and loyal sentiments of the country. [Great applause.] After denouncing violence, coercion, dyna- I know who I am talking to. I am speaking in the presence of men who (very day face physical danger for a mere pittance of pay, and who would not shrink from danger in sustaining a principle when they know they are right. As you stand cool, thoughtful and courageous in the performance of your daily duties, so may you ever stand cool in judgment, wise in counsel, and resolute of action in the lodge work of your Brotherhood. Your organization has hitherto been a credit to the class of men who belong to it. I had rather be in the soiled breeches of your chief engineer than clothed in senatorial toga. That quiet, unostentatious man of judgment has done more towards controlling violence and preserving commerce from the ruthless hand of misguided men than all the legislative tinkers in or out of legislative bodies. The firm stand taken by your organization checked that wild, uncurbed spirit of havoc that would bave wrecked the prosperity of a people. So long as you stand upon the high plane you have heretofore occupied your example cannot fail to educate all other labor organizations up to a sound, healthy judgment of the true relations of labor to capital and its combined power for the good of the nation. God bless your organization for the good it has done in the past and the power for good it can wield in the future. Judge Felker's remarks were applauded to the echo; in fact, they were encored and he had to come forward and make a supplemental address. He received one of the ovations of the day. The last speech of the afternoon was made by Ex-Governor Evans, who said he had no idea of being called upon and assured the audience that he should not take any manuscript from his pocket to complete the address. He was glad to find an organization with such a noble motto as this, "do unto others as you would have others do unto you." (Applause.) That is the foundation of all Christian morality, all justice and all right. In looking over the assembly it occurred to me that if I wanted to storm a fort I'd make up my army of locomotive engineers. I have from my early life had extreme regard for the mechanic and especially for the machinists, because my father was of that profession, and I have always thought that a little illness in my early youth spoiled one of the best locomotive engineers in the whole country. (Great laughter and applause.) After another selection by the orchestra and some remarks by the chairman, the gathering dispersed. The following preamble and resolution were adopted by Divisions 186 and 29, B. of L. R. E. Ricker, of the D. & R. G. Railway, for the gratuitous use of trains over their roads to return, respectively; to Superintendent L. M. Silver Plume and return, and to Manitou and ing us a train over his road; to General Superintendent, S. T. Smith, Assistant General Superintendent Dickinson, Superintendents J. G. Brinkerhoff, H. T. Palmer and P. Touhy, of the U. P. Railway, for many courtesies; to Asand N. W. Sample, Superintendent of M. P. sistant General Superintendent W. W. Borst, and M. of D. & R. Railway, for many courtesies; to Governor B. F. Eaton, ex-Governor John Evans, Mayor Joseph E. Bates, Railroad Commissioner W. B. Felker, and Superintendent J. K. Choate for addresses delivered by each at our public meeting in the Tabor Grand Opera House on August 8th; to Hon. H. W. A. for the occasion; to the business men and citiTabor, for the use of his Grand Opera House zens of Denver for courtesies received and their attendance at our public meeting; to the proprietors of the St. James; Markham and Lindell Hotels for making special rates to visiting members and their families; Mechanics J. O. Chapman, R. McDougall, J. H. Kirk, John Kelker, J. R. Groves, H. W. Jones, and J. B. Daily, of roads centering in Denver, for arranging that so many of our brothers could be spared from duty that they might at tend our union meeting; to all railroads approaching Denver for transportation for visiting members and families; to the wife of Road Master Charles Bargdauff for floral decorations. Be it further to Master Resolved, That these resolutions be published in the daily papers of Denver and Pueblo, and the Engineers' Journal. The latest time table of the San An tonio & Arkansas Pass Road, which took effect July 19th, shows trains running to Papalote, Tex., twenty miles beyond the late terminus at Beeville, and 116 miles southeast from San Antonio. Work on the road is progressing steadily. Contracts for the grading on the first thirty-eight miles of the northwestern line of the Chicago, Kansas & Nebraska Road, commencing at the junction fortyone miles west of St. Joseph, Mo., have been let as follows: First division, eleven miles, to J. W. Creech & Co. and Wm. Kennefick; second division, twelve miles, to Miller & Co.; third and fourth divisions, fifteen miles, to Kilpatrick Bros. This work is all in Brown and Nemaha counties, Kan. The Journal. CLEVELAND, SEPTEMBER, 1886. LABOR VS. LABOR. The cause of labor, by virtue of considerations which admit of neither modification nor extenuation, is the supreme cause of civilization. It is now, more is on. there will be found within the sphere of this JOURNAL, men who will admit that the cause of Labor vs. Labor is one of the most stubborn that has within the present century challenged the attention of the thoughtful. We assume that the present is the era of labor organizations. The proposition must not be construed to mean that within a limited modern period such organ decidedly than ever before in the history izations have had their beginning; but it of the world, up for debate. The trial may be said that within a few years comA “cloud of witnesses" will tes-paratively speaking, labor organizations tify. In this land, thank God, the jury have assumed a commanding position in is composed of the people. Here we the affairs of nations, and particularly in have free speech and a free press. Here, the United States of America. This