THE WHITE SLAVERY A STUDY OF THE PRESENT TRADES UNION SYSTEM. * By WILEY BRITTON \\ Life Member American Association for the Advance- ment of Science Author of The Civil War on the Border In Two Volumes. i Manufactured by The Werner Company, Akron, O. Copyright, 1909, BY WILEY BRITTOIC TABLE OF CONTENTS THE WHITE SLAVERY A STUDY OF THE PRESENT TRADES UNION SYSTEM. Chapter I. INTRODUCTION i Chapter II. CONDITIONS OF SLAVERY 24 Chapter III. THE OPEN SHOP VERSUS THE CLOSED SHOP 48 Chapter IV. THE LOVE OF POWER 63 Chapter V. PRIMITIVE IDEALS OF THE UNIONS..... 77 Chapter VI. THE UNIONS A LABOR TRUST 91 Chapter VII. "DOWN WITH THE EMPLOYER!" CRIES UNIONISM 104 Chapter VIII. INJUSTICE UNPROFITABLE 115 Chapter IX. COERCIVE METHODS OF THE UNIONS 126 Chapter X. THE INDEPENDENT WORKMAN IVESTI- GATES 140 Chapter XI. THE UNIONS DESTRUCTIVE OF SOCIAL ORDER 155 Chapter XII. THE UNIONS A DISLOYAL ORGANIZATION 167 Chapter XIII. THE PESSIMISM OF THE UNIONS 179 Chapter XIV. THE GENERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS SUFFICIENT 194 Chapter XV. SELLING AND BUYING LABOR 204 Chapter XVI. THE WASTE OF UNIONISM 216 Chapter XVII. THEY LOSE WHEN THEY WIN 227 Chapter XVIII. To SEE OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE Us. 236 Chapter XIX. THE UNIONS A LEAGUE OF ENVY, HATE AND SELFISHNESS 248 Chapter XX. SLAVES NEVER WIN THEIR OWN FREE- DOM UNAIDED BY OUTSIDE INFLUENCES 265 Chapter XXI. INSTITUTIONS AND MEN JUDGED BY THEIR CONDUCT 274 Chapter XXII. TRADE SCHOOLS TO FURNISH SKILLED LABOR 288 Chapter XXIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMPLOYER'S AS- SOCIATIONS 302 Chapter XXIV. SYMPOSIUM ON SOCIALISM 316 248618 PREFACE. We are amply justified in referring to the union officials as masters of the white slaves, for in his trial in the United States Court, for contempt of the courts order, Mr. Gompers has caused it to be written in the record of that court, that he has risen from obscurity to become as he expressed it, "the master of a million minds." We are justified in referring to the unions as a disloyal organization, for the reason that its officials from the highest to the lowest, boast defiantly, flag- rantly and offensively, and in the light of open day, of ignoring and trampling upon the laws of the land. And we are justified in referring to the unions as a league of envy, hate and selfishness, for the reason that the speeches and conduct and teachings of the union officials are full of hatred towards employers, free, independent workers and the Government of the people, and in endorsement of the criminal acts of unionists. That such teachings are a disintegrating force, a force tending to disintegrate the social aggregate, will hardly be questioned by any competent student of social problems. The question is up to the coun- try to determine whether such disintegration is desir- THE WHITE SLAVEEY able. To those who love our country, its flag and its institutions it is not desirable. To those who hate our government, its flag, its institutions and its civili- zation, of course such disintegration is desirable. We regret to use expressions that may seem harsh, but war in its mildest form is harsh, and the wicked war of the unions on peaceable communities and individuals, can not be held up in its proper light without using strong expressions. "We do not, how- ever, believe that the expressions used in the text are stronger than the language of some of the court decisions in describing the conduct of labor officials in violating and defying the laws of the country. The reactionary leaders of unionism and social- ism are not only endeavoring to destroy our Govern- ment, with all the institutions built up under it, and all individual and property rights, but they are en- deavoring also to destroy our civilization, to undo all that evolution has done. Their primitive ideals and pessimistic views of life, lead them to see no good in the present government of the world, and what we call the highest ideals of civilization, so they denounce all past evolution as a failure. They hold that all property is robbery, and would have us return to communism and socialism in their most primitive form, which is the embryonic condition of present evolved social aggregates. They talk about fraternity and equality in one breath, and in the next denounce in the most violent and brutal manner all except the vicious and weak-minded whom they are able to control. The battle is now on between the THE WHITE SLAVERY reactionary forces of unionism and socialism upon the one side, and the progressive forces which have brought all life and intelligence to their present con- dition, and by which the efficient have profited by their efficiency and the inefficient have lost out be- cause of their inefficiency upon the other. In our study we find practically all the vicious and weak-minded elements of the country in the ranks and as sympathizers of unionism and socialism. And we also find these elements controlled and di- rected by the most intelligent schemers among them to coerce all other classes into subjection. The world has never before had such a thoroughly organized scheme of the intelligent vicious to use the weak- minded and vicious as a club to control and enslave the progressive and provident classes of society. These waves of the organized weak-minded and vicious elements of society, have many times sub- merged the saner parts of communities and are threatening to do so again. This book is a plea for the largest possible meas- ure of individual freedom consistent with the equal freedom of all. It is a plea for equal rights, justice and moderation in all the dealings of men with each other, with special privileges for none. It is a plea for the abolition of all coercive methods in the deal- ings of men with each other, in the family, in the public schools, and in all institutions of the State, except where it is necessary to restrain and control the insane and the vicious and violent in penal insti- tutions. It is a plea to allow the efficient to profit THE WHITE SLAVEEY by their efficiency within the limits of equal freedom, and to help along the inefficient by rational altruism to secure to them all that is due them on account of their inefficiency. It is a plea for the abolition of the White Slavery of the Unions and the establish- ment of free manhood throughout the country. And finally, it is a plea for the development of fraternal feelings which will tend to strengthen the ties that should bind our people together in common fellow- ship and interests. I wish to express my appreciation and thanks to Captain Wilbur F. Henry, a distinguished lawyer of Kansas City, Missouri, and for many years editor of The Western Veteran, for his kindness in reading my manuscript and making such changes as were suggested to his critical mind. WILEY BEITTON. KANSAS CITY, KANSAS. THE WHITE SLAYEEY O gales of the sea which waftest the swift ships through the silvery waves, through the surge of the ocean, freighted with precious human lives, be un- propitious to the fiends of the unions, who, with dynamite in their hands, and evil intentions in their hearts, are ready to send a thousand souls to the bottom of the ocean, because some traitor to his country, some traitor to human kind, some labor union official did not have his demands complied with that no coal should be used by the steamer which had been mined by the hands of free, inde- pendent workers. Chapter XIX. They have set up a government which they call The Federation of Labor, within the General Govern- ment, and claim for it an allegiance and authority paramount to the authority of the peoples Govern- ment, and have made laws and decrees nullifying and setting aside the laws enacted by the peoples representatives. Chapter I. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. INDICTMENT OF THE LEADERS. WHEN a child, my first thoughts about life were, that I should grow up and be a man like my father and be free like him to do as I pleased. One of our neighbors owned a few slaves, and a negro man of his sometimes came to our house on errands for his master, and I heard my father speak of him as belonging to our neighbor in the same sense as a horse belonging to him. I could not understand how it was that being a man the negro could belong to another man, for I thought that all full grown men should be free to do as they wished and asked father about it. He explained to me that all black people belonged to white people. That seemed very strange to me, for I thought that the color of the skin should not make any difference as to their freedom; that when any one got to be a man he should be free, and I grew up to think it wrong for one man to own another on account of the color of his skin, and I was called an abolitionist, a terrible name in a community where nearly every body believed in slavery. Although my grand parents on both sides l 2 THE WHITE SLAVEEY owned slaves, as I grew up and was able to read and think about the matter I became thoroughly con- vinced that it was wrong for one man to own another as a chattel, and would discuss the proposition with any one who believed in negro slavery, even in a hostile community where there was no one who took my view of the matter except my father. Presently the Civil War came up and I enlisted in the army for the preservation of the Union, and in the four years' struggle the institution of slavery was destroyed and the slaves emancipated. When the strife and turmoil of the Civil War was ended, I was strongly impressed with the idea that the minds of all classes of men in this country, even of statesmen and men of science, were so enslaved by tradition that they had the most irrational beliefs as to the age of the world and the constitution of the universe, of the origin of life on the earth, and many other primitive ideas that stood as much in the way of progress as negro slavery. The great struggle between the Special Creation- ists and Evolutionists was bitter for fifteen to twenty years, and no criticism of ridicule and sar- casm was too severe against Mr. Darwin after he gave to the world his great work on the Origin of Species, a work showing with convincing evidence that all life on the earth has been evolved from the lowest forms. But finally I have had the satisfac- tion as a humble worker of seeing the doctrine of evolution accepted by nearly all the great thinkers of the world and used as a basis for nearly all scien- THE WHITE SLAVERY 3 tific work. The destruction of slavery and the triumph of the doctrine of evolution, have made a new world of thought in all civilized countries. But scarcely were the shackles torn from the limbs of the slaves, and the minds of men emancipated from the thraldom of tradition and superstition, when there appeared low down on the social hori- zon a speck of slavery, the White Slavery of the Unions, which has grown in power for evil until its baneful influence is felt throughout the length and breadth of the land ^nd until it has become more hateful and debasing to the manhood of its victims in many respects than negro slavery. The destruction of this anomalous and injurious growth on our civil- ization, it seems to me should engage the attention of all thinking men who love liberty, justice, equal rights, and a stable government that gives equal protection to all. It seems that in the early history of this disloyal organization its aims and purposes were honorable, lawful and beneficial to its mem- bers without any intention of trespassing upon or interfering with the rights and privileges of others outside its ranks. But gradually corrupt, scheming men got control of labor organizations to use them for satisfying their own selfish greed for gain and ambition for power, without any regard to the rights of all others outside their ranks. As nearly every body in this country is a worker, mental or physical, the early aggressions of organ- ized labor upon employers and independent workers, and those outside its ranks, were looked upon by; 4 THE WHITE SLAVEKY the public in a spirit of toleration and leniency, which seemed to impress the evil doers, the violaters of the laws, with the idea that they were an excepted class, a class having special privileges and not amen- able to law like other men. Corrupt, scheming men having got complete control of labor organizations, they were not slow to take advantage of the tend- ency of the public to tolerate and half excuse the violent and lawless conduct of men in the name of union labor, and have gradually pushed their de- mands and exactions to the utmost limits that com- munities will stand, and now go before the Congress and State legislatures demanding that labor organ- izations be an excepted class, a class having special privileges, and immune from prosecution and punish- ment for violations of the laws. As far as we are able to see, those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, or more appropriately, the league of envy, hate and selfishness, are conducting a constant guerilla war on the industrial activities of the country, without disclosing any hint of their ultimate object, their ulimate ideal, the ideal conditions they hope will be brought about by the complete triumph of unionism. They demand special privileges and im- munities to hold up employers to satisfy their selfish greed, and to intimidate, assault and murder, all out- side the ranks of their organization who stand in the way of their complete triumph; but if they should succeed in getting the country completely by the throat so that they would have nothing further THE WHITE SLAVERY 5 to feed upon, no one to further hold up, they do not tell us what they would then do. They do not tell us that they want everybody to join the union, or that they even want all men who work with their hands to join it. They could not want all employers to join it, for if they did they would have no one to hold up to satisfy their selfish greed, and they could not want all independent workers to join it, for if they did they would have no one to make war upon for wishing to work without their permission and paying them a heavy toll for the permission, and against whom as individuals they could send out two to a dozen of their thugs and sluggers to drive from their work, assault and chase and beat to death. They could not want all workers to join the unions, for if they did they know that the labor trust could not force up wages beyond their normal level. They know that they would lose their jobs at once and that the unions would go out of business, if there were not employers against whom to hatch up grievances and hold up to satisfy their selfish greed, and if there were not ten times as many inde- pendent workers as organized workers against whom they must wage constant war in order that they may secure a monopoly of labor, in order that they may get for the one-tenth what all should have. They must know that their entire scheme is preda- tory, as predatory as the operations of the guerilla bandit who lives by raiding and holding up for sel- fish gain the men who have saved up the means of happiness for themselves and families by honest toil. 6 THE WHITE SLAVEEY They must know too, that their jobs are dependent upon maintaining the organization of the unions, which in turn depends upon the teachings of the league of envy, hate and selfishness. They must know that the principles and policies of the unions are destructive of social order and industrial freedom and progress, and if they do know it, it is proof that they care nothing for the pub- lic interest so long as their selfish greed for pelf and power is satisfied. In many ways they have shown that they are utterly indifferent to the common wel- fare, as indifferent as an army of aliens, who, having over run and subdued the country, live in it for the spoils of successful war. They oppose an efficient army and navy and the organization and equipment of the militia of the several States to protect the country in case of foreign war, or internal disturb- ance. They denounce the militia, and persuade young men from joining it, and discharge any of their own members of the unions who join it, claim- ing that the militia should not be called out to main- tain order when they send out their thugs and slug- gers and educational committees to assault and mur- der innocent men, women and children, destroy prop- erty, strip women naked and beat them for riding on street cars, as they did in St. Louis, for the pur- pose of enforcing their oppressive and brutal de- mands against employers. They vehemently de- nounce the capitalistic trusts, apparently unconscious of the fact that they control and direct the prin- ciples, policies and conduct of the most oppressive THE WHITE SLAVERY 7 and tyrannical trust, the labor trust, the world has ever known. They chuckle with fiendish delight and boastful swagger when they are able to boycott and destroy the business of men who have furnished employment for hundreds and even thousands of their own people of the unions, when these business men have incurred their displeasure by insisting on having something to say in the managing of their own business. They have talked about "grinding toil" and "sweat shops" of laboring men as if they were forced by employers to work under the lash, while at the same time they were snatching the wages from the hands of these laboring men before the wages could be used to buy food, clothing and comforts for their wives and children, which were required to prevent them from suffering. They talk glowingly of what they have done for the labor- ing man, and yet require every laboring man to pay them a heavy toll for permission to work, and take a lien on his wages while he is permitted to work. They have loudly denounced our courts for issuing writs of injunction to restrain them and their fellow thugs and sluggers from destroying property of employers and intimidating, assaulting and murder- ing independent workers, in the face of the fact that they have for years been constantly issuing injunc- tions to their followers, inciting them to destroy prop- erty and intimidate and assault independent workers and all others who dare to stand in their way of enforcing their brutal demands. They talk glibly about the rights of organized labor while totally 8 THE WHITE SLAVEEY ignoring the right to industrial freedom of independ- ent labor which they know is ten times as numerous as organized labor. They have used the weak- minded and vicious to drive many worthy men into the ranks of the unions, thus using the membership of the organization to do their bidding as completely as if they were slaves. They have, by enforcing the principles and policies of the unions, and by their system of increasing the inefficiency of union labor caused a day's work to cost twice as much as it cost a few years ago, thus doubling the prices of nearly all commodities and the cost of living. They have, by enforcing the principles and policies of the organ- ization, encouraged dead beating, making work, "sol- diering " and slouchy work, until there is no longer any stimulus for competent members to excel in efficiency, and give their employer an honest day's work for honest day's pay. They have by enforcing the principles and policies of the unions, instilled into the minds of the members the false and per- nicious idea that they and their employers are nat- ural enemies, thus making it impossible for union labor to ever become efficient labor, for no man who regards another as