little development or change. Old forms generally become so rigid that they must be forcibly broken to readjust. This fact is illustrated by such organizations as the Hanseatic League of the fourteenth century, the Zollverein of the nineteenth century which was the prototype for the German em­pire, the commercial treaties and treaties of peace which bind together the republics of North and South America. Commercial necessity taught the thirteen states that the loose union under the Articles of Con­federation must be welded into a strong national union under the Constitution. Preceding commerce must be the development of agriculture and industry within the different countries—these embody the brawn and the mentality of the toilers of the countries. Industry is the foundation of all civilization. The workers are the builders of civilization.

Commerce is the great civilizer and paves the way for great ideals, some social, some political. Wher­ever commerce travels there a higher law and more democratic political institutions follow. As com­merce became nation-wide, government became na­tional in scope. Now that commerce has grown to world dimensions, government too must attain corre­sponding proportions.

Government must be founded upon justice and morality. In ancient societies individuals undertook to enforce their own claims to justice and standards of morality. Each had the right to private warfare. With the development of society the duty of maintain­ing justice and peace was delegated to governmental agencies. The maintenance of justice and peace be­tween nations is now emerging from the same chaotic conditions which formerly characterized the relations between individuals. There are evidences which in­timate that intelligence will emerge out of this chaos—international solidarity of labor, international law, treaties of peace and commerce, arbitration treaties, The Hague Tribunal. With these accumulating in­stitutions to bind the nations together, there is de­veloping a code of international morality and a habit of mind necessary to enforce standards of international morality upon all.

These things are the rudiments from which will emerge a world government, a world federation com­petent to do justice between nations and able to main­tain the peace of the world. That is the ideal we must seek to realize, which we must establish in the day of peace that we may dispel the war clouds ere the storm of conflict is upon us. War can be abolished only by eternal vigilance in protecting peace and in promoting the things that make for peace. Peace and the things associated with peace must be made of such value that men will not dare risk them to chances and the havoc of war.

It is in accomplishing this end that the men and women of labor have been most effective. Their in­terests are identified with those of peace. War has never meant to them opportunity for gain or ex­ploitation. It has always meant to them privation, direst suffering, service on the firing line and in the actual fighting of the war, and bearing the burdens that follow in its wake. The heavy weight of the burdens of war has compelled the toilers to realize the futility and the wanton waste of war. Military agencies maintained during time of peace have been used against them in their industrial struggle to secure greater con­sideration and justice. They set their hands against policies and conditions that have a tendency to pro­mote war and have worked to create a sentiment hos­tile to war and the methods of war.

Through organization and federation the toilers have made their influence felt in the determination of national and international issues. The international organization of the workers has made the brotherhood and fellowship of all men a real force potential in the affairs of the nations. Solid opposition of the work­ing people has acted as a steadying force in many crises and a deterrent against aggression. Organized labor stands firmly against all injustice and oppression of the weak regardless of nationality. The workers have helped to construct the world's civilization and we de­mand that the results of their labor shall be protected. By our protests and by our demands we have widened the thoughts and the sympathies of men; we have given to the world's conception of life understanding and reality. Our position is justified by years of burden-bearing, by weary muscles and dreary hearts. We have known the bitterness of the dark places of life and are determined to make them brighter and better. Working people have bought with their flesh and blood the right to a voice in determining the issues of peace and war.

Our position can not be interpreted to mean lack of patriotism. We could not love our country so well, loved we not peace and honor more. The workers of America love their land. We reverence her good name, her dignity, her authority. There is no sight under heaven that so moves us and thrills us, and arouses our deepest emotions as the Stars and Stripes waving in the wind against the wonderful blue of the heavens. Would we fight for them? Yea, we would lay down our lives because of the great ideal which they typify. The flag stands for America, the cradle of liberty and freedom. It stands for the ideal of equal opportunity for all. Often we have blindly groped after that ideal—but it is that for which we reach; it is that which we shall have.

Our Republic, founded upon principles of justice and equality, has inspired men of all lands. As out in the west arose our noble structure men weighed down by despotism, chained to burdens imposed by a specially privileged class, have watched with eager, anxious longing as we builded wider and higher the noble structure. They have seen it weather storms undaunted. They have seen and turned with hope-filled eyes to the problem of their own lands, deter­mined that those of their fatherland should enter into the noblest heritage of mankind—freedom of mind and body.

