EXPEDIENCY AGAINST PRINCIPLE.
By G.
IN the April number of the Cynosure, President Blanchard quotes this remark made by some one at a meeting in Chicago: "If you had spent your lifetime learning a trade, and found yourself forbidden to work at it unless you would join a union, you would probably join a union." It is just such argument as this that induces three-fourths of the members of labor unions to become thus united. But what a confession! Who are they, and by what spirit are they actuated, who assume to forbid men to work at any trade unless they join a union? By what right does any man or combination of men assume such a prerogative? When a man confesses that he joins a union because he has been forbidden to work at a trade unless he joins a union, he confesses that he is governed by expediency rather than by principle. And right here hangs a predominant weakness of mankind,—the masses are led by momentary expediency, that which appears to be present gain. When they do look forward, it is to see what is likely to become the dominant power, according to representations of designing men, and then ally themselves to that power: They do not reflect that it is the yielding of this large class of dependent individual minds to manifest tyranny that makes possible the success of those who would control them. This weakness of mankind in general is the stronghold of those who are shrewd enough to take advantage of it. It is the stronghold of the politician, the corporation promoter, the labor "leader," the secret society organizer, the church-and-state religion advocate, and a host of kindred tyrannies. When the masses of mankind become strong enough to stand for principle as individuals, instead of depending upon human leaders, the "bosses" of men will have to engage in legitimate business. But such a prospect under sinful conditions is apparently growing more remote. Only the Gospel of Christ can set men really free. "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36. G.