his enemy will exert himself to give that enemy the full efficiency of his labor. They have by rigid enforcement of the principles and pol- icies of the unions, which they control and direct, re- stricted apprenticeships in the different trades to such small numbers, that thousands of young men have been driven into criminal and wasted lives. They have directed the principles and policies of THE WHITE SLAVERY 9 the unions in such manner as to crush the manhood and enslave the minds of members so that they dare not assert their natural and inalienable rights to edu- cate and prepare their sons for the business or pro- fessions they think most suitable for them. They have wickedly and corruptly endeavored to coerce national conventions to put planks in their platforms promising to enact laws giving to labor organizations special privileges to commit crimes, and special im- munities from prosecution and punishment for the commission of such crimes as the destruction of property, intimidation and murder of independent workers, by threatening to mass the labor vote, as if they owned it, against the party that dares to refuse compliance with their unjust and unlawful demands. They have wickedly and corruptly en- deavored to coerce municipal and state authorities into giving all public work to union labor to the ex- clusion of all free and independent labor competing for such work which they know is ten times as num- erous. They have wickedly and corruptly squeezed out of and appropriated the wages of the poorest class of men in this country, to satisfy their own selfish greed in luxurious living and to exploit their importance, with utter indifference to the sufferings and hardships and the want of proper food and clothing and comforts of the families of the men whom they have shamefully robbed of their wages. They have by wicked and corrupt methods and usur- pations of power, made the unions a league of envy, hate and selfishness, where weak-minded men are fed 10 THE WHITE SLAVEEY on thoughts of prejudice and hatred of fellow men, and of the government and the flag that protects them, and where men of intelligence and good inten- tions are coerced into evil associations and to tacitly sanction the many misdeeds of organized labor, if not indeed in many instances to assist in them. They have by their constant war on the business interests of the country prevented the investment of hundreds of millions of dollars of capital, which careful bus- iness men would naturally hesitate to invest in any business enterprise without reasonable assurance that their business would not be interrupted or inter- ferred with by the unions, thus depriving hundreds of thousands of laboring people, including organized labor, of employment and of earning hundreds of millions of dollars every year, which honest toil would have brought them. They have by their sel- fishness and greed and pigheadedness, refused to see that capital is always timid and not likely to be invested where labor conditions threaten to make investment unprofitable or unsafe. They have by their attacks on the courts, and their whining im- portunities and demands on Congress and the state legislatures for the enactment of laws giving to labor organizations special privileges to destroy the business and prosperity of communities and indi- viduals, developed a feeling of insecurity in the minds of all men having money for investment in business enterprises, brought about a business de- pression national in extent, a business depression that has thrown hundreds of thousands of laboring THE WHITE SLAVEEY 11 people out of employment and causing untold misery and suffering. They seem unable to see in their wickedness and stupidity that when they destroy the business of communities or individuals, which they boast of with fiendish delight, that they are pulling down the temple of bread and butter upon the heads of their own followers, causing them the anguish and suffering which nearly always results from persistent wrong and injustice. They do not seem to have the judgment to see that a careful business man will take into account all the factors which will probably make his proposed business enterprise profitable or un- profitable, before investing his money, and that if any given proposition is clouded with doubt as to its desirability, he will seek other fields for his investment. They have shown by their indifference to the common welfare, and by their persistent efforts to destroy the business of communities and of in- dividuals, that they care nothing for the happiness and well-being of the working members so long as they are able to squeeze out of them enough to keep up their own fat salaries, and to have enough in the treasury of the organization to enable them to make a display of their power and importance at political conventions when offering for sale the votes they pretend to control. They have done more to de- velop a criminal class in this country, by instigat- ing their followers to lawlessness and crime, and by calling to their assistance in times of strikes, as sym- pathizers, the violent, the vicious and the weak- minded, than all other causes, not even excepting the 12 THE WHITE SLAVEEY sale and use of intoxicating liquors. They are doing more to weaken and destroy the ties that should be strengthened, to bind our people together in com- mon fellowship and interests, by their teachings of hate for everything essential to our civilization, than all other causes. They have set up a govern- ment which they call The Federation of Labor, within the General Government of the people, and claim for it an allegiance and authority, paramount to the authority of the people's government, and have made laws and decrees nullifying and setting aside the laws enacted by the people's representatives. They have in their high handed treason, spit upon the flag and trampled upon the Constitution of the people's Government, and are endeavoring in their teachings of hate and crime, to weaken the effectiveness of that Government by dissolving the ties that should bind the citizens together in common fellowship and interests. They discourse eloquently and with as- sumed wisdom, about economics, when denouncing the judges of our courts for being unable to see any difference between labor union thugs and any other class of citizen malefactors, and yet show by their expressions that their philosophy of economics is dressed in the swaddling clothes 'of very primitive times. In their ideas of liberty to speak and write and act, they seem unconscious of the fact that every man's liberty to swing his arms, ends where another man's nose begins, and that every man's liberty to speak or write, ends where it commences to injure another in the exercise of his lawful pursuits. THE WHITE SLAVEEY 13 We do not see how any man capable of reasoning and who is familiar with the history of unionism in this country for the last thirty-five years, can come to any other conclusion than that it has been one of the greatest evils of our country, greater than the use of intoxicating liquors and opium. We believe that thinking men are beginning to wake up to a realization of the fact that this union slavery must not only be checked, but destroyed, or it will destroy the liberties of those who value lib- erty and independence as the most precious gift of our civilization, a gift not to be surrendered, a gift that freemen regard as sacred as life itself, a gift sanctified by the blood of heroes in the war of the Revolution for the establishment of our government, and in the Civil War for the preservation of the union and the abolition of African slavery. We be- lieve that this union slavery can be destroyed with- out bloody conflict, by the thorough organization of all our people who believe in orderly government, individual liberty, independence and equal rights, seeing to it that there shall be no excepted class, no class of special privileges and immunities, but that all shall obey the laws made for the equal protection of all in the exercise of their equal rights to life, lib- erty and property. Think of the enormous loss of human life and of injured persons every year, caused by the union slaves trained in the league of envy, hate and crime, wrecking passenger trains, dynamiting street cars, bridges, buildings and mines, and slugging, assault- 14 THE WHITE SLAVERY ing and murdering innocent men, women and chil- dren by scores ; and we have brought home to us the need of checking the fiendish operations of the great- est criminal organiation that ever existed. Think of the hundreds of millions of dollars in losses to the business interests of the country every year, caused by the union slaves trained in the league of envy, hate and selfishness, using dynamite and the torch in the destruction of property, and in using the strike, picketing, boycott, slugging and riot in the destruc- tion of business, and we are impressed with the still further need of checking the tendency towards social dissolution which the criminal phase of unionism is causing. Think of the millions of dollars of losses in wages to organized labor every year, on account of strikes ordered by the masters who never strike or never sweat, to enforce oppressive demands with which no self-respecting employer could comply without loss of his independence and freedom. Think of the other millions of dollars of losses in wages to organized labor every year on account of the mem- bers being robbed of their wages by the masters who make a swarm of drones under the names of organ- izers, walking delegates, business agents and staffs, all parasites of the unions who must be fed and nourished in great style from the wages of the mem- bers before the families of the members get the pit- tance of the wages left them, thus causing them great suffering and hardships. Think of it whether the negro slaves were more thoroughly bound and gagged and deprived of their liberty and the wages THE WHITE SLAVERY 15 of their toil, than are the members of the unions deprived of their liberty and their wages, by the masters, who like all other parasites, absorb the life- giving substances of their hosts. If a true picture could be drawn showing the sufferings and hardships of the families of the mem- bers of the unions, by being deprived of proper food and clothing and comforts by the masters taking from them and causing the loss of wages to the heads of these families, it would probably startle the coun- try as to the enormity of the evil and wickedness of present-day unionism. It would doubtless be con- vincing evidence to the unprejudiced mind that those who control and direct the principles and policies of the organization have worked up an elab- orate scheme under the name of union labor, for extorting from unthinking and weak-minded mem- bers, their wages to swell the pockets and the pride of selfish, greedy masters. They have with supreme impudence and audacity unknown to all business outside of bandits and pirates, made laws forbidding all men outside the unions from engaging in trades which they claim to control, and heavily fine any of their own members who do more than a certain amount of work in a day. And they have made laws to compel employers to employ union bosses of union choosing, to lay out work for his union employees, in short they have made laws taking charge of the business of employers, and directing them how to conduct it, leaving an employer no freedom in the matter except to pay the bills. This is closed shop 16 THE WHITE SLAVEEY unionism, and the employer who does not meekly sub- mit to it, must have his business destroyed by boycott as an example and warning to other employers who might otherwise have the temerity to oppose their judgment to the commands of the reckless masters who refuse to consider the interests of all the people. Every liberty-loving man, every man who loves orderly government founded on principles which give equal protection to all in the exercise of their inalienable rights, must hate and loathe an organiza- tion whose principles and policies as controlled and directed by the masters are so oppressive to all out- side its ranks. These masters would have the ineffi- cient profit by their inefficiency, and the efficient suf- fer on account of their efficiency; that is, they pro- pose like socialists to take the savings of the industri- ous and provident man and give them to the indolent and improvident man ; to pull efficiency down to the level of inefficiency ; whereas in the course of evolu- tion of life the efficient have profited by their effi- ciency, and the inefficient lost out by their inefficiency. In no other way could there have been evolution or progress, and in no other way can there be continued improvement in the race. In every race of animals, including our own, there are individual extremes from the most vigorous to the least vigorous, from the most perfect to the least perfect. And there is a constant tendency in all forms of life to eliminate or weed out the least vigorous and inefficient, and to the preservation of the most efficient and vigorous in the struggle for existence. THE WHITE SLAVERY 17 Intellectual and moral development however, do not go on pari passu, as could be shown by many il- lustrations from Lord Bacon down to our own day. Men of the highest intellectual attainments are fre- quently very deficient in ethical conceptions, and men not intellectually bright frequently have a fine sense of moral rectitude. Perhaps a vast majority of our people who fall below average intelligence, have no developed ethical conceptions, or conceptions of right living, and easily become victims or followers of men who have above average intelligence, but who have practically no moral sense. There is always a rich field for the intelligent, scheming and unprincipled man who is without developed ethical conceptions to lead astray the thoughtless, indifferent, easy going and less intelligent class of our people, under the pretext of wishing to better their condition. It is in this field of the less intelli- gent and more unfortunate class of our people, and of the least force of character that the labor agitator finds easy victims to his schemes of bettering his condition. While labor leaders make demands on Congress in the name of organized labor constituencies, the de- mands are really not the demands of labor constitu- encies any more than were the proposed measures of Southern Congressmen, the measures demanded by their negro constituencies. We think it a safe propo- sition to state that the principles and policies of any organization that tends to make employers and em- ployees enemies, or that tends to prevent friendly re- 18 THE WHITE SLAVERY lations between them, are vicious and deserve the stamp of disapproval of all honest and fair-minded men. There is one test by which laboring men may determine whether the proponents of labor schemes are honest, and that is whether the scheme will in any manner extort from the laboring man any part of his wages. If it does he may know that the pro- ponent of the scheme is not honest and only wishes to use the laboring man for what he can get out of him. We believe that there is a useful field for unionism as soon as it drops its present militant, coercive and destructive features and pays more attention to the altruistic side of life, and reeognizes that others out- side its ranks have rights which should be respected. There can be no valid objection to men of the same business or profession forming guilds or associations for their mutual pleasure and benefit in many direc- tions. In all the transformations of matter there is a tendency of like units to segregate or drift to- gether, and of unlike units to separate. This law of segregation is as true of the units of the social aggre- gate as of the units of any other forms of matter. This segregation or drifting together of the mem- bers of particular trades or professions may be bene- ficial to each in many ways without any aggressive or militant feature leading them to wish for the destruction of those of the same trade or profession who do not wish to join them, or without wishing to interfere with others in the exercise of their equal rights. The social feature and the exchange of ideas along lines with which all are more or less familiar, THE WHITE SLAVEEY 19 must naturally be a powerful incentive in drawing men of the same business or profession together. We believe that closed shop unionism has already reached high-water mark, and that it must hence- forth gradually recede until it will no longer be a menace to the country and to the liberty of those outside its ranks. Its constant invasion of the rights of all outside its ranks, has as a matter of self- defence brought into existence the organization of the industrial and business interests of the country, which have already had the salutary influence of checking its oppressions and pretentions, and of sobering its conduct in many ways. When labor organizations place themselves upon the footing of non-interference with the rights of others, like medi- cal associations, bankers associations, etc., they will find no more opposition to their existence than these beneficial organizations find to their existence. The constant aggressions and over-riding conduct of organized labor have gradually become so intol- erable that the employers of such labor have after insufferable annoyances and enormous losses by strikes and destruction of property and various kinds of interferences, been obliged to go into counter or- ganizations for defence. If the employers of union labor had entered into defensive organizations years ago, the labor organizations would have been less oppressive in their demands and conduct, and would have entailed less losses on the country every year. A thorough organization of the employers of union labor and of independent labor, could completely 20 THE WHITE SLAVERY check the aggressive acts of labor leaders so that a unionist could not get employment without the con- sent of the employers' association. Employers are beginning to appreciate the strength that organiza- tion gives them, and the open shop movement indi- cates that they are not inclined to further tolerate the oppressive demands, exactions and humiliations labor leaders have been in the habit of imposing * upon them when they had no defensive organization, and when an employer standing alone had the entire weight of labor organizations directed against him to crush and ruin him, if he dared to incur their dis- pleasure. The growing inefficiency of union labor, due to the teachings of those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions in ignoring merit, is becoming a powerful factor in weakening its hold on employers, and must become a more and more discriminating feature against using such labor. It is gratifying to know that some of the unions not affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, allow an amount of individual freedom of their mem- bers consistent with the legal purposes of organized labor and with an enlightened public conscience, and the criticisms of this work do not apply to these lib- eral labor organizations showing such sanity. For a number of years the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, Railway Conductors and Stationary Engi- neers, have shown by their conduct in recognizing the rights of competitors, employers and the public, that organized labor is not necessarily antagonistic to the common welfare. THE