America has been the inspiration of years—it is the hope of the present. Separated by the breadth of an ocean from other countries that have entrusted to their hands western civilization, America has held aloof from the plots and machinations by which the countries of Europe have heaped burdens on the backs of each other and have crushed their own people. Calm, free, unperturbed by old-world political jealousies and cut­throat policies, we have been working out the problems of human freedom. We have welcomed to our fold the strangers from all lands who have sought here opportunity and freedom.

One hundred years ago, when the gigantic ambition and the sleepless energy of the great Napoleon had hurled down all the old political institutions of western Europe and had fomented wars and strife between nations, we sought to maintain the dignity and the rights of a neutral nation.

When they were denied us, we fought for them and won. During the hundred years that have elapsed be­tween that last European cataclysm and this one, we have grown from an infant nation into the full stature and might of a world power. Our beautiful land is one vast unbroken expanse, washed on both sides by oceans that separate yet connect us with the old worlds. We have delved deep into the riches of our country. We have built mighty factories and industries. We have sent the products of our hands and minds to all markets of the world. With it all and in it all we have tried to carry the ideal of human freedom and equality of opportunity. We have not always suc­ceeded in that. But we have tried. We have suc­ceeded in some things—that is our worth to the mil­lions who are striving for some degree of liberty and democracy.

In this colossal horror that has befallen the peoples of Europe the eyes and hopes of all turn to America for sustaining aid. Our thoughts are of that America. Our fervent desire is that she may prove herself worthy of the great service that lies ahead of her. Our President has perfectly worded the desire of all citi­zens in these words:

My thought is of America. I am speaking, I feel sure, the earnest wish and purpose of every thoughtful American that this great country of ours, which is of course the first in our thoughts and in our hearts, should show herself in this time of peculiar trial a nation fit beyond others to exhibit the fine poise of undisturbed judgment, the dignity of self-control, the efficiency of dispassionate action, a na­tion that neither sits in judgment upon others nor is dis­turbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly service­able for the peace of the world.

While all the other great countries of the world have halted the normal interests of life, while their citizens have laid aside things which are of personal concern to respond to the stirring call of an instinct that is noble and great—the love of country—while the terror and the horror and the grandeur of war fill men's thoughts, America alone maintains her wonted peace and friendliness toward all mankind.

Though our people came from the nations that are fighting the most terrible war of all history, though our hearts are very tender with sympathy, though we thrill with the bigness and the courage of it, though we shudder at the horror and the waste of it, not one wishes to see America drawn into this bloody battle of the nations. Dazed by the suddenness of this unthink­able horror, with eagerness born of pain, we seek tid­ings of the stupendous armies that are measuring every step of progress with mangled things that once were men and are marking each halting place with blood. Over and over we ask, Why, Why?

As we look backward over the hundred years since the last Waterloo, we find some of the fundamental causes that inevitably lead to the apparently insufficient incidents that occasioned the war. When the allies met in Vienna to consider what disposition to make of the boundaries and governments that the Na­poleonic empire had swept away, they inaugurated a period of reaction. They opposed constitutionalism and re-established autocracy under "legitimate" rulers. They safeguarded legitimacy by the mysterious some­thing that has for centuries been the bane of Europe, the "Balance of Power." The decisions, political and geographic, of the Congress of Vienna, were arbitrary and artificial as well as reactionary. In order to main­tain these findings the rulers of European countries found it expedient to depend upon the protection of militarism. National militarism resulted of course in international competitive militarism.

But the spirit of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," that inspired the French Revolution, that had been car­ried to other countries by the French tricolor, and that had swept aside and made impossible the rem­nants of feudalism, did not die. It smouldered under the crust of reactionism. The spirit that sought and demanded freedom and democracy was quietly work­ing in the schools and in the common life of the work­ing people. It broke out in the revolutions of 1830 and '48 and in the war of 1870. The autocratic gov­ernments set up by the reactionary Congress of Vienna were artificial in nature, founded upon and protecting artificial distinctions and regulations. Power was con­centrated in the hands of a few who were selected upon no logical basis. The many were subordinated to this despotism—though governed they were given no voice in determining the methods, the agents or the policies of the government. That government may be likened unto a pyramid with an irresponsible agent at its apex in control of all converging powers.

Such government could not stand the tests. of reason or of justice. The forces of democracy made inva­sion after invasion, securing some degree of control, but the agent at the apex remained irresponsible and in his hands was placed determination of the destinies of the people.