is if a man has a belief, a theory, a creed, a owing to the character of our institudogma, a plan, a scheme-he may, protions. Here we have a government of vided only lawful methods are proposed, and by and for the people. Here we have give the widest possible expression of his manhood suffrage. Here all power is inviews. He may bring to his aid every herent in the people at the polls, at the fact within the wide domain of history. ballot box; in the school all are equal. The maxims, the laws, the traditions of Here we have, or ought to have, an unthe Ancients, the experiences, the suc- questioned supremacy of intelligence. cesses and the failures of the modern As a consequence, there is no room in world, he may challenge, analyze, and America for the boycott, the black list, with aristocratic imperiousness, comthe spotter, the land grabber, the railmand to give their testimony upon all road wrecker, the monopolist, the corquestions which concern the well being nerer of food products, nor such other of society. schemes and schemers as singly or combined embarrass labor and subject it to trials and privations, which render it less prosperous than it otherwise would be. We say there is no room in the United States for such things, and if they exist, like Canada thistles, they ought to disappear. The cause we have chosen for discussion in this article is not Labor vs. Capital, Labor vs. Politics, nor Labor vs. Law, but Labor vs. Labor; and we confess that the cause discloses an anomalous situation which brings into prominence the maxim which has heaven's indorse ment, that "o a house divided against it self cannot stand." It is not required that we should discuss the primary objects which labor organizations in the United States had in view, but it may be said that now their supreme purpose is to better the condi Possibly, a reader may be found who will deem it in order to inquire, Is there indeed such a cause as Labor vs. Labor on the docket demanding trial? In addition of workingmen; and right here we tion, he may surmise that this cause of Labor vs. Labor is nothing more than a fantasy, and that the moment it is treated analytically and synthetically, it vanishes into thin air. And yet, we opine, must be permitted to say, that the workingmen of the United States are not anarchists; they are not dynamiters, but American citizens, who make laws and constitutions, elect legislators and judges, We have said that the supreme purpose of the labor organizations of the country, is to better the condition of working men. and constitute a body of men as conserv- coal, iron, gold and silver mines, minerative, as law-abiding and as appreciative als and precious stones, etc. Now, in of public order as any other class of men the face of the social upheavals occurring known in the land, and all exhortations from time to time among our breadwinwhich occasionally appear in the press or ners, it is just and wise to inquire, Is are uttered from the rostrum, addressed there a cause? And as all effects are preto workingmen to stand by the laws of ceded by causes, why should not the distheir country are so many insults to the quiet referred to have its cause? To great body of workingmen, and could, which we reply, it has, and here it is. with far more propriety, be addressed in And without going deeper, it can be other directions. proved from the last census, thus: Labor produces, on an average, $720 per man per year. Does he get it? The census says no, he only gets $346, on an average. Well, who secures, unjustly, the difference? (Of $374, which is over half.) Why, the Vanderbilts, Goulds, and millionaires, and largely by stealing." It may not be prudent to single out those who do manage to obtain the largest share of the annual profits of labor; it being sufficient for us to say that labor, by processes which honesty condemns, does not get its fair share. And now, since labor organizations are intent upon finding and applying a remedy for the wrong committed, it would seem to be the course of wisdom for all workingmen to federate for the purpose of securing a. boon so eminently just and so unquestionably in consonance with their own welfare and that of society at large. In this discussion we shall omit special reference to the moral aspects of the question, not because we esteem such phases of the subject of little moment, but rather because it does not suit us at this writing to treat of other than the financial bearing of the question in hand. Putting it tersely, the labor organizations of the country demand better pay than has hitherto been accorded, and when success attends their efforts, and an advance has been secured, they seek by such methods as experience and the laws justify, to retain what they have secured. In this connection it suits our purpose to introduce the comments of a writer, who says that "according to the census of 1880, that the annual sources of income of this great and enterprising nation, The question now arises, what proporfrom farming, mining, manufacturing, tion of the workingmen of the United and railroads and public carrying foot up States are thus seeking, through labor orto seven billions of dollars ($7,000,000,- | ganizations, to promote their financial 000); of this sum $5,775,000,000 is ex- condition by obtaining a larger share of pended and consumed, and $1,225,000,- the profits of their labor? We do not 000 is saved and added to the accumu- pretend to have in our possession any related wealth of the people, and is seen in liable data upon the subject, but we conthe thousands of miles of railway tracks jecture that to say one-third of the total and rolling stock; in mills and factories; number are so enrolled would be taxing in the accumulated buildings which form the probable to the utmost limit. For our towns and cities, and cultivated the purpose of illustration, we will asfarms, our homes, and their contents, sume there are 9,000,000 of workingmen comforts and luxuries, our schools and in the country, and that 3,000,000 of them churches, the grain, meat