WHITE SLAVERY 21 There are many facts tending to show that those labor organizations having men of brains and stand- ing to guide them are coming to see the folly, and even wickedness of preaching a doctrine of hate and mistrust of employees for employers, and a doctrine that forbids honest working men from working for whom and under such conditions as may suit them without paying labor leaders a heavy toll for the per- mission. Even the Knights of Labor, an organiza- tion which at one time was almost as intolerant of the equal rights of all outside their membership to industrial and commercial freedom, as the unions affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, are now, under sane, progressive leaders, showing a tol- eration and respect for the equal rights of those out- side their organization, worthy of commendation. Those who control and direct the principles of the unions, have, by their unlawful combinations for the purpose of securing and controlling a monopoly of labor for their organization, gradually increased the army of the unemployed in this country, until we are rapidly approaching a condition in which we shall have as much trouble to provide for our unemployed as some of the union-ridden countries of Europe. Any one capable of reasoning has only to look at the facts to see that the unions are responsible for the increasing army of our unemployed. If there are only so many millions of dollars available for the payment of wages in this country every year, and one-tenth of the wage-earning classes organize as a trust as the unions have done, to secure all, or a 22 THE WHITE SLAVERY monopoly of this common wage fund, a large part of the nine-tenths of the wage earners who are not organized, will be unable to secure employment and their proportion of the wage fund. The greedy union officials, who are parasites of organized labor, do not want all the wage earners in the unions, for if they were and the wage fund was divided equally among them according to merit, the officials know that the one-tenth could not secure besides their own share of the wage fund, all that the nine-tenths would be entitled to. We hear the proponents of unionism triumphantly exclaiming, "you would lower the wages of the labor- ing man would you," as if organized labor was the only labor that has any rights. We reply that we would give every man a chance to win or secure his part of the common wage fund, and if giving him that chance lowered wages, we know that it would lower the price of everything that he uses in the same proportion, so that he would be able to then buy as many necessaries and luxuries on one dollar a day as he now buys on five dollars a day, with five times as many men working. What we want is a system of fairness that will give every man a chance to secure his part of the common wage fund,, according to his merit, without any favoritism, intimidation and without having to pay heavy toll to any labor parasite for permission to work. Up to a few years ago the farmers of this country bred horned cattle and put up hay in stacks or ricks in their meadows, so that quite a herd could feed THE WHITE SLAVEEY 23 around the rick or stack in severe weather, and by standing close together, protect each other from the storms. But on account of the more pugnacious animals horning others, the weaker and peaceable part of the herd was not only prevented from feed- ing, but from fear were kept away from the hay rick, shivering and suffering from cold and hunger. Later the farmers took to dehorning their cattle and rais- ing breeds without horns, and found that the de- horned cattle and muleys fed from the same hay-rick without fighting, each getting his share of hay and all affording protection to each from the stress of severe weather. Now if the unions were dehorned and the fight taken out and the charity and docility left in them, and every man given a chance to secure his share of the common wage fund, the army of the unemployed would be gradually reduced to a class of men who have not sufficient force of character to provide for themselves, a class of men we shall always have with us, but whose numbers must be gradually reduced by preventing their multiplication by wise and hu- mane laws. We recognize that the unions furnish their propor- tion of the wage fund, for the members are obliged to have the services of physicians, lawyers, mer- chants, and directly or indirectly the services of all other classes, whether union or independent workers. CHAPTER II. CONDITIONS OF SLAVERY. We always mean by slavery, men restrained of their liberty, of their independence and freedom, by other men, no matter under what form the re- straint may exist, so that it is not due to criminal or unlawful conduct. In Africa there were up to recent times chiefs who made it their business to make raids with their followers into the territory of adjacent tribes for the purpose of capturing men of their own race and selling them into slavery. There are many instances of men of feeble minds selling themselves for a consideration, and of the sale being recognized as legitimate. In this country since the abolition of slavery there have been a few systematic attempts to restrain men of their liberty by peonage, a form of slavery, which is punishable under the laws by fine and imprisonment. There seems to be some even of our own race, who have not grown out of the savage state, who are without emotions of sympathy; who have no devel- oped conceptions of equal rights and justice, and who desire to control for their own profit, glory and distinction, the actions, the conduct and the lives of their fellow men whom they may by any sort of 24 THE WHITE SLAVEEY 25 promises, induce to surrender their independence and freedom. The men who make it their business to take advantage of the weaknesses and prejudices of their fellowmen for the purpose of using them in furthering their own schemes and to their own profit, know well how to play upon their feelings and prejudices until they are brought under their control. After the schemers get unsuspecting men thoroughly into their power they can then play the tyrant and master over their victim as completely as the spider over the fly enmeshed in its web. The labor leaders have developed their art for entrapping and enslaving their victims to as fine a point as the spider that weaves the web for entrapping its victim for future use. And once caught in the toils of the union, it seems as difficult and hopeless for the vic- tim to escape as for the fly to escape from the meshes of the spider's web. The masters of negro slavery always stoutly as- serted that their slaves were better off under slavery than under freedom and independence, and as slaves are never known to rise and assert and fight for their freedom, it is evident that the white slaves of the union must be given their independence and free- dom by influences strongly opposed by their masters. We have spoken of the members of the unions as the slaves of a set of men, who have by unfair ad- vantage secured control of the organization and are exploiting and manipulating it to their own advan- tage in utter disregard of the rights and interests of society and the members whom they have securely 26 THE WHITE SLAVEEY bound and enslaved.* We cannot properly apply any other term than that of slaves to the members *NoTE. In our study of the present trades union system, we have ventured to refer to it as a form of slavery, and to show that the expression is not too strong, we will quote from a decision of Judge Phillips in the Amalgamated Window Glass Workers case, in the Common Pleas Court of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, December 27, 1907. After a thorough analysis of the By-laws, which were made a part of the petition asking for the dissolution of the association, Judge Phillips in his decision says : " The By-laws of this association contain a multitude of provisions . . . that give the organization absolute control of every member as a glass worker, and places him in complete servility to it. Every member of this body has surrendered his individuality, and his indus- trial freedom, and is no longer a personal factor in the industrial world." We quote from several sections of the By-laws of the association showing that it places restrictions upon the industrial freedom of its own members. Section 25. " No member of Amalgamated Window Glass Workers of America shall be allowed to work at any non-union works. For the violation of this law, they shall be subject to a fine at the discre- tion of the Executive Board." Section 7. Any member signing an agreement of any kind to secure employment, shall be fined $25.00 for the first offense, $50.00 for the second offense, and be suspended from membership for third offense." Section 20. No member of this Association shall work for monthly wages, unless it be for guarantee to secure himself against loss or to retain himself in an undesirable position." We will quote a section showing that this association undertakes to limit the industrial freedom of men outside its membership. Section 2. " No one not a member of the Amalgamated Window Glass Workers of America shall be allowed to work at any of the four trades, except our own apprentices." We will quote from the By-laws of the association, showing that it undertakes to control the commercial freedom of manufacturers and employers of labor. Section 9. Every manufacturer engaging member of the Amalga- mated Window Glass Workers of America, shall sign the agreement of the association before the members will be allowed to work." Section 36. " Each manufacturer shall be compelled to employ a boss cutter; said boss cutter to be a member of the Amalgamated Window Glass Workers of America, and he shall divide and distribute the orders among the cutters." THE WHITE SLAVERY 27 who have fallen under the absolute control of the union officials who manipulate and direct their ac- tions as completely as were the actions of the negro slaves directed by their masters. We can not prop- erly apply any other term than that of slaves to the men who should not be classed as violent, weak- minded or vicious, but who have surrendered their in- dividuality and liberty to the union officials who use them with no more consideration than the negro slaves were used by their masters. The members of the unions, the violent, vicious and weak-minded, and those who should not be thus classed are obedient to the orders of the union officials, even when they do not approve of the orders given them, the same as were the negro slaves of the south. There is evidence tending to show that like slaves, without audible protest and in fear and trembling, they allow the union officials to squeeze and rob them of the earnings of their honest toil in various ways for the promotion of purposes which they do not approve, and with which they do not sympathize. They, like slaves sit idle day after day and see the union offi- cials in their names and by their tacit approval, order hired thugs and bullies to intimidate and assault independent workmen and insult their fam- ilies, because the independent workers have the cour- age of free men to exercise their inalienable rights to work for whom arid on such terms as suited them. They, like slaves, allow their earnings to be taken from them to the detriment and suffering of their families by the selfish, greedy masters, for the pur- 28 THE WHITE SLAVERY pose of exploiting the importance and authority of the masters, and for the purpose of paying and de- fending criminals of the union who had been hired to commit such atrocious acts as arson, wrecking of trains, and destruction of the property of em- ployers and of independent workers. Like slaves the members allow themselves to be used for treason- able purposes against the peoples government, when they obey the commands of the masters who are constantly showing themselves worse traitors than Benedict Arnold by endeavoring to set up their authority as paramount to the authority of the Gen- eral Government, which, when unobstructed by trea- sonable designs, throws the shield of protection around all without regard to race, color or previous condition. They, like slaves trade with those with whom they are ordered to trade, boycott those whom they are ordered to boycott, work when they are ordered to work; do as little work as possible when ordered to; cease work when ordered to and go on strike without regard to providing for the necessities of their families, and hate work like slaves because they are instructed to feel no interest in it. All men who feel that they should not be classed with the weak-minded and vicious, should assert their individuality and freedom under all cir- cumstances, always conceding to all others equal independence and freedom, and to constantly de- nounce and suppress any man or set of men who attempts to stand in the way of free men exercising their inalienable rights, and to encourage the prac- THE WHITE SLAVERY 29 tice of suppression until it becomes contagious, in dealing with tyrants who would rob men of their liberty and individuality. Members of the unions are like slaves when they are made to regard the destruction of property as of no consequence to them except perhaps as a blessing in making more work for the union and more fees for the labor agitator. Every rational free man will, as far as practicable, hear all that may be said on each side of a question upon which men differ, before deciding the course he will take. Like the negro slaves, the members are afraid to strike for freedom, or attempt to break away from their masters, for fear that they will be captured and brought back and unmercifully punished by being bucked and gagged, beaten with sticks and stones and missiles, eyes gouged out, carbolic acid poured into their mouths, or pursued and driven from every job they take. They should know that they are in some respects subjected to more galling slavery than the negro slaves, in this, that if they incur the displeasure of their masters, that the dis- pleasure or the curse of the masters is visited upon the families of the offending members under the ban or curse of the union, in such acts as having them insulted with vile epithets or threatened and assaulted and chased by other members and their families and sympathizers. Every intelligent and unprejudiced mind, after impartial investigation, must concur in the view that the conduct of the union officials towards the mem- 30 THE WHITE SLAVERY bers, is the conduct of a master who exacts the most implicit obedience ; a master who would not tolerate from them any intimation or insinuation of ques- tioning his authority, and a master who would order a punishment of thirty-nine lashes or more put on the naked back of any one who should dare to express a desire for independence and freedom, and a respect for the rights of independent workers. The acts of the members of the unions are not the acts of sane men exercising their independence and freedom, but the acts of slaves directed by masters who know no bounds to their authority save the patience of the long suffering public, and who do not hesitate at treason in setting at defiance the laws of the peoples government. In times of negro slavery the masters sometimes appointed one slave as a temporary boss over the other slaves on his plantation, and this temporary slave boss was harder on those under him than was the white overseer. And sometimes the master ordered two or more of his slaves to seize and bind another and apply the lash to his naked back for some offense. So the union officials sometimes ap- point a vicious working member, a union slave, to some minor position, perhaps as walking delegate or slugger, who does not fail to show his authority in mean acts over other members or slaves of the union. And sometimes working members are ord- ered by their union masters to punish other members for some offense, perhaps for expressing a desire for independence and freedom or for expressing sympa- THE WHITE SLAVERY 31 thy for a free man he has helped to deprive of em- ployment, and the slave members assigned to the work, do it without questioning, as did the negro slaves who obeyed their masters. There is, however, this difference in favor of negro slavery; the union slaves punish and persecute their brother members who have fallen under the ban or curse of the union, with a fierceness, hatred .and cruelty unknown to the black slaves of the South, who were not taught hatred and cruelty to their brothers by their white masters. This union slavery is becoming terribly galling to thousands of independent spirits who are tired and disgusted of sinking their individuality and in- dustrial freedom into such a despotism of hatred, cruelty, crime and slavery, having been forced into it in times of strikes and turbulence, when they could hardly help themselves without endangering their lives; when it was worth a man's life to oppose the noisy demonstrations of the weak-minded and vi- cious, under the leadership of hireling labor agita- tors. The violent leaders of the unions with hearts full of hatred to the peoples government, and raging with opposition to the independence and freedom to the common man, will not relinquish their slave- making business until they shall have been met by the forces of the altruisic and liberty-loving part of the community, and defeated all along the line. It is certainly a slave-making business for the union officials to send out their thugs and walking delegates to warn free and independent citizens that they will 32 THE WHITE SLAVEEY not be permitted to work on jobs which they have secured, and that if they wish to work they must join the union and pay monthly fees to keep up the fat salaries of the selfish masters. Again, like slaves, the members of the unions obey the orders of their masters and keep their sons from learning appren- ticeships in the different trades, except by permis- sion of the masters, thus slavishly surrendering their natural rights to fit their children for whatever vocation, business or profession may seem most advantageous and remunerative. Like slaves they allow themselves to be used for dishonest purposes, as not keeping faith with, or breaking of solemn contracts with employers when ordered to do so by the masters, who are lacking of a sense of charity and fraternity in their dealings with their fellow men. Like slaves who fear the displeasure of their masters, they protect criminals of the unions whom they know of being guilty of the blackest crimes, by not reporting them to the proper authorities as good loyal citizens should do, for fear of falling under the displeasure of their masters and the curse of the unions. Were not the working members of the unions regarded by their masters as slaves, as men having no individuality and freedom, as men having no wills of their own, the masters would not dare to use them as they have been doing; they would not dare to order them to boycott and destroy the business of those who have fallen under the curse of the union ; they would not dare to order them to persecute in every conceivable manner, members THE WHITE SLAVEEY 33 who, from any cause have fallen under the ban or displeasure of the unions; they would not dare to order them to commit any of the various atrocious criminal acts justly chargeable to the unions. A bitter campaign was carried on for years by the abolitionists for the freedom and emancipation of the negro slaves of the