No one man is good enough or wise enough to be entrusted with the determination of peace and war for millions of fellow-men. No one man has the right to command fellow-men unless he has been entrusted with that power by the deliberate decision of the peo­ple.

But democracy has been making headway and gain­ing recognition in Europe. Through organization the workers have secured real freedom in the affairs of the work-a-day world. They have secured for them­selves protection by law. The present government does not meet the needs or the demands of the peo­ple. But the enemies of democracy were planning the destruction of forces that were democratizing the laws and the government.

The war that was declared bears most heavily upon the workers of Europe—they make up the rank and file of the armies; they endure the greatest hardships both at home and on the battlefield. If they live they will go home to find that they must begin all over again. The work of years will have been swept away. Savings, trade organizations, trade benefits, economic power—all will have vanished as the flowers of the fields.

Regardless of what may be the outcome of the war even the most inadequate attempt to picture condi­tions in those war-devastated countries causes one to grow sick at heart and mind. Suffering piled upon suffering; woe upon woe; horror upon horror. Pic­ture if you can the Belgium over which armies have fought—Belgium that has been ravaged and burned and soaked in human blood. Picture a land with her industry and commerce destroyed and the flower of her young manhood slain in a needless and murderous war. Think of the starved minds and bodies of the women and children and old men—think of the natures warped and embittered by suffering and injustice. For decades and for decades the blight of this war will cast its shadow upon that land.

As for Germany, the devastating blight that fol­lowed in the trail of the Thirty Years' War will be but as the shadow in comparison with the terrible reality of the loss of her millions of young men in this carnage of unparalleled savagery. For the genius and power of trained minds have been prostituted to the service of war until now it is nothing but organized machine slaughter. Think of the artificial barbarous conditions existing under which men seriously assert that the holding of a particular geographic position by guns and armed forces is worth a million lives! Worth a million lives—think of the meaning of a million lives. Think of the power of a million minds. That the gaining of a single city is worth a million men is an assertion of strange values. What manner of civilization is this that assigns values with such bar­barous disregard for human lives?

Whatever may be the outcome of the inevitable Waterloo that will close the conflict that is so incredibly brutal and stupid, may those who shall be charged with the responsibility of determining the terms of peace see the sorrowing faces and hear the lonely voices of the children and the helpless old, may they heed the lives of the young men wasted or sacrificed, may they have understanding hearts to learn the in­finite wrongs of war.

If there be any value in civilization, if there be any efficacy in humanity, if there be any meaning in the brotherhood of man, they will learn, and out of the chaos and carnage shall come the vanquishment of autocracy, the emergence of a society in which the people shall be supreme and in which men's thought shall be given to the things of peace.

In the general reorganization that will follow, the workers must have voice and influence. That voice and that influence have ever been used for liberty, justice, and humanity. Though the workers have again and again suffered from the mistakes and the wrongdoings of others, whenever the opportunity has been afforded they have ever evolved something for the betterment of humanity and the establishment of jus­tice.

When the time comes to determine the terms of peace for the present conflict all artificial standards and ideals must be swept aside. The only result that could in any degree compensate for the present de­struction of life would be the coeval destruction of militarism, autocracy, the fetish of the balance of power and the fallacy that political domination must follow industrial relations and control. If the Water­100 that shall close this war shall be the death field for these ghosts that have come down to us from stages of the earlier development of peoples, then some pro­gress shall have been attained even though the method be cruel, stupid and blundering.

Twentieth century nations must adopt as a principle of government that peace is a basis of all civilization. Peace is not a by-product of other conditions, but it is a condition that can be secured by agents and in­stitutions designed to maintain it. Peace is the funda­mental necessity for all government and progress—industrial, intellectual, social and humanitarian. With­out peace all these are as nothing. One of the main purposes of governments then must be the mainte­nance of international peace.

The nations of Europe have professed to desire peace but their methods of securing it have been wrong. They have declared that they must be armed for peace. They have erected fortifications along their frontiers—for peace. The seas and their coastlines have been patrolled by fleets—for peace. They have constructed air fleets to infest the air—for peace. Their inven­tive skill has been used to perfect diabolical instru­ments for destroying human life—for peace.

Truly a strange peace they hunted with these war­like manners and means.

If your neighbor filled his pockets with guns and his yard with mines, would you charge him with zeal for maintaining the neighborhood peace?