and fruit of are members of labor organizations; in the earth; the product of our gas, oil, that case, we ask, where are the remain ing 6,000,000? What is their attitude towards their fellow workingmen who are battling with Spartan courage, and more than Spartan intelligence, to advance the welfare of all workingmen; for, be it understood, that a victory in the interest of justice, extends far beyond the few or the many who achieve it. We have no hesitancy in saying that workingmen who stand aloof from the organizations of their fellow laborers, are openly or covertly the enemies of labor organizations, and thus we have before the country the cause of Labor vs. Labor-labor fighting labor. Workingmen whose very existence depends upon wages, doing what they can, if not to reduce wages, to keep the pay of workingmen at a level, which satisfies the great body of employers. The spectacle, we confess, is humiliating. It would seem to be anti-American. In discussing it, we fail to readily find, if found at all, an explanation for its existence. If it is ignorance, the remedy must be found in education, and a generation or two will be required to bring the great body of workingmen up to that standard of intelligence where they will have correct conceptions of their exalted privileges. If it be ignorance, what a commentary it supplies upon our much boasted educational system. Is it depravity? by which we mean that low estimate of the rights and prerogatives of citizenship, that reduces men to the level of fawning sycophants at the footstool of power, whether that power be real or watered wealth, or an assumed superiority, which in autocratic lands is denominated a "divine right to rule." Whatever may be the cause it cannot be contemplated without producing a sense of humiliation. The advancement from humble conditions, from ignorance to intelligence, from poverty to affluence, from weakness to power, in the history of individuals, communities and nations, are themes upon which statesmen, orators and publicists dwell with becoming ardor; such progress and efficiency bear testimony of capacities without which human nature would be rated a dead failure. Upon it hang the hopes of mankind. There are no pictures more inspiring than to see men grappling with adversity and conquering it. Said a poor artist studying his profession in a European capital, "I have tackled the world and I will lick it"-and the world likes pluck, nerve, what is sometimes, in slang parlance, called "sand." To see workingmen selfappreciative and forming organizations designed to give them a righteous share of the profits of their toil and skill, to see them able to multiply the sources of comfort and happiness, to live in better houses, wear better clothes, and enjoy some of the luxuries which a beneficent Providence has placed within the reach of prudent ambition, must be to all people capable of enjoying a philanthropic thought, a source of exquisite satisfaction, and none but the heartless could possibly betray feelings of envy. Viewing the subject from such points of observation, what must be the condition of workingmen, morally and intellectually, who withhold their approval of labor organizations? We shall indulge in no censorious criticisms upon their course. We simply esteem them unfortunates. They belong to those to whom Christ referred to as "having ears, but hear not," as "having eyes, but see not.” But their case is not hopeless. Our fathers who were required to "strike fire with the old fashioned" flint and steel, never dreamed of the friction match or the electric light. The old time plodders along the dusty roads, did not anticipate the flight of the locomotive-nor from the days of Cyrus, who established post roads, down to the present century, neither prophet nor seer was able to fore 287, to be held at Rhododendron Park, cast a time when with the speed of We entertain no apprehensions of unfavorable results. Revolutions never go backwards. The requirement is simply more light. The blind are to see, the Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. LINKS. Accommodations have been made for the delegates to the N. Y. Convention at the Rossmore hotel, Broadway and 42d St., $2,50 per day. Convention will be held at Lyric Hall, one block from hotel Delegates arriving in New York over the West Shore will take horse cars at the ferry to hotel. We are in receipt of invitations to be present at the first annual picnic of Div. Several Divisions have failed to notify us of officers and delegates elected for the ensuing year. We would request that they do so at once as time is short. At a regular meeting in Division No. 219, Marshall, Texas, a vote of thanks was tendered to Mrs. L. S. Roach, wife of Bro. L. S. Roach, for the gift of two elegant pictures presented to the Division. One of them was the picture of the illfated Engine 642, that went through Village Creek Bridge with such fatal results. At a regular meeting in Division No. 96, at Chicago, Ill., a vote of thanks was tendered to our Worthy Grand Chaplain, Bro. Deloss Everett, for the gift of two beautiful pictures representing scenery on the Pennsylvania Central R. R. The ladies of Division No. 265, at Florence, S. C., a short time ago, while the Brothers were busily engaged in their meeting, quietly gathered at the Division room door and when all was in readiness gave an alarm which was answered from within. They were soon admitted, and after seats had been provided for all, Mrs. J. J. Jennings and Mrs. W. Z. Nettles, who had been selected as a committee, stepped forward, and in a very neat speech presented Pee Dee Division No. 265, with an elegant Bible. Bro. Hall, C. E., in his usual happy way, thanked the ladies for the beautiful gift. Speeches were indulged in by the Brothers for some time, when all adjourned to the cosy lunch room adjoining the hall, where tempting fruits, ices and cakes were enjoyed by those present. It was voted a very pleasant occasion. At a regular meeting of Division No. 105, New York City, a vote of thanks |