South, and we who were active in that campaign, propose to engage in an active campaign for the freedom and independence and equal rights of the white slaves of the unions. When it shall have been pointed out to the honest, intelligent members how they were forced into the union by the cunningly laid schemes of labor leaders using the weak-minded and vicious elements of the organization to exert a powerful pressure and influ- ence upon them to join it, there is hope that they may be aroused to see their humiliating slavery and arise and assert their individuality, independence and freedom, by breaking away from their bondage. We know that during the Civil War, when our armies were in the South struggling for the suprem- acy of the Union and for equal rights and exact justice for all, that there was hardly a slave in a thousand who did not long for his independence and freedom, who did not devoutly desire to see the faces of his friends and deliverers, and could not be made to believe by his master that his deliverers were monsters with horns and one eye in the center of the forehead of each, and who did not always stand ready with loyal heart and hands, by day or by night, in fair weather or foul, to assist his deliverers 34 THE WHITE SLAVERY in every possible manner for the success of the cause. Shall the oppressed of our own race and blood who are slaves of the unions, and know that they should not be classed with the weak-minded and vicious elements of the organization, show less interest and zeal in securing their emancipation, their independ- ence and freedom, than the black slaves of the South, who never had the advantages of the white slaves of the unions ? We who were engaged in that great work of altruism, the emancipation of the slaves of the South, did not ask or demand of them any money or valuable thing for our work in behalf of their freedom, and we do not now ask or demand any con- tribution of money or valuable thing from those whom we wish to free, to emancipate from the union slavery. In view of the great annual losses to the members, it would be to their advantage if they should regard every pretended champion of labor who comes to them soliciting money in any form, for promoting the cause of labor, as a man who, to advance his own selfish interests, would enslave them under the pre- text of wishing to help them. They should be im- pressed with the idea that a man who would under- take to use them to injure and oppress a fellow man in the pursuit of his lawful business, might naturally be expected to have an ulterior purpose of using them to their own injury and oppression. And when we think of any class of men controlling another class, for any purpose whatever, we think of them in the light of masters controlling slaves. We can- THE WHITE SLAVERY 35 not think of another controlling our activities, our conduct, without thinking of subordinating or yield- ing up our individuality to that other. Now the members do or do not yield up their individuality to the unions, or those who control and direct their principles and policies. We take it that no one will deny the subordination or yielding up of the individ- uality of the members to the leaders, or will deny that yielding up of individuality is a form of slavery. And when the officials speak of being masters of so many minds, they acknowledge that the slavery exists. The hard-hearted masters have no faith in the prophesies of Cassandra ; they are deaf to the rumb- lings of the distant thunder; they see no signs of the approaching storm ; they do not believe that there is a Red Sea that will part and allow their slaves to pass over and go free, and overwhelm them in its waves in their wicked pursuit. In their narrow con- ceptions of social relations, they do not realize that there has been a constant growth of the sentiments of justice and equal rights among all classes of our people since the Civil War, and that it is possible in a few years to educate the union slaves to abhor that slavery as much as the negroes of to-day abhor the negro slavery of ante bellum times. There is no law of psychology better established than the fact that our own attitude and expression begets a like attitude and expression in those with whom we come in contact. The smile of the parent or any other person, evokes a smile from the infant, 36 THE WHITE SLAVEEY and an expression of anger or distress begets in it an expression of fear or distress. The jolly expres- sion of a single individual will generally light up the expressions or countenances of a company of several persons, or the sour, sullen expression of a single individual may affect the countenances of every one in a company of several persons. And continuing this line of thought, we know that the constant quarrelsome and belligerent attitude of the unions, has developed a defensive attitude in all who do not believe in their principles and policies and conduct, in fact has developed defensive organiza- tions as industrial and employers associations, and the strike breaker, the fighting arm of law and order, who is always ready to meet the educational com- mittee of the unions in their aggressive conduct in making war on communities and individuals, hand to hand and hilt to hilt. It was considered sport and a light matter, when three or four thugs and sluggers of the educational committee on picket duty could report to labor headquarters during a strike, that they had in so many cases, chased and over- taken an independent worker attempting to work and persuaded him to desist from working by beat- ing him to death with clubs, sticks and missiles. But when these thugs and sluggers of the educational committee, were caught in the very act of their cow- ardly and fiendish conduct by the silent and effective strike breaker and taken by the ears and collars and hustled off to prison with criminal charges of assault or murder lodged against them, serious THE WHITE SLAVERY 37 expressions prevailed at labor headquarters, instead of expressions of chuckling fiendish delight, as had formerly been the case. When the masters use such weak-minded and moral perverts as Harry Orchard and others of his kind, to carry out the bloody and fiendish work they have planned, they should not whine when the strike breaker appears on the scene to take the place of the striker, the white slave, or to do good hard fighting if necessary, in arresting the miscreants who have been sent out in armed squads to persuade singly independent workers to desist from working, or to refuse work abandoned by the strikers. There are many bold men who take as keen an interest in running down and capturing criminals, as the sportsman in hunting big game, and as the unions teach envy, hate and selfishness, they furnish the game for the excitement of the strike breaker, who is destined to become much more in evidence until the unions reform and give up their lawless and violent methods. Nearly all the bloody wars of the world, nearly all the wholesale slaughterings of peoples, persecu- tions and outrages against personal liberty, have been in the name of some holy cause or religion. Thousands, nay millions of men have fallen in battle and on the march from exposure and from intol- erable thirst and hunger to vindicate the religion of Christ or Mohammed, and other thousands have been cruelly tortured and butchered and con- signed to the flames or buried alive, in the name of the Savior, because they were honest to their own 38 THE WHITE SLAVEEY conscience and could not believe in Him in the same manner as their persecutors; because they believed that He looked upon mankind with more kindliness and compassion than their persecutors. We do not deny that many of those who led their victims to the stake and applied the torch that lighted the flames which consumed them, were honest, conscientious men, but ignorant, of fanatical zeal, who knew nothing about individual freedom. With strong, courageous men here and there who asserted their individuality and freedom, openly or clandestinally, gaining a few converts from time to time, the think- ing part of the world has gradually grown up to a condition in which, perhaps a majority of the people of the leading nations, have some conception of indi- vidual freedom, equal rights and exact justice. In this country the conception is as widespread as in any other, and yet it is by no means universal. It is the dominant influence, as has been shown when it has been necessary to secure a test of opinions. It was not only recognized, but strongly emphasized in the adoption of our National Constitution, and all subsequent legislation, State and National, has taken it into account. The Civil War had the effect of widening the conception of men's relations to each other, and to make them feel and assert their inde- pendence, individuality and industrial freedom, more keenly than they had done prior to that time. But since the abolition of slavery there has been a tre- mendous foreign immigration poured into this coun- try year after year from all the nations of Europe, THE WHITE SLAVERY 39 and with this great influx of foreign immigrants with their foreign ideas, there has grown up a power- ful organization known as the unions or trades unions, which, with few exceptions, have been dom- inated by leaders of violent tendencies, indeed of almost anarchistic tendencies, and whose violent acts have been in the name of union labor. If any of these leaders or violent men were ever engaged in any useful business or profession, or ever per- formed any useful labor, they evidently did not make a success of it, for as a rule men stick to that honorable business or profession which makes them the best living. Those who have never performed very much, if any, useful labor, gifted with loquac- ity, but with unstable minds, have, in many instances, worked themselves in as leaders in the unions, and have had the great presumption to get up and talk and make demands and issue orders and decrees, as to when the members of the unions shall work and when they shall strike, and when an employer shall be held up, as a highwayman holds up his victim, to pay tribute to satisfy their unreasonable demands. Compliance with such demands, when backed by threats, deprives the employer of his freedom, and makes him as much of a slave as the members of the union. The men who have never initiated any- thing useful; who have never fathered a useful enterprise which employed as many as two or three men, have the extraordinary presumption to demand in the name of union labor, that City Councils shall pass ordinances, and State legislatures and the Na- 40 THE WHITE SLAVEEY tional Congress, enact laws discriminating in favor of union labor so as to give it a monopoly of all the public work, thus making it a class of special priv- ileges, to the great hurt and injury of all other classes, to the enslaving of all other classes. They would have the laws, municipal, state and national, discriminate against free, independent workers, and shut them out from all public employment ; shut them out because of their honesty and independence, because they refuse to sell themselves as slaves to the unions; because they own their own homes and pay taxes for the protection of all alike, and because they would be loyal to the interests of their em- ployers, loyal to their city, the community and the Nation, and because they were law-abiding and peace-loving citizens. They assume to dictate how an employer shall conduct his business, and whom he shall employ, the number of hours his men shall work, and how much they shall do, and when it suits their convenience, to take upon themselves the audac- ity to order independent workers to cease work on jobs if the union wants them. We regard men who submit to the dictation of another, as the slaves of the dictator. To swell their own pockets and to perpetuate their despotic rule, they rob their own members of millions of dollars every year by throw- ing them out of employment, in ordering strikes, and in assessments and penalties, and in raising funds for many extravagant, useless and criminal purposes. Plain working men do not submit to such great losses without becoming the slaves of those who THE WHITE SLAVERY 41 order them to submit. The masters who are shouting so loud in the name of union labor, and talk so mournfully of the grinding toil and sweat shops of laboring men, are unmoved by the cries, the groans, the tears, the heartaches, and the sufferings of the wives and children of the men whose wages they have cut off by ordering them out on strikes, and by rob- bing them in other ways of the earnings which were paid them. They are unmoved because they know that they are dealing with slaves securely bound and unable to help themselves. In order to perpetu- ate and strengthen their power and influence, and intimidate communities, they have assessed the mem- bers of the unions to raise funds to keep hired loby- ists before Congress and the State legislatures, to demand such changes in the penal laws of the coun- try, as will give the hired thugs, sluggers and mur- derers of the unions a free hand in committing acts of violence and destruction of property, and then exempt them from prosecution and punishment, in extending the work of the union slavery. The masters who are never known to give up their jobs for the good of the cause, denounce as unpardonable traitors to the unions, any members who express a wish to better their condition by throwing off the slavery into which they had been forced and becom- ing free men again. They use the rank and file of the organization to carry on a predatory war- fare against the business and commerce of the country in a more discreditable manner than the knights and barons of feudal times who were not 42 THE WHITE SLAVERY over scrupulous about using their retainers in rob- bing their neighbors, even the bishops participating in the practice. No intelligent upright man can stand up and truth- fully say that there is a single man in all this coun- try, who knows enough to value his independence and freedom as the most precious gift, who will vol- untarily, assert that he is in need of the union. If then there is no man who knows enough to value his independence and freedom above everything else, has no need of the unions, it is evident only those who do not value their independence and freedom above everything else, have need for 'it. And men who do not value their independence and freedom as the greatest possible gift in this world, we think we are justified in classing as weak-minded or vi- cious. While we do not know what proportion of the unions is made up of the weak-minded and vi- cious, we believe it is about one-half, but at any rate enough when manipulated by selfish, unscrupu- lous leaders to carry any motion they may put and indorse any action they may suggest. It is the testi- mony of nearly every one who knows anything about the inside workings of the unions, that the officials run things to suit themselves; that it is the rarest occurrence to hear of a working member publicly opposing a measure proposed by an official of the federation, and if the working member, a real work- ing man, should dare do such a thing, the glib- tongued official would have him howled and hissed down in a moment by intimating and insinuating that THE WHITE SLAVERY 43 the member was trying to give aid and comfort to the "scab" element, or the hated employer. Having complete control of the weak-minded and vicious elements of the unions, the masters can defy the decent elements of the organization, and have no trouble in getting adopted and ratified any measure in the name of union labor they desire. That the work of the masters is entirely selfish and heartless, is shown by the fact that they throw out of employ- ment, a thousand, ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand men by ordering them out on strike, with- out offering to sacrifice their own salaries while the strike is unsettled. Now as the masters pretend that they are disinterested champions of laboring men they should be given an opportunity to prove their pretentions. To protect those in the Civil Service of the Government from being constantly threatened and hounded and squeezed and robbed by political agents representing themselves as soliciting and col- lecting in the name of some political party, Con- gress passed a law known as the Civil Service Act, which provides that no person * ' shall directly or in- directly, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or receiving, any assessment, subscription or contri- bution for any political purpose whatever, from any officer, clerk or employee of the United States, or any department, branch, or bureau thereof, or from any person receiving a salary or compensation from moneys derived from the Treasury of the United States " . . . "That no officer, clerk or other person in the service of the United States, shall, 44 THE WHITE SLAVERY directly or indirectly, give or hand over to any other officer, clerk or other person in the service of the United States, or to any Senator, or Member of the House of Representatives, or Territorial Delegate, any money or other valuable thing on account of or to be applied to the promotion of any political object whatever. " The penalty for the violation of the law may be a fine to the limit of five thousand dollars, or three years imprisonment or both. Now we claim that there should be National and State laws along the lines of the Civil Service Act for the protection of the laboring men of this country who are constantly being threatened and hounded and importuned and robbed and plundered of a good part of their honest earnings by pretended champions of labor who are in reality dead beats, and scallawags and hungry sharks, out for the money there is in the game. Shall the strong and healthy and compe- tent stand idle while the weak-minded laboring men, who need all their earnings for the support of them- selves and their families, are obliged to pay a large part of their wages to dead beats and walking dele- gates for the privilege of working and give a lien on their wages while permitted to work? There is greater need for such a protective law for the labor- ing men of the country, against the demands of the greedy masters, than there is for those employed in the Civil Service of the Government. If the union officials are really honest champions of labor, as they pretend, and want the laboring man to have the THE WHITE SLAVEEY 45 full benefit of his earnings, they should earnestly work for such a law. But we know they will not, for men who, year after year, are unmoved by the sufferings and hardships of the thousands of families of the men whom they have robbed of their wages and made desolate and miserable, will find some excuse to offer for not wishing to do justice to their victims. Let these pretended champions of labor be compelled to show their hands, and let them be com- pelled to keep their hands off the throats and pockets, or any part of the earnings of laboring men, and then see how noisy they will be in fanning the flames of persecution and riot in the name of union labor. Before the abolition of slavery the abolition- ists or their agents did not threaten and hound and extort money from the slaves for the furthering of the cause looking to their freedom. There is no need of further commenting on the general character of those who, by threats and misrepresentations, an- nually rob and plunder of their earnings in the