Quite in contrast with conditions in Europe is the relation that exists between the United States and the country just beyond the horizon stretching far to the northward. Canada is a great and a rich country. Many of her industrial interests are identical with ours. Yet there never has been serious occasion for such sus­picious distrust or jealous rivalries as to threaten armed conflict. The two nations developed side by side and maintained peace without the need of competitive armament or display of force. Always there has been a policy of honesty and sanity. During the past one hundred years, the United States-Canadian border line has not been "defended" by fortifications, patrolled by military guards, our lakes and rivers have not been protected by dreadnaughts, submarines or mines, the air has not been infested with warlike aero­planes and dirigibles, and there have been neither wars nor rumors of wars. Had we been obsessed with the mad purpose of defense by militarism, could the result have been the same? What has been thoroughly tried and proved practical and desirable and has made for peace between the United States and Canada will be equally practical and desirable between other countries. The revolutionary and reform movements of Europe have broken down in this overwhelming crisis that has befallen the countries of Europe. These movements have failed because they were organized primarily for the purpose of inculcating theory and not for the purpose of putting theories into force. Peace associations have concerned themselves principally with theories and pious hopes for peace between men. These associations stand humiliated by the war they were powerless to prevent. Future organizations for the promotion of peace will have to aim at policies and in­stitutions to make peace a reality. Reform associa­tions will have to organize upon the same basis of prac­tical efficiency that has enabled autocracy to retain its hold upon governments. The few now dominate even against the will of the many. Are the many ready to confess that they can not manage their interests with the same wisdom and effectiveness? Labor, democracy, and social reform will find their oppor­tunities in the overthrow of autocracy.

Just as the governing aristocracies have studied ef­ficiency in attaining their purposes and in controlling the affairs of the country, so the people must perfect the agents and the methods of democracy. They must take in their own hands the ordering of their own lives and interests and insist that governments shall manage these things with justice and peace.

The maintenance of justice and peace is worthy of all the expenditure of thought and effort and skill that have been given to the arts of war. Furthermore, these ends can not be attained without such expenditure. The peace of the world will be determined by the de­cision of the nations.

In our own country the voice and the influence of the workers were used against the enslavement of hu­man beings and they were potent in the years of struggle to free the four million negroes who were in bondage under the American flag. When Hawaii be­came an American possession the working people of America were the first to call attention to the wrongs of their fellow workers on the islands. To them is due the credit of abolishing there the practice of peonage and the institution of slavery. They per­formed the same service for the Philippine Islands. Coöperating with the workers of the islands in the Pacific, American workers helped to press home upon the con­sciences of those responsible for the enactment and the enforcement of laws the wrongs and the injustice done to those half barbaric helpless victims. Now slavery and peonage have been legally abolished in all lands that are ruled by our government.

When Porto Rico came under our control her people were still subject to Spanish laws that had prevailed in the island. Among them was a conspiracy law of the kind that has universally been used to prevent the working people from uniting and organizing to pro­tect themselves from the greed and tyranny of em­ployers. When Porto Rico came under the American flag Porto Rican workers, inspired by the American ideals of liberty, equality, and the right of each indi­vidual to self-development, associated themselves with the American labor movement for assistance in the hard work which lay before them—for the poverty, misery, and degradation of the Porto Rican workers can be realized only by those who have traveled through the island. The employers invoked the old Spanish conspiracy laws to imprison the leaders of labor organizations and to defeat the movement for the betterment of labor conditions.

The American Federation of Labor immediately re­sponded to the call for aid in Porto Rico. We suc­ceeded in securing the release of their labor leaders from prison and in securing the repeal of the con­spiracy law, the most vicious and dangerous type of legislation that the workers have to face.

When the toilers of Mexico turned to the American labor movement for aid and sympathy in their struggle to free themselves from the bonds of peonage and land conditions that denied them opportunities for self-help, the American Federation of Labor presented their demands for the consideration of those who had the authority to decide the policies of the newly estab­lished government.

The workers of America have learned that unfree­dom existing in any place under our government un­dermines and endangers the liberty of all. They have learned further that wherever oppression and unfree­dom exist in the world they threaten the freedom, the welfare, and the peace of all other lands. That is the reason labor organizations have an international fed­eration. That is the basis for our zeal for international peace.

