Monopolies by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 11, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 10.

Monopolies.

By Editor

LAST week one of our news items was to the effect that the McCormick Reaper Works of Chicago had shut down, throwing 1,000 men out of employment. But that was only a part of the story. The managers had recently acceded to a request from their workmen for higher wages, and received back certain men who had been discharged. Then the workmen, who belonged to a "trades union," demanded that five men who did not belong to the union should be discharged. The managers, very properly, refused to comply, and, knowing that a "strike" had been ordered, shut down for a few days. When they reopened, a large force of police had to protect those who wished to work, from the assaults of the "union" men. We are opposed to monopolies of every kind, and we believe in helping the laboring people, for we are of this class ourselves, and it is for this very reason that we do not believe in these so-called "trades unions." They are the laboring man's enemy. Every man who joins one, voluntarily puts himself into the hands of an unscrupulous monopoly. The capitalist who oppresses the hireling in his wages is no greater enemy to the laboring man than is a company of men who presume to dictate when he may and may not work. The Golden Rule condemns all monopolies.