name of union labor, probably nearly a million men, who, if not weak-minded, have no means of protecting themselves from the hungry sharks by whom they are constantly pursued. It is a shame to our civili- zation that many of these men occupying a mental zone bordering on mental alienation, should be allowed to be preyed upon by pretended altruists, but really men of unbounded selfishness. When any men or class of men refuse to be guided by principles of equal rights and justice, or of limiting the freedom 46 THE WHITE SLAVEBY of each, only by the like freedom of all, they will bear watching and their actions will need curbing. Swindlers and pretenders of being engaged in good works, will explore every possible field of human activities for the purpose of exploiting their plausible schemes for extorting money from the un- thinking and weak-minded, and perhaps there is not a more fertile field for successfully working such schemes than in the field of labor where there are so many unable to protect themselves. It has been amply shown that the conduct of the union officials towards the members, is the conduct of masters towards their slaves, and that the conduct of the members towards the officials is the conduct of slaves towards their masters. "In the Name of Union Labor, " is the synonym for conduct that is wholly undesirable in a civilized state; for conduct that is heartless and reckless in dealing with the rights of those outside the unions; for conduct so selfish that it entirely ignores the common welfare ; for conduct that ignores and takes no account of loyalty to one's country, community or employer ; for conduct that is as blind and unsym- pathetic as that of the savage ; for conduct not eman- ating from free, liberty-loving men, but from slaves directed by masters who have no respect for the rights of others. It has also been shown that the conduct and activ- ities of the members of the unions, have been dic- tated, controlled and directed by the officials, con- trolled and directed in a manner that has restricted THE WHITE SLAVEEY 47 them to as narrow limits as were the conduct and activities of the black slaves of the South restricted by their masters. We do not see how there could be a " master of a million minds," without he had a million slaves. CHAPTER HI. THE OPEN SHOP VERSUS THE CLOSED SHOP. These expressions are of recent origin and repre- sent the two methods of doing business, of employing labor in the industrial world, just as the words " scab " and " parasite," represent the contempt, derision and hatred, union and independent workers have for each other. By Open Shop is meant any business that employs labor without questioning those employed as to whether they belong to any labor, political or relig- ious organization; any business fair to all who seek fair returns for honest labor. The open shop does not even discriminate against members of the union, and they may, and do, work side by side with independent workmen. All questions of wages and hours are settled be- tween the employer and employee, as between two free men acting for themselves, and there is no interference from walking delegates or business agents of the union. An employee does not pay heavy fees to the union for permission to work, but he may come erect, free, as a man among men to make his own contract, with- 48 THE WHITE SLAVERY 49 out middle men or dead beats getting a rake-off from his wages. If he is a man of energy, he knows that he will be paid according to his merit; he knows that if his work in a day is twice as productive, is worth twice as much to his employer, as the work of another man, he will be paid according to the productivity of his work, instead of under the union principle of paying the sloth or inefficient as much as the efficient man. In the open shop we have in operation the natural principles which have prevailed throughout nature in the evolution of life, of the efficient profiting by their efficiency, and of the inefficient failing to reach the goal by their inefficiency. In the open shop the employer manages his own business without the dictation, meddling or inter- ference of the irresponsible, alien, disloyal walking delegate or business agent of the union who has no interest in the common welfare of the community, except for exacting tribute. In the open shop the employer and his employees regard each other as friends who have mutual inter- ests in making the business successful. Here in the open shop a man may be loyal to his country, its laws, its flag, its courts; loyal to the community in which he lives; loyal to the interests of his employer; loyal to the welfare of his family, and loyal to his own conscience, without the fear of having the anathema of " scab " hurled at him by a mob of infuriated demons; without the fear of having his case attended to by the " educational 50 THE WHITE SLAVERY committee " under the direction of the walking dele- gate or business agent of the union ; without the fear of the persecution of his family, the insulting of his wife, and the chasing of his children from school by other children whose fathers belong to the union slavery, controlled and directed by teachers of envy, hate and selfishness. Here in the open shop the employee may stand erect and free, holding whatever views of life and liberty he may choose, without the fear of being hounded by an outsider and alien, to give up his earnings as he would to a bandit, regardless of the needs of his family, his wife and babes, to support a set of profligate parasites who never strike or never sweat, parasites who stand ready to inter- cept the food going to the mouths of hungry children. Here in the open shop is a school of brotherly love and respect wherein free men are taught by precept and example to have respect for each others equal rights; where each is taught to demand no more rights or privileges than he is willing to concede to all others; to love honest work which brings honest returns, instead of hating it and regarding it as criminal ; to respect honest men who love to work ; to love loyalty to our Government, its flag, its laws and its courts; to respect the man who loves inde- pendence and freedom; to respect the man whose first solicitude is for the welfare of his wife and babies, and uses his earnings to provide for their comfort and happiness; to distrust the man who would starve his wife and babies to give his earn- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 51 ings to parasites of the unions, to tickle their vanity and make them swell and strut in exhibition of their importance. In the open shop school of brotherly love, hatred of fellowmen is banished and respect and good will substituted. Those who are dominated by the influences of this school do not believe in treating our domestic animals with cruelty, and regard with horror men whose natures have been so far perverted by false teach- ings as to lead them to assault, gouge out the eyes, put carbolic acid in the mouth and maim men whose only offence was that they desired to work and pro- vide food and clothing and shelter for their wives and children. In the school of the open shop there is no star chamber councils to send out educational committees to assault, murder and assassinate innocent men be- cause they love independence and freedom and de- sire to work and support their families, and because they do not wish to pay the masters of the union slavery for permission to work. And the employes of the open shop know that there is no power to extort from them their earnings to support the hard-hearted masters of the union slavery. In the open shop the employer is not restricted in the number of apprentices he may keep to learn his trade, and there is no committee to wait on him and inform him that his men will all strike if he under- takes to have his own son learn his trade so as to 52 THE WHITE SLAVEEY be able to intelligently take charge of his business in the event of his becoming disabled or incapaci- tated. There is nothing in the rules of the open shop that would prevent members of a union confined to its legitimate purposes as prescribed in the Federal stat- utes, from working therein. Every man who believes in independence and free- dom, equal rights and justice, the abolition of all forms of slavery, and of the efficient profiting by their efficiency, must be warm advocates of the open shop. In the further development of the open shop movement, we may look for increased efficiency in the men of the trades, an efficiency which, under the policy of the unions, of making work and encour- aging slobs and slovenly workmen, has brought it down to the lowest state. It has been the law of life from the beginning, and must continue to the end, that the superior shall profit by their superiority, and the inferior lose by their inferiority, and from our standpoint it is well that it has been and shall continue to be so. If this was not the law of life, there could be no progress, no evolution, and we would still be in the condition of our remotest ancestors. Indeed we can hardly conceive of any other arrangement when we con- sider the matter carefully. In the open shop of nature every race has its enemies, and members of the same species are com- petitors for food and comforts in the struggle for life. THE WHITE SLAVEBY 53 The teeth and claws and limbs of cavnivorous animals show that they have been developed and adapted to catching, tearing and devouring the flesh of herbivorous animals, and the limbs and eyes and ears of herbivores show that they are developed on the lines of adapting them to seeing and hearing enemies at a distance and escaping from them by fleetness. In the struggle for life between the two races, the fleetest and most vigilant of the herbivores will most likely escape their enemies to live and leave off- spring with similar adaptations, while the less effi- cient will likely be taken and devoured by their enemies and leave no offspring. And among the carnivores those most successful in running down, capturing and devouring prey, will be stronger than those who fail in the chase, and in the struggle for the females the less efficient males will be destroyed or prevented from perpetu- ating their inefficiency. In our own race and civilization, there are many who are mentally or physically weak, capable of doing only certain kinds of unskilled work, and who must naturally find their level of usefulness far be- low that of those who are many times stronger men- tally or physically. In fact every man will very nearly measure up to the level of his ambition and ideals, and if he has no definite ideals to strive for, there is not much use of trying to lift him up to some other man's ideal which he would be unable to appreciate. 54 THE WHITE SLAVERY If the property worked for and accumulated by the competent, were taken from them and put into the hands of the incompetent, they would not long hold it, for there are plenty of men in every com- munitjr who would take advantage of their weakness to wrest it from them, just as the officials of the union take advantage of the weakness of the simple- minded members to wrest their earnings from them under various pretexts of fees and fines to be applied to the good of the cause. In the open shop there are no unprincipled hungry sharks or walking delegates, organizers or bus- iness agents to demand and intercept the earn- ings of the employee and divert them from the use of his family, as is the case in the closed shop of the union. These hold-ups of walking delegates, and business agents of the unions have been worked to the limit with employees and employers, and ought to be the means of increasing the popularity of the open shop, where fair returns for fair labor is the motto. There is reason for believing that most of those who work in the open shop are delighted to be free from a form of slavery that requires them to be false and disloyal to the interests of employers whom they respect and regard as friends. It is a satisfaction worth consideration that the open shop encourages employees to strive for higher ideals in all their efforts, and to increase their effi- ciency in their particular trades. We never hear employees of the open shop de- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 55 nouncing restraining orders of the courts to prevent them from committing crimes against their fellow man, for they have no desire to commit crimes against any one. It is not the law-abiding loyal citizen who de- nounces the injunctions or restraining orders of the courts in labor disturbances, but the masters of the union slavery who live by stirring up strife, lawless- ness and violence, and who desire a free hand in their crusade of wickedness. It is a satisfaction worth consideration that the free employees of the open shop are not obliged to be locked in a hall with a howling mob and compelled by their presence to endorse the violent resolutions of violent leaders, as often happens with peaceably inclined members of the unions. Those who have watched the industrial wars in this country for the last thirty years, involving prop- erty losses greater than the losses in the Civil War, with the daily blood-stained tyrannies and oppres- sions of the unions, hail the open shop as the dawn of industrial freedom and as the beginning of an era when free men may assert their rights and resent the interference of irresponsible aliens who do not claim an interest in common with the communities where they operate and upon which they cast their baleful influence. We do not see how any self-respecting merchant or banker could submit to an irresponsible book- keepers ' association dictating to him whom he should employ to handle his cash or keep his books. 56 THE WHITE SLAVERY And there is no sound reason why a self-respecting manufacturer should allow an irresponsible moul- der's union to dictate to him whom he shall or shall not employ in carrying on his business, and the terms he shall make with them. It is a satisfaction to the friends of industrial peace and social order to know that the open shop is not a place for hatching crime and treason like the star chamber councils of the unions where educational committees, thugs, sluggers, and murderers, are assigned to do their foul and bloody work, and where other members are assigned to picketing to intercept and dissuade or intimidate independent workers from taking the places of strikers. In the open shop there is hope of educating all classes to a knowledge that any policy that injures or restricts the freedom of one class, will injure or restrict the freedom of all other classes, and that aliens like the men who never strike or never sweat, and who have no interests in common with the com- munity, will likely be reckless in dealing with the rights and interests of that community. In the open shop there is hope of correcting the false teachings of the union masters, which is im- pressed upon many, that the interests of the em- ployer and employee are directly opposed and de- structive of each other, and that one or the other must go to the wall. There is also hope of developing the altruistic feel- ings in employers and employees in the sense that each may have in the other supplementary eyes and THE WHITE SLAVERY 57 ears, that will tend to guard the interests of each, eyes and ears that will see or hear threatened danger to the other and give timely warning. It is by these altruistic acts, these friendly inter- ests in the welfare of others, these neighborly acts as we generally call them, that makes life more worth living, and raises us above the selfishness and cruelty of the savage. In the open shop the doctrine that smiles begets smiles, that kindliness begets kindliness, that confi- dence begets confidence, that sympathy begets sym- pathy, finds its full expression, just as in the closed shop of the union, which stands for the incarnation of selfishness and greed and the militant spirit begets, in those with whom it deals, a defensive attitude, and an attitude of expected attack. An employee of the open shop may trade with whom he pleases without fear of having assessed against him fines and penalties to support the masters of the union slavery, as under the closed shop sys- tem. He may read the newspaper that suits him without dictation from any one as to the sort of mental food he shall use. He may hear all sides and then decide what is best without fear of bringing upon him the acts of infuriated demons of the union. He may be a man among men and spurn the teach- ings of hate and crime and treason flowing from the mouths of men who live by intercepting the food going to satisfy the hunger of little children. 