The workers of America are organized to fight the battle for industrial freedom and justice. That pur­pose has made them an active force in all the diverse interests that influence our problem. One of the most significant fights we have been waging during the past years is the effort to establish a fundamental principle necessary for real freedom. Although slavery had everywhere in the United States been legally abolished, yet the workers found their effort for self-protection and self-help thwarted and restricted by legal prece­dents, judicial interpretation, and applications of laws dealing with property.

This was the influence of a philosophy evolved un­der conditions when workers were not free and their persons and hence their labor power were regarded legally as property in which their owners or employers had a property right. When the workers became physically free the traditional element in the law which concerned their labor power was unchanged. The ju­diciary looks backward for authority, not forward. It is necessary to change this legal philosophy in or­der to secure to workers the right to legitimate activi­ties which alone give freedom reality and value. Free­dom as an abstract declaration has little practical value. Real freedom, which consists in specific rights to do things, is the potent force that has brought the human race to its present state of progress and development.

A worker can not be part human and part thing; part free and part unfree. If he is a free human being that which is inseparable from his personality, which is part of his flesh and blood and nerve force, can not be classified as property. Employers may own plows, ma­chines, shovels, hammers, but they do not own the labor of any free man. Labor is the creative force, the highest expression of individuality.

The Clayton antitrust bill that has been passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate declared as a legal principle of the law of our land: "THE LABOR POWER OF A HUMAN BEING IS NOT A COMMODITY OR AN ARTICLE OF COM­MERCE." That is the reason for declaring that labor organizations do not come under the pro­visions of trust legislation and that their legitimate ac­tivities can not be restrained or forbidden. This prin­ciple is the basis upon which all industrial liberty de­pends. It is the Magna Carta of America's workers. The labor provisions of this measure embody the highest, fullest conception of industrial freedom ever enacted into law. The declaration contained in section 7 of the Clayton antitrust bill is of the greatest sig­nificance—it deals with the fundamentals of industrial freedom.

The workers of America may, on Labor Day, 1914, rejoice in the fact that the Senate and the House of Representatives have adopted the greatest measure of humanitarian legislation of the world's history. We stand foremost in the ranks of all nations. This measure will insure greater industrial justice and peace. It opens up an era of tremendous possibilities and un­dertakings for good.

Other features of the Clayton bill limit and regulate the issuance of the writ of injunction which has been so grossly perverted by judicial abuse to defeat the workers in their struggle for more just wages, shorter workdays, and better working conditions.

The enactment of this law will mark the beginning of an era of progress and betterment in the lives of those who work for wages. Their progress and wel­fare mean national progress and welfare. The hope and welfare of all nations is bound up with the destiny of America—the first great republic and now the country toward which the nations in distress are turn­ing for help in their overwhelming need.

America with free institutions and opportunity for those of all walks of life has been an ideal and an in­spiration to many millions. Now secure in her isola­tion and her maintenance of justice and freedom, apart, undeafened by the roar of musketry, unblinded by the smoke of battle, unshaken by the passion of the bat­tlefields, she stands ready to hear the cries for mercy and fairness, ready to give her good offices for the es­tablishment of peace. This is the America that holds our thought with a peculiar power. Great opportunity is now within her grasp. We desire for her wisdom that she may cleave to the part of a great people and may spurn the lesser things of selfish gain and passion.

America has in her hands well-nigh limitless wealth. She controls resources not yet realized. Her citizens, gathered from all of the nations of the earth, are true and able and honorable. Hers is the responsibility of using these, all these, for humanity—humanity that recognizes neither race nor nationality.

America is to become the clearing-house for all in­ternational intercourse. She has the opportunity to become the world's banker. She now becomes the world's greatest breadmaker. Her industries and man­ufactures alone remain undisturbed. She may become the world's great carrier of commerce. Her future depends upon how she uses this opportunity.

Her great power and influence are moral. Whether that power and influence shall be used as befits a great and a free people will determine her future greatness. That she may prove to the world that there is such a thing as international morality, and that she may help the warring nations back to a plane of peace and jus­tice is the earnest desire of America's workers and all her citizens. Our hope-filled western skies are por­tentous with the bigness of freedom and the hope of humanity. We are confident of the coming of that period of which the poet sang:

Men my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new,
That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do;

For I dipt into the future far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a ghastly crew
From the nation's airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rush­ing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thun­der-storm;

Till the war drum throbbed no longer and the battle flags were furled
In the parliament of man, the Federation of the world;

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber lapt in universal law.