THE LABORER'S ONLY HELP.
By G.
NOTWITHSTANDING the conceded oppression of the Pennsylvania coal miners by the operators, that is not all their troubles. It is a mooted question whether their condition previous to the great strike was not better than months of idleness, with its consequent train of evils. There is no doubt that a majority of the strikers, if left to themselves, would have returned to their work long ago. Perhaps there is not to be found anywhere a lot of more dependent people than those same miners. At work, they are poorly paid, robbed by storekeepers, and obliged to live in hovels. On strike, they are under command of union bosses, masters who will not permit them to work, and who have nothing to offer them but a dole of “charity.” The abject slavery of these people is incidentally disclosed by a paper designed to laud the leader of the strikers. In the recital of his good qualities and his powers and prowess as a leader, there occurs this sentence:— Day after day, night after night, in all the worriments and struggles, and with the thousands of details of the strike to attend to, distressed, harassed, at one time seeing defeat ready to slap him in the face, dreading every minute a rush back to work by the strikers, but never showing it in his face or manner—that is the kind of man —— —— is. This is an admission by sympathizers with the strike that idle, suffering people are withheld from work by leaders who enjoy fairly good salaries, and are not in want. But this is not all of the glory this man gets from a strike-sympathizing source. Speaking of the hold he has on the laborers, the same article says: Day by day, like a man dragging himself up a slippery cliff, he climbed, getting a firmer and firmer hold upon the strikers, until he had them where he has held them since, firmly in his grasp, obedient to his command. And this is why hundreds of needy men with needy families were idle for months, when they wanted to work, and had opportunity to work. O yes, when at work they were sorely oppressed by their employers, but does that make excuse for others to compel them to take a worse position? Surely the lot of the laboring man is hard, when the only employment open to him, the only occupation he knows, is under the lash of cruel taskmasters, and he must have the permission of a tyrannical boss to even engage himself at that work. On either hand he is in somebody’s grasp. No wonder many laborers are inclined to think that it is better to work at any price, even tho the environment is bad, than to remain in the same environment under the dictation of those who have nothing to offer instead. No wonder the boss was “dreading every minute a rush back to work by the strikers,” when his rule would be at an end. It is sad to note the many stratagems on foot to control the laboring masses, and it is surprising to see the number of men and combinations posing as the friends of labor. In the recent election every political party, and every candidate for office, was posing as the friend of the laboring classes. Yet it is clear that the central ambition is to be able to manipulate these classes for selfish purposes. It is wonderful, too, how easily such masses are led. The flattery, or the smooth promise, or the platitude glibly repeated, gives almost instant hope of better days, under the sway of some oily-tongued candidate for honor or fortune. With it all, evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, and wage laborers become more and more the objects of barter, a ladder on which ambitious, speculating schemers may climb into prominence. When some of these may be profited thereby, labor comes in for a modicum of temporary benefit, otherwise it is subject to the plucking of all who can. The one thing that the dependent laborer needs to learn is, “Vain is the help of man.” Temporary and uncertain indeed is all that can come in that way. Listen to Him who alone can give permanent help, and who gave His life that He might help all who are oppressed. His invitation is: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”