58 THE WHITE SLAVEEY He may go to work in the morning without fear of an official of the union slavery ordering him to go on strike for an indefinite period because an em- ployer in a distant part of the country did not dis- charge an independent worker on the demand of another organizer. An employee of the open shop does not pay for permission to work, or pay a toll on his wages while he works, like the poor member under the domina- tion of the closed shop, who not only pays the masters of the union slavery heavy fees for permission to work, but who is obliged to give them a lien on his wages all the time he is permitted to work. There are so many advantages to workmen in favor of the open shop, that we believe if the advo- cates of the two systems, the open shop and the closed shop, could present the merits of each to the members of any union in open meetings, and a vote could be taken by secret ballot, uninfluenced by any kind of pressure, that the members would in nearly every case, vote for the open shop. At any rate the advocates of the open shop think that the merits of the two systems should be fully and fairly presented to all workmen that they may have the opportunity of choosing the one that prom- ises them the fairest returns for their labor. The advocates of industrial freedom, like those who advocated the abolition of domestic slavery, be- lieve in the fullest discussion and publicity of all phases of the questions at issue, demanding for all parties in the dispute, toleration and the utmost free- THE WHITE SLAVERY 59 dom of action without prejudice. " Why should the spirit of mortal be proud?" In presenting the claims of the open shop for con- sideration, it may be well to call attention to the fact that the Constitutions and laws of the General and State Governments, make them all open shops in the employment of labor, and prohibits them from discriminating against men on account of their affiliation or non-affiliation with any religious, politi- cal or labor organization. It has been recognized by all sensible men that it would be against public policy for the State or any institution under the protection of the State, to dis- criminate against any man seeking employment, on account of his affiliation or non-affiliation with any religious, political or labor organization. The Constitution of the United States prohibits the States from making or enforcing " any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of the citizens," and if such laws existed in any of the States, probably no class would complain more bitterly of their oppression than the men of labor organizations. The General Government runs an open shop in the employment of labor, even the Government Printing Office having been declared an open shop to the great displeasure of labor leaders who have sometimes threatened to tie up the Government if they could not have their way. In some of the cities, however, the municipal authorities have adopted the closed shop policy and 60 THE WHITE SLAVEEY discriminated against independent labor on the rep- resentations of labor leaders, but in every case of this kind which has been appealed to the higher courts, the friends of the open shop have won. There should be no favoritism by public institu- tions or institutions operating under the protection of the State, in the employment of labor, and they should be prohibited under heavy penalties from em- ploying men as union men, just as they should be prohibited from employing them because they were Methodists or Baptists. The friends of the open shop have been too long sleeping on their rights, and they should awaken to the danger that threatens, and press forward for their rights to the utmost limit. The champions of the closed shops are wide awake and as vigilant as the bandits of the mountains and ready to take advantage of everything that may turn to their profit. They are as aliens having no interest in common with the community, and do not care how much damage they inflict on those who employ labor, pay the taxes, and support the commonwealth. We mean by the closed shop any business that employs only union labor; any business whose doors are closed to free and independent labor; any business that employs only the union slaves, and is unfair to all other labor. The employer of the closed shop buys his labor from a master of the union slavery just as the planter THE WHITE SLAVERY 61 often bought his labor from the master of negro slavery. But we have shown that the union slavery is be- coming unprofitable to employers, just as negro slavery was becoming unprofitable to employers up to the Civil War. In the struggle between the open shop of freedom and the closed shop of the union slavery, one or the other must win. We have always had confidence in the ultimate triumph of the cause of freedom, justice and equal rights. An employer of the open shop we may suppose is a member of the employers' association, which has recently been called into existence for defense against the oppressive demands and aggressions of the unions. Let us illustrate briefly the open shop movement. It has been the policy of labor leaders to organize all the workers of any particular trade or calling, as painters for instance, into a union, and after they are organized, if a master painter refuses to discharge an independent worker on its demand, it at once orders a strike of all his union employees. An attack from a combination of this kind in re- straint of trade, could ruin any single employer of painters if he refused to comply with demands which he considered unreasonable and oppressive. In many of the cities there are now master painters asso- ciations for mutual defense against the attacks of the unions, and if any of the journeymen painters in the employ of any member of the association be- longs to the union, and are ordered out on strike, he, the member of the association, may call on the 62 THE WHITE SLAVERY other members to lock out all union painters of their establishments unless they give up their allegiance to the union. There may be a federation of the master painters associations of the different cities into a national association, so that now a painters ' union knows that instead of having a single master painter to fight in any dispute, it has the master painters' association, and if necessary, the national association of master painters to fight. There has been a good deal of whining of labor leaders about employers' associa- tions fighting them with their own weapons, turn- ing their own guns upon them, but it is too late to whine, for the open shop is an evolution, and has come to stay. It is just as natural that master painters should stand together as that journeymen painters should go into a union for aggressive pur- poses. CHAPTER IV. THE LOVE OF POWER. We may perhaps safely assert that the love of Power is as old as the human race, and that it is also displayed in the animal world. It has drenched the earth with blood through all the ages. It has perhaps been essential to the survival of the best in the struggle for life up to the point of commence- ment of the evolution of sympathy and the moral sense in the most developed members of our race. With the evolution of sympathy and the moral sense, this love of power should be a continually vanishing quantity or trait as associated humanity approaches the higher ideals of life. This love of power is shown by the dog in mimic play when he has another dog down on his back and by the throat, as much as to say, " now I have you in my power." Children show it too when playing war they take each other prisoners. It was the love of power that caused the Caesars of Imperial Rome to undertake the conquest of the world, and it has been the love of power that has caused the mighty men of the past to undertake the conquest of alien peoples with its concomitant slaughterings and cruel- ties. This love of power under primitive conditions, 63 64 THE WHITE SLAVEBY of having all others show their subserviency, sub- mission and slavish demeanor on all occasions, has been characteristic of the heads of all institutions, religious as well political. As we approach ideal social conditions, the love of power in the individual, the desire of having all others acknowledge his super- iority, from the despotic ruler of nations, down to the head of the family, must gradually diminish. In the flights of their imaginations men holding high positions of life and death over their fellows, have represented themselves as gods and heroes with supernatural or superhuman powers; as sur- rounded by all the " pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war." Their love of power, self-exalta- tion, display of superiority, immensurably out- weighed their interest in the happiness and well-be- ing of their subjects. The representation of supreme power, of pride, pomp and circumstance having been impressed upon their minds, conquering despots have endeavored to realize it in fact at the cost of thousands of lives of men who were submissive to their wills. Fear has always made slaves of men, and they have been as prone to worship power, as those who have become powerful have loved power for the distinction and exaltation it gives. There have been many wise rulers who wielded their power in the interest of their subjects, as there have been many kind hearted good masters who looked to the wel- fare of their slaves that they might be more efficient as slaves. But the interest manifested by the ruler THE WHITE SLAVERY 65 in the welfare of his subjects, and the interest man- ifested by the master in the welfare of his slaves, was never with the view of enlarging their inde- pendence, freedom and self-consciousness. Indeed, the conception of independence and freedom of the individual was so completely absent in the minds of the ruler and master, that they thought the subjects or slaves should feel thankful for being permitted to enjoy a part of the fruits of their own energy, just as the masters of the union slavery would have the members feel thankful for being permitted to enjoy a part of the wages paid to them by employers. It has been a supreme satisfaction to those whose ambition has been to wield as much power as possi- ble, to speak of those upon whom their power rested, as " my subjects," " my people," as if they were the actual owners of the subjects or people spoken of. Thus through long ages there was a subject class of serfs or slaves who never thought of any- thing but obedience to their masters. We wish to educate all men to a recognition and consciousness of their individuality, and to assert their independ- ence and freedom, at the same time yielding to all others like independence and freedom. This slavish instinct, this spirit of yielding unques- tioned obedience to a superior wielding a power of life or death, has survived through heredity and cus- tom to the present day, as we see in the blind obedi- ence of many of the members of the unions to the suggestions of their leaders. The love of power from " the master of a million minds " of the feder- 66 THE WHITE SLAVEEY ated unions, down to the head of the local, who may call a strike by the snapping of his fingers, does not fail to take advantage of this unquestioned obedience of the members to magnify and exalt their own power and importance. We never see any inti- mation from the masters that they have any inten- tion of using the great power which they wield, in efforts to develop a sense of individuality and free- dom in their slaves, and good will and common fel- lowship towards all outside their ranks. They, like all other despots who secure and hold their power by playing upon the passions, the hopes and fears and weakness of those whom they have enslaved, fear that enlightenment, individuality and freedom, would be fatal to their lease of power. They will not listen to the altruist in his pleading for kindness and gentleness towards all men without regard to race, creed or previous condition. To some it appears conclusive that there is merit in the union from the fact that the leaders secure such devotion and loyalty from the enslaved. When we come to examine the matter in the light of past and current history, it will be seen that such extreme Io3 r alty and devotion to leaders are no evidence of merit at all. There are even now among some races, instances of extreme loyalty where the subject will bare his neck to the sword of the ruler for decapita- tion, saying that " what the king desires must be done." We should remember that the most enlight- ened part of our race has but recently emerged from darkness, ignorance and superstition, serfdom THE WHITE SLAVEBY 67 and slavery, and when we bear in mind how prone the average man is to follow the leadership of some man of marked individuality, without carefully in- quiring what he stands for, as the founders of Mo- hammedism, Mormonism, Zionism, etc., we ought not to be surprised at the influence of labor leaders over their followers. We are all subject to influences which we may not be able to resist, and which may mislead us if we do not apply the most rigid and critical tests known to us. Our sense of sight is not always reliable in discriminating colors; our sense of touch may mislead us in regard to points of con- tact, and men do things when under mesmeric or hypnotic influence, that they would not do in their normal states. In the examinations of thousands of men for railroad and other service, where the dis- crimination of color signals is required, it is found that about one man in twenty is color-blind. Oper- ators in hypnotism or mesmerism claim that at least one person in ten may be brought under the hypnotic influence, or mesmeric sleep, and some operators claim a larger proportion. Any one familiar with works on the illusions of the senses, knows that if two points, as the points of a mechanic's compass, are gently pressed against the back of the hand not more than three-eights of an inch apart, and the subject is asked how many points are touching, he will invariably answer one, if he is not looking at the point of contact. If the subject knows nothing about circles of sensation, he may think that it is through the mind of the operator 68 THE WHITE SLAVERY that he is made to answer " one," when in reality two points are touching. When sitting in our seat in a passenger train standing still, if a train along- side of us starts, and we look out of our window towards it, we are apt to think our own train is mov- ing and cannot get rid of the feeling until the mov- ing train passes us. When the operator in hypno- tism or the leader of men impresses his mysteri- ous power or influence upon a subject, it is often impossible for him to extricate himself from that influence, no matter how injurious it may be to him. It is generally unfortunate that those who are able to impress their power and influence upon others, are no better qualified for guiding men in their proper relations to each other, than those whom they have impressed and controlled. Their love of power is not controlled by an intelligent and discriminating ambition to do good, to have those over whom they exercise control, demand no more freedom of action than they are willing to concede to all others. In their ambition for power and distinction, they care little about equal rights and justice; but like Mo- hammed and his followers, they would put to the sword as infidels all who dare to oppose them. Let us quote an expression from " the master of a million minds " of the federated unions, who never strikes or never sweats, as showing his un- bounded selfish love of power at the terrible cost of those over whom he has obtained unjust control : " But the workman who toils for wages and ex- pects to end his days in the wage-earning class, as THE WHITE SLAVERY 69 conditions seem to point, it will be a necessity, his bounden duty to himself, to his family, to his fellow men, and to those who are to come after him to join in the union." No absolute monarch ever uttered expressions showing so little respect for the manhood of his subjects, and no master ever held out so little hope to his slaves to look for a good time coming of inde- pendence and freedom and good will among men as this unsympathetic master holds out to the union slaves to become independent and free and able to stand alone. In the pride of his power, he is not sat- isfied in keeping his present white slaves in chains and in darkness and poverty by taking from them the wages of their honest toil, but he would impress upon them that conditions exist which must keep their children in bondage to him or his successors, and that it is their bounden duty to bow to him and recognize that such conditions exist; that it would be treason to labor for a man to have a gleam of hope of a better time coming when he can stand erect and have the respect of all men which his merit demands. Not one word of hope does he utter that in the future there will be many opportunities for these men and their children to throw off the slavery that keeps them down and prevents them from en- joying the wages of their honest toil. The words " independence and freedom, " are hateful expressions to such an unfeeling master, for he knows that should his white slaves get a taste of liberty and independence, drink deep of them, 70 THE WHITE SLAVERY that his power would immediately vanish. Like all other despots whose ambition for power knows no bounds, he arrogantly refers to himself as a master, would impress all independent workmen that it is their bounden duty to surrender their independ- ence and freedom and pay him heavy tribute for permission to work and join in the union. He dis- cusses the matter with such authoritativeness as would naturally lead weak-minded men who are sub- missive to his will, to attempt to coerce independent workmen to surrender their individuality and liberty and join the union or take the consequences of being set upon by the thugs, sluggers and demons of the unions. With the unions dominated by such a head, we see that its principles and policies tend to the per- secution and cruelty of those opposed to them, with all the bitterness which characterized the leaders of the Inquisition in their persecution of those who claimed independence and freedom of thought in religious matters. The masters of the union slavery who are so heartless in the greed and pride of their power as to rob and extort from the members mil- lions of dollars of their wages every year, besides robbing them of their freedom, and to be untouched by their sufferings from these great losses, could hardly be expected to have a spark of altruism or sympathy for those who refuse to surrender their independence and freedom. They would make it a crime for independent workmen to insist on retain- ing their independence and freedom, for fear that the THE WHITE SLAVERY 71 spirit of independence might affect the union slaves as the masters of negro slavery feared that the talk of freedom before his slaves increased their desire for freedom. Indeed the masters of the union slavery have be- come so intoxicated with power and importance that they are constantly lobbying before Congress and the State legislatures with demands for the repeal of laws, which, if properly enforced, would restrain them from lawlessness and violence ; would restrain them from intimidating and assaulting independent workmen, and burning and destroying the property of employers; would restrain them from picketing, boycotting and ruining the business of honest men. They have become so intoxicated with power and importance that, in their arrogance they demand that no restraint shall be placed upon the freedom of action of their pupils of envy, hate and selfishness to intimidate, assault, and persecute independent workers to their heart 's content. They are so intoxi- cated with power and importance that they do not hesitate to set up their authority as paramount to the authority of the peoples Government. In the pride of their power they talk with fiendish delight of causing the destruction of the business of honest loyal men who are unwilling to pay tribute for the purpose of keeping up their disloyal organization and their fat salaries. It could be shown that the negro slaves were treated better by their masters than many of the union slaves are treated by their masters, in their 72 THE WHITE SLAVERY selfish greed and heartless conduct in taking the wages from honest toilers who have been hoodwinked into surrendering their individuality and industrial freedom to become slaves of the unions. This organization of the unions that is constantly exercising an authority paramount to the authority of the General Government; that keeps on hand a war fund for offensive operations; that has a na- tional executive head, a national executive council, and different executive departments and a thousand organizers for directing the operations of the organ- ization, in ordering strikes, picketing, boycotting, slugging and intimidating innocent men, is a heavy burden to the members who are largely men of limited advantages and means, and whose wages are barely sufficient to support their families, even if they were not subject to loss of wages by strikes and assessments for strike funds, besides the larger amounts assessed and taken from their wages to support in luxury the parasites of the unions whose principal business seems to be to keep the members in a state of hopeless dependence, a state in which they will have no desire to better their condition. This love and lust of power manifested by officials of the unions, has brought into existence a system of slavery that is more tyrannical, and in many re- spects more deserving of reprobation than the iso- lated cases of peonage in the South, in which those who were engaged in restraining men of their liberty under this form of slavery, were tried and convicted and sent to the penitentiary. This love and lust of THE WHITE SLAVEEY 73 power and selfish greed of labor leaders, has so in- toxicated them with their importance that they will not condescend to measure one man's rights by an- other's, nor listen to appeals for fairness in the deal- ings of men with each other, and are unaffected by the bitter sufferings of their own people whom they have made miserable by absorbing their earnings and grinding