ELEMENTS OF STRIFE by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, Cal. · Jun 25, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 26.

ELEMENTS OF STRIFE.

By S.

MEN who have only labor to sell are naturally anxious to control the market. Men who have only stocks and dividends in sight are naturally anxious that nothing should interfere with the value of their stocks or the size and frequency of their dividends.

The first class see only starvation and distress for themselves and their families whenever the market price of their labor is forced down or threatened. The latter see only disaster to their business and their ambitions whenever the price of labor begins to rise.

So the issue is definite between the two classes; and as capital combines to strengthen itself against the demands of labor, so labor has begun in earnest to strengthen itself against the exactions of that class of combinations that would make capital of their necessities. This is the view-point from which each of these great powers looks at the other. Naturally each move of the one is watched by the other. There has been a rapid increase in the combinations of capital for its own interests, so that it could not only defend itself against its foes, but exact the greatest possible tribute from all who come within its power. The increase in the combinations of the labor forces have been none the less rapid or far-reaching.

This is the situation as it exists to-day. A few excerpts from editorial notes in a prominent labor journal (Appeal to Reason) will show how the labor leaders look upon the situation as the opposing forces are mobilizing for the fray:—

"The Corporation Auxiliary Co.," Chamber of Commerce Building, Cleveland, Ohio, is a corporation that advertises to spy on workingmen in the shops of large employers of labor, to keep the employer posted on the actions of the men regarding unions, Socialism, etc. Think of it, ye workingmen. When will you use your votes to make yourselves free from your masters? How much oppression will it require to wake you up? Vote for Socialists, and you will be your own employers, and can do without capitalists and their sweating, spying, degrading system of employment.

The railroads have notified some operators in the hard-coal fields of Pennsylvania who have granted the very reasonable demands of the miners, that the roads will not carry their coal to market. They are determined to beat the miners, and break up their unions and force them into just such slavery as they desire. Freedom?—Why, of course! America is the land of the free and the home of the brave!

The prospectus for the Merganthaler basket machine says that it will save $2,000,000 in wages alone each year over the present hand methods of making fruit baskets. Two million taken from labor and put into the bank accounts of the wealthy!

Morgan has given the king of England $500,000 worth of Spanish tapestry to use at the coronation. But he has not given the tens of thousands of wage-slaves in his industries anything, so far as heard from. When the workmen realize their conditions, they "won't do a thing" to the Morgans and the kings.

The situation in Chicago is fully as bad as in the coal districts. The laboring men in a score of trades are striking, and the process of organization goes on day and night. New labor organizations are forming,

and old ones are strengthening their membership. From a perusal of the labor journals, I am inclined to think that there has never been such a growth of labor unions in any two years as has been accomplished in the last six months. Labor is keeping pace with capital in organization.

The teamsters' strike in Chicago has assumed proportions that should teach the masters what may be expected when all the working people strike some of these days. If the teamsters in the employ of a packing-house can nearly paralyze the traffic of such a great city, . . . one might well shudder when the order for a general strike comes. The packers are determined to destroy the labor unions; but in that they will not succeed, for their action only tends to force men to combine.

Even more marked than the hundreds of Socialist papers that have arisen in the last year is the change in the tone of the labor press with their hundreds of papers and millions of readers. Nearly every one of them are advocating Socialism as the remedy that the laboring people must apply to get relief from their dependence on masters. The movement is gathering the force that will awaken the nation in the near future.

These are omens of the times, precursors of the terrible struggle for which these mighty forces are now in preparation. The words of Jesus are fulfilled, "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth." While this inevitable struggle is pending, Nature herself is giving us premonitions of what she will do when we have fully entered upon the great day of the Lord. We are entering indeed upon perilous times, when only those who are safe in God will be safe at all. That refuge is provided, and they who flee to it will find a shelter which no earthquake, volcano, pestilence, flood, fire, or sword can penetrate. They who believe and know God's Word know that ere long these disasters in the earth, and these struggles between men and men and between nations and nations, will have an end. To that glorious time we look, and in that glorious consummation we have hope.