the manhood out of them. They are not responsible to any power or constitu- ency that can call them to account for their miscon- duct, and the knowledge of this fact, has made them so arrogant that they frequently defy the laws of the land, and denounce everybody and everything that would in any measure restrain them from picking the pockets of poor laboring men. To make their followers believe that they are doing something in the interest of organized labor, they endeavor to secure a monopoly of labor for the unions by keep- ing up a bitter war on independent workers, and in many instances have succeeded in forcing wages above the normal level but the amount paid for wages above the normal level is more than swept away by loss of wages by strikes, and assessments for strike funds, and the still larger amounts taken from the wages of members to support the masters and expensive staffs and employees of the organization. Every man who is able to stand alone as the peer and equal of his fellows, has no need of the union, and every man who is not able to stand alone, should be fully protected in his rights, and allowed to enjoy his wages with his family, instead of being plundered 74 THE WHITE SLAVERY and robbed by rapacious masters who are without sympathy or gentleness towards any class of unfor- tunate men, particularly those whom they have en- slaved. Very liberal laws have been enacted by nearly all the states to secure to every laboring man the payment of his wages, and laws equally liberal should be enacted to secure to him the enjoy- ment of his wages, laws that would make it a mis- demeanor punishable by fine for any one to take any part of his wages without giving him a tangible equivalent. Think of it, to gratify the love of power and selfish greed of a few thousand labor agitators and masters of the union slavery, a million of the poorest men in this country, are obliged to yield up yearly millions of dollars of their wages, and to lose other millions in loss of wages by strikes. We have heard a great deal about " grinding toil " and 11 sweat shops " imposed upon the poor laborer by his employer, but we have not heard the charge that the employer ever refuses to pay the poor man for his labor. One is tempted to ask, what do the men who never strike and never sweat, know or care about "grinding toil or sweat shops" of laboring men except for the purpose of fleecing them of their wages? Of course intelligent workers will not be influenced by such frothy teachings of hate and envy. The masters who control and direct the principles and policies of the union slavery, like those who con- trolled the principles and policies of negro slavery, seem to challenge the loud roaring thunders of Jove THE WHITE SLAVEBY 75 and the blasting fires of his lightnings, in their mad arrogance in trampling upon the rights of nine-tenths of the people to hold and strengthen the power which they have been wielding to the detriment of all classes in this country. They are so blinded by envy, greed and selfishness that they care nothing for public policy or for the public good, but would everywhere and under all conditions enforce a policy of rule or ruin in the interest of their factions. They are sometimes very bold in their methods of profit- ing by their positions and power. They may call a strike of the men working for a contracting em- ployer, and then have one of their confidential agents approach the employer with a hint that for so many hundreds or thousands of dollars the strike will be called off. Of course the public can never know to what extent this kind of blackmail of the unions is carried on, but now and then the hold-up is so boldly done that the matter gets into the courts and the scheme fully exposed to the chagrin of labor leaders. Members may go to the masters and tell them that they have wives and children to take care of and need every cent of their wages, but such appeals are all to no purpose if the master in his automobile feels that the employer will yield to his blackmailing demand. If pressed for a reason by the members for calling the strike, the master can state that he has found that there is a scab on the job, even if he has to hire one. No amount of suffer- ing of the families of members from loss of wages, appeals to the conscience of the selfish master when 76 THE WHITE SLAVEEY he is assured of success in holding up his victim for the " dough. " It is strange that the more intelligent members cannot see that they are used by the masters for a system of blackmailing by which they are made to suffer loss of wages as injurious to them as the extortion of money from the employer is injurious to him.* *See proceedings of trial of Martin B. Madden, et al., Labor leader, Chicago, in Judge McSurely's Court, May 19, 1909. CHAPTER V. PRIMITIVE IDEALS OF THE UNIONS. We have only to look at the reactionary conduct of the union and its representatives to become im- pressed that its ideals are substantially the same as men living under very primitive conditions, condi- tions under which only tribal relations were known, and when rights, as we understand the word, had no definite meaning. For purposes of offence and defence all members of the tribe were obliged to join their efforts, and in their relations to each other, all were on an equality except the chief who wielded authority. Socialism in its purest form then ex- isted. There was some appreciation of the fact by the chief that if the members of the tribe injured each other by violence that it would weaken it in ability to hold its own in conflict with other tribes. The arrow makers and the makers of fishing gear did not combine and defy the laws or customs of the tribe and declare that no other members of the tribe should engage in the manufacture of those products and dispose of them as they might see fit. As far as may be ascertained from the history of the union, and the current expressions of its leaders, it is utterly indifferent about the conduct of its mem- bers weakening the society of which it forms a part, 77 78 THE WHITE SLAVERY even in the face of foreign invasion, so that it is able to accomplish its selfish ends. The sentiments of loyalty, sympathy and common fellowship and interests, which should bind the units of every social aggregate together, and are the source of its strength, are completely wanting in the union. It cares nothing about the health and strength of other parts of the social organism, nor how much they suffer from injustice and aggressions of others, so that it gets for its part of the general stock of nourishment and comforts, enough to waste as much as it uses. Its highest ideal of life in this world, or its happy hunting-ground in the next world, appears to be a state of existence in which there are employers against whom it may pick grievances and demand advance in wages, or discharge of independ- ent workers; a state in which there are no police- men or peace officers to interfere when two or more unionists assault a single independent worker and beat him to death or into insensibility, or put him to flight with many bruises from sticks, stones or mis- siles, because he desires to make a living without surrendering his independence and freedom and be- come a slave to masters who could have no other than a selfish interest in him; a state in which there are no courts to issue injunction or restraining orders to prevent lawless unionists from destroying the prop- erty of employers and independent workers. This chronic pessimism of the union indicates bad diges- tion that keeps it in that sour, gloomy mood which prevents a ray of sunshine striking it and warming THE WHITE SLAVERY 79 it into active, healthy life which would enable it to see some good in the world outside of its own narrow selfishness. It seems to enjoy bad health, that is, it seems to get a kind of grim pleasure and satis- faction out of creating industrial disturbances with resulting strikes, riots, bloodshed, and destruction of property. We have seen no evidence that its ideals of life ever rise above these conditions, or that it regards life as worth living, that is, a form of social life that would limit the liberty of each by the life liberty of all, and in which every man re- spects the equal rights of all others. This dire pes- simism, this failure to see any hope of improvement in the future, or anything good and beautiful in others outside of itself is due to supreme selfishness and want of sympathy and common fellowship and interest with all members of the community. We mean by ideal, a mental representation or picture of the conditions and relations to which we would like to attain and as the goal towards which we should direct our efforts. In the lower races of men, their ideals are indefinite and extend in time and space scarcely beyond their immediate wants. If they suffer from thirst they may have a mental representation of water somewhere with which to quench their thirst. If they suffer from hunger they may have mental representations of the chase and the acts they will likely go through in securing game with which to satisfy the demands of hunger. But these men of the lower races, like the Bushmen, who do not count higher than the fingers on one 80 THE WHITE SLAVERY hand, and live in small groups, do not have ideals extending far enough in space and time to induce them to lay up food to-day, when it is plentiful, that it may be used the next moon when food might be scarce. Their conceptions of space and time are of the narrowest kind, so narrow indeed that they do not to-day provide for their wants very far into the future. They have no ideals representing their wants next year, or in old age, to be about the same as to-day, and they do not adjust their acts to ends having in view the providing for their wants at a definite future time. They do not plan to do certain things to-day that will bring about given results to-morrow, or next moon, or next year, and they have no definite conceptions of rights as we under- stand the word. Indeed there is no evidence that they have any definite ideal of life, meaning by ideal a conception of life better than the life one is living. When we come to men more advanced in intelli- gence and having tribal organization, we find that they have more definite ideals of benefits to be de- rived by postponing the satisfaction of certain pres- ent desires. After successful chase it might dawn upon the mind of the savage that it would be bene- ficial to him to postpone the satisfaction of his desire to eat his fresh meat, in order that he might use up his old meat that would likely spoil if kept over. If he lives in a climate subject to great changes of temperature with the changing of the seasons, he may have an ideal or mental picture of recurring scarcity of food during the severe cold of the winters, THE WHITE SLAVEEY 81 and provide against the scarcity by laying up food when game is most easily secured. His mental vision is narrow, his language imperfect and incapable of expressing complex thoughts if he had them, and he has no definite ideals of life very different from the life which he is living, and to which he is adapted. But after recurring conflicts between small groups of men, and the consolidation of gens into tribes, and of tribes into nations, the mental horizon of men gradually expand, and new ideals grow up to meet the changed conditions. Let us take the young thrifty farmer of to-day, and the most prominent features of his ideals of life are, that he may in a few years have the best stocked farm in his neighborhood; that he may each recur- ring year, raise abundant crops of everything that he has planted and sown, and receive fair prices for all his surplus products; that when he shall have reached the evening of life he may have plenty of everything to enable him and his family to live the balance of his days in ease and comfort, and that when he comes to close his earthly career, he may look back upon a life well and honorably spent, and leave unto his children a name that will be revered, and the example of a life worth emulating. We may suppose that a plan or ideal of life is gradually formed in the mind of every intelligent business and professional man who hopes to realize it so that he may be able to retire from his business or profes- sion before he reaches an age when life shall become a burden. In the main the man who relies on his 82 THE WHITE SLAVERY own independence and freedom in his struggle for life, is almost certain to make his ideal pictures turn out real ones. We sometimes call these ideals the building of air castles, that is, the planning what we are going to have in the future in the way of home and comforts and pleasant surroundings. This building of air castles, this formation of ideals or plans for the future to be worked out, is not to be discouraged, for in this country where every man has a chance to show the metal that is in him; he may commence at the lowest round of the ladder, and by energy and perseverance, rise to fame and fortune. There is nothing in the teachings of the leaders of the unions showing that they ever sug- gest to the members that they should have ideals extending from the present into the distant future, ideals in which every day would mark a step leading to something better the next, which they should en- deavor to realize, and towards which they should direct their efforts to making each ideal a reality. These leaders seem to have no ideal plan by which they may hope to develop and bring out the best qualities of a good citizen in every member, and to improve the relations between members and em- ployers each year until the cause of strife between them shall be removed, and until each side shall de- mand no more rights, no more privileges, no more freedom of action, than it is willing to concede to the other. Those who were familiar with slavery know that the most cherished ideal of the slave was an ideal condition of freedom which he hoped would THE WHITE SLAVEEY 83 come to him sometime in the future; but we never have an intimation from labor leaders that they ever encourage the members to have an ideal repre- senting them as breaking away from the bondage of the unions and becoming independent and free ; free to act on their own initiative; free to sympathize and assist in lifting up others more unfortunate than themselves to self -consciousness of their manhood, without demanding of them a union card, or any other sign of former slavery. Labor leaders do not appear to have ideals representing themselves or members of the unions as performing altruistic acts of any kind; acts beneficial to any one outside the unions, or acts that tend to bind men into a brother- hood of common interests, mutual good will and mut- ual respect for each others rights. We do not find after the most careful consideration that they have any ideals of any kind, which, if realized, would tend to raise human society above the savage state. Their most active ideals appear to be that if an independent worker has a job, that a walking delegate should be sent around to warn him to leave it, and that if he persists in fulfilling his contract, that two or more thugs of the union should be sent to assault and drive him off or beat him to death. We nowhere find any evidence that they have any higher ideals of life, of justice, fairness and equal rights to others than the untutored savage, or of the violent, the vicious and weak-minded around us. An official of the union who has presented to him a picture or ideal of the sufferings of the wives and children of 84 THE WHITE SLAVERY the members, if the husbands and fathers are obliged to stop work and go on strike, and yet compels them to do so, is more heartless and destitute of the in- stincts of civilized man, than the savage who tor- tures his captured enemy. Institutions like men must be judged by their deeds and not by their pro- fessions, and so we say of unionism, if it has any vir- tue or good in it, to commend it to the considera- tion of thoughtful men, it has yet to manifest it. Its unprincipled and selfish leaders have collected together a great part of the violent, vicious and weak-minded of the country, who cannot be said to have any definite ideals or morals and used them in such manner as to become an intolerable nuisance and oppression to the industrious and self-respecting law-abiding part of nearly every community, espe- cially of the cities, a nuisance and oppression that should at once be checked by the firmness and sanity of those who love law and order. No man who has the spirit of independence and freedom in him; no man who may not be classed with the vicious and weak-minded, could have the infinite presumption of the walking delegate to order another man to stop work on a job he had engaged to complete, because he did not belong to the union. When we consider that the unions exist solely for the benefit of the masters whose salaries are never stopped, it is not surprising that they never have ideals worth striving for by all classes of the com- munity. They have put forward as an ideal and demanded that their ideal shall become a reality, THE WHITE SLAVERY 85 that municipal and state legislation shall discrimin- ate in favor of the unions and give all employment on public works, or for the municipality or state, to union labor, in the face of the fact that union labor constitutes only about one-tenth of all other labor, thus making it a class of special privileges. In this they show that they have not only no ideal of justice and fairness towards others ; but that they would have the state and municipality act unjustly and unfairly to independent labor, or nine-tenths of labor, and those who are the main sources of strength to the state. The unions are almost a minus quantity on the tax rolls of every community, and we have already pointed out that the loyalty of organized labor is more than questionable and can never be depended upon by the state in an emergency, particularly if the trouble was connected with labor disturbances. Disloyalty to the interests of those whom it engages to serve, is one of the most prominent features in the history of unionism as it has come down to us. An organization whose every ideal is opposed to so- cial order, justice and morality, must, when its meth- ods and aims are exposed, arouse such sentiment against it in the minds of peace-loving and law-abid- ing people, as to have the effect of curbing its extrav- agant and harmful pretentious. There is a constant tendency among its officials, from the highest to the lowest, to push its unreasonable demands, exactions and pretentious, to the utmost limits that com- munities will tolerate. So far as we are able to see, 86 THE WHITE SLAVERY their most active ideals appear to be ruin and perse- cution, persecution of the most relentless kind of those who are opposed to their principles, policies and methods. The ideals of the sea pirates of past centuries did not have in view a more wanton de- struction of the commerce of the seas, than have the ideals of these selfish masters had in view the wanton destruction of the business and commerce of the country. All their ideals appear to be destructive in character instead of constructive, tend to tearing down instead of building up, to waste instead of conservation. We have it from the histories of the times that the leaders of the Inquisition exercised the inventive power of their brains to construct instruments of tor- ture of the most refined character, for the purpose of torturing their heretical victims ; so the masters of the union slavery appear to be constantly cudgelling their brains to invent schemes for holding up, injur- ing and annoying their victims and those having dealings with them, and of persecuting to the bitter end any of their slaves who groan under the bur- dens imposed upon them, or sigh for freedom. Never before in the history of the world, has there been an organization like the unions, made up so largely of the vicious and weak-minded elements, which have been so completely controlled by masters of unde- veloped ideals for corrupt and vicious purposes. An official daily bulletin of the violent and unlawful acts of the unions throughout the country, for which THE WHITE SLAVEEY 87 the masters should be held responsible, would per- haps afford ample proof of our statement. It certainly is not creditable to the liberty-loving men of the country to have tolerated so much of the terrorism, suffering and attendant losses which have afflicted it year after year, and which are justly chargeable to the masters of selfish, primitive ideals, who fatten on the misfortunes of others, even of their own followers. Thoughtful men are beginning to ask themselves if it is not time to have organized intelligence that stands for law, order and equal rights, to meet the organized viciousness and weak- mindedness of the country, which, in the hands of corrupt and reckless leaders, are continually causing serious disturbances of social order, and enormous losses to the business interests of the country. All men possessing the spirit of independence, and who believe in industrial and commercial freedom, should have their attention called to this menace to their liberties; this menace to the business interests and prosperity of the country, by organized viciousness and weak-mindedness directed by men whose ideals of social life are scarcely above the ideals of socialists and the natives of the Dark Continent. It is hard enough for the intelligent, independent, freedom-loving, self-supporting, altruistic part of the community to be taxed to provide for the pronounced vicious and weak-minded, without being constantly hampered, annoyed and subjected to great losses by those only a shade less weak-minded and vicious under the control of vicious and unprincipled men 88 THE WHITE SLAVERY calling themselves representatives of labor, and claiming to act in the name of labor. We never hear of labor leaders presenting for the consideration of members of the unions such ideal conditions as will make two blades of grass grow where only one had grown before, but on the con- trary they are constantly advocating and insisting on bringing about conditions which must cause only one blade of grass to grow where two had grown before. They seem to have no conception of pro- gressive ideals ; no conception that our race is grow- ing out of its swaddling clothes; no conception of the fact that their ideals belong to the age of the cave dwellers when our ancestors used the rudest implements of stone for weapons of offense and de- fense, for they never hold up for the consideration of their followers in an approving manner, the desira- bility of introducing into a plant improved machin- ery, methods or processes, which would increase the power or capacity of a man to turn out two, three or four times the amount of a product which he had been turning out with the old and more primi- tive machinery, or older methods and processes. It is well known that labor leaders are enemies of all progress, of all improved machinery, methods and processes which multiply and cheapen all kinds of products of common use, and not only bitterly oppose the introduction of such improved machinery, meth- ods and processes, but when they are introduced into a plant, demand, and when practicable enforce their demands, that the employer of union labor, THE WHITE SLAVERY 89 who introduces such improved machinery, methods and processes, shall continue to employ two, three or four men to do the work which one man can do with the improved machinery. The primitive ideals of the masters of the union slavery, would prevent progress in every direction; would continue to use the primitive machinery, methods and processes of past centuries, for they seem to think by so doing that it would make more work for union labor, and more fat perquisites for labor leaders. If their primi- tive ideals could be bottled up and stored away in a museum like the primitive machinery which fits such ideals, there could be no ground for complaint, but when we see them constantly striving to make their ideal pictures turn out realities, great harm is done not only to those who work with their hands, but to all classes. We must admit that progress, improved machinery, methods and processes, is bene- ficial on the average, or that all progress is detri- mental to mankind, and that we should return to primitive conditions. The unions have never had an ideal of any kind, which, if realized, would be bene- ficial to our country, or even to organized labor in the long run. Indeed an organization whose prom- inent ideal is envy, hate and special privileges, hate for everything progressive, could hardly be expected to have an ideal worth striving for by any man who feels an interest in the common welfare ; could hardly be expected to have ideals of fraternal greetings between unionists and free, independent workers and 90 THE WHITE SLAVERY of their marching arm in arm in Labor Day proces- sions and on all patriotic occasions. There is rythm in all motion, and there has been rythm in all progress, all evolution, since life ap- peared on the earth. In the course of general evo- lution, retrogression has been as frequent as progres- sion, in all forms of life. The Greek and Roman and Phoenician and many other civilizations, have been extinguished after mighty struggles, and other civilizations built upon their ruins. The periods of brightness and greatness of these civilizations, after the decadent forces became dominant, were suc- ceeded by periods of darkness, anarchy, and gloom, of perhaps equal length. Every man who has studied the history of the growth, development and decad- ence of nations, must be impressed with the mighty struggle now going on between the reactionary forces and influences of unionism and socialism, tending to pull down and destroy all the progress that has been made by our race, and the progressive forces and influences represented by those who be- lieve in individuality and industrial and commercial freedom, which tend to build up to higher ideals, our present civilization. When we take into account the great numerical strength of the weak-minded and vicious elements of society, which we may count on as being practically owned by the reactionary leaders of unionism and socialism, the enemies of social order and progress, we see what a heavy bur- den the plain, level-headed provident man has to bear. CHAPTER VI. THE UNIONS A LABOR TRUST. In the presidential campaigns for the last dozen or more years, the country from one end to the other has rung with the denunciation of trusts. Eminent speakers from every political platform, including the representatives of organized labor have joined in the outcry. Every capitalistic trust has been repre- sented as a great octopus whose outstretched ten- tacles were constantly drawing into its ravenous maw the ruined business of countless small concerns, and raising the prices of commodities to unheard of heights, thereby increasing the cost of living beyond all former times. That the trusts deserve a good deal of the denunciation hurled at them, is probably true; but it appears that the labor union part of those chasing the octopus, are making a great noise to distract attention from themselves, the most op- pressive of all trusts. We understand that a trust in the sense in which we are speaking of it, is a com- bination of capital or labor in restraint of trade. It will be well to give a more detailed definition of the word as here used. We may then define a trust as a combination in which several men combine their capital or labor for the purpose of controlling the output and sale of a given product, of fixing the 91 92 THE WHITE SLAVERY price of the product and the wages of labor, and of destroying all competition in the manufacture and sale of the product and of labor. That is, those who refuse to go into the combination are to be undersold in the market until the selling of the prod- uct becomes so unprofitable that they are obliged to go out of business. When the trust crushes all opposition, destroys all competition, it then raises the price of the product to whatever point it may consider expedient, taking into account the temper of the public to stand the advance. By its methods of getting control of the market, the trust not only makes the public pay for the losses it sustains while destroying competition ; but it also makes the public pay the profits of the trust after competition has been destroyed. Of course an individual might pos- sess sufficient capital to control the output and sale of a given product; might be able to buy out a sufficient number of the interests of those selling the product, to drive the others out of business by under- selling them, by competition, and thus secure con- trol of the market, and afterwards fix the price. Now the unions are labor trusts, for they are com- binations of men in restraint of trade of various kinds ; in restraint of independent labor for the pur- pose of controlling the labor market and raising the price of labor. The only difference between a labor trust and a capitalistic trust, is, that the labor trust endeavors to keep its competitors out of the market by force and intimidation, whereas the capitalistic trust first destroys its competitors by underselling THE WHITE SLAVEBY 93 them in the market and then raising the price of the product so as to make enormous profits. The labor trust is as soulless and heartless as the capital- istic trust, and its leaders and members care no more for the sufferings and hardships of the independent workers and their families, and of all men outside the ranks of the unions, than the members of the capitalistic trust care for the sufferings and hard- ships of the men and their families, whose business they have destroyed, by unfair competition in order that they might rob the public at large to satisfy their greedy ambition for wealth. When a trust secures control of the market for the sale of a given product of common necessity, it may raise the price of the article to any point desired, and the public has sometimes been helpless to protect itself against the extortion. When the union labor trust has se- cured control of the labor market for furnishing a particular kind of labor, it has often by its unrea- sonable and exorbitant demands been ruinous to those who were obliged to use such labor. If our definition of a labor trust is correct, it has no more right to exist than a capitalistic trust, and if we admit that it is the proper function gov- ernment to protect each individual in his equal rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, neither has a right to exist. An individual who is prevented by force and intimidation of others from carrying out his plans of life, under the law of equal freedom, is not equally free with those others to enjoy the equal rights which should be guaranteed to him, and which 94 THE WHITE SLAVERY our Government is pledged to guarantee to him. So also those whose business has been destroyed by the methods of the capitalistic trust, are not equally free to buy the product controlled by the trust and sell it at a profit like the trust, or at the profit which normal competition would bring. We do not question the right of men to combine for the purpose of selling their labor for all it is worth in the market, but we contend that under the law of equal freedom, they have no right in order to secure a monopoly of labor and fix the wage scale, to prevent other men who are unwilling to surrender their independence and freedom and join them, from competing with them in the labor market. For the unions to prevent by force and intimidation, independent workers from competing with them in the labor market, is to exercise greater freedom of action than they are willing to concede to others. In the National and State Platforms of the leading political parties, we find that trusts, unlawful com- binations of capital, are vigorously denounced; but the statesmen who write these platforms, and who are equally familiar with the evils of the labor trust, are not courageous enough to denounce it, and point out that it exists for the purpose of using force and intimidation to prevent independent workmen from securing employment. We find that while the members of the capitalistic trust, or combinations of such trusts, share equally in the profits from the combination, considering amount of capital invested, in the labor trust onlv the officials are beneficiaries THE WHITE SLAVEEY 95 of the combination to control and fix the wage scale.* Looking back over the history of the labor trust for a generation, probably no honest thinking man will claim that the members of organized labor through- out the country are any better off this year than they were last year or the year before. It still has leaders whose selfishness and greed makes them wholly unconscious of modern progress ; who do not appreciate that with the increasing intelligence of men, there has grown up among them a spirit of independent and freedom which makes them keenly sensitive to being held up by so-called labor leaders who wish to have them surrender their independence and freedom for the purpose of controlling them for selfish ends, as weaklings and incompetents who are unable to attend to their own business. Even if there was merit in the labor trust, which there is not, it would suffer from not having its weak spots pointed out by outside intelligent criticism. It is impossible from an ethical standpoint to regard with favor any organization like the unions which re- quires its members to surrender their independence and freedom on joining it, and which claims their allegiance to it as paramount to their allegiance to the peoples government which gives them independ- ence and freedom. It is the policy of a capitalistic trust after it has destroyed competition, not only to When we take into account the loss of wages by strikes, and the amounts taken from members to meet assessments and fines the net wage is so small, that membership cannot justly be considered bene- ficial. 96 THE WHITE SLAVEEY make back all it lost in destroying competitors, but to fix the price of the product it sells so as to make a handsome profit while it controls the market; whereas, the labor trust can not hope to make back anything it loses in a strike, it may order to compel an employer to discharge his independent workmen and unionize his plant, or to use the current expres- sion, make it a closed shop. In this progressive age when there is an increasing assertion of independ- ence and freedom among men, and an increasing demand for equal rights and exact justice, we ought to look for vigorous denunciation of all trusts in restraint of trade and of equal rights. There is no reason why the labor trust should be excepted and given special privileges. All men suffer who sur- render their independence and freedom and fail to demand and insist upon their rights, and the equal rights of their fellows. Let us briefly look at the evils of a commercial trust with which nearly every one is familiar, who has lived in any city of the first class in recent years. In nearly all the cities of the first class in this coun- try up to a few years ago, there were several inde- pendent ice companies who sold their ice in competi- tion with each other and made profits sufficient for each to get a good living out of the business. But in recent years the trust idea has entered the minds of the ice dealers of some of the cities, who, not sat- isfied with the slow methods of getting rich by small profits, have, by consolidation or agreement, at- tempted, and sometimes succeeded, in controlling the THE WHITE SLAVEEY 97 price of ice, by buying out the smaller dealers, or underselling them, forced them out of business, and then having a monopoly, fixed the price of ice so as to make enormous profits, causing great hardships to the people. These unlawful combinations are sometimes dissolved by the courts, but generally not until they have exacted a heavy tribute from the people. Now the policy of the union labor trust, which, by assaults and intimidation, prevents the independent worker from carrying out his plans of life by working for whom he will and under such terms as may please him, is just as injurious to the public as the conduct of the ice trust or any other trust in restraint of trade. In its efforts to control the labor market and monopolize labor, the labor trust has been wasteful of its own energy and resources and frequently brought disaster and ruin to large sections of the country. Its managers and business agents by their pig-headed policy of encouraging and countenancing strikes, have entailed upon its membership losses of nearly twenty millions dollars a year besides causing the public and employers far greater losses. It has the distinction of being one of the very few trusts in the world that is not beneficial to those backing it except to its officials, whose interests are distinct from the members. It is a trust based upon passions, prejudices and hatred for those opposed to its principles and policies, and whose members, while under hypnotic influence or suggestion, were induced to surrender their independ- 98 THE WHITE SLAVERY ence and freedom to their own detriment and to the detriment of the community. There are many instances in which the Federal and State courts have held that the acts of trades unions were illegal and in restraint of trade or inter- state commerce. Indeed some of the officials of the unions admit that their organization is a monopoly or labor trust and desires to control and fix the price of all the labor of the country, and determine who shall and who shall not be permitted to work. The evils of the Standard Oil Trust, the Beef Trust, the Steel Trust, or any other trust, may be regarded as mere drops in the ocean of crime chargeable to the union labor trust. The officials of these capitalistic trusts do not, like the officials of the labor trust, teach their members or stockholders to hate all men opposed to their methods. They do not teach a relig- ion of hate for everything outside their own inter- ests. On the contrary, many of those interested in the vast capitalistic combinations are men of highly altruistic natures, are selfish for the purpose of be- stowing benefactions upon their fellowmen. Who ever heard of a labor leader bestowing a benefaction upon any one, or doing anything for the general wel- fare ? It is perhaps a fact that the labor trust is the only trust in the world except the Dog Trust of Constantinople, that endeavors to drive off or destroy its competitors who wish, as independent workers, to have a share of the work of the world. There was a time when, if one or two stray dogs of any quarter of the city of Constantinople dared to invade THE WHITE SLAVEBY 99 the feeding territory of the dog trust of another quarter of the city where the dogs foraged in packs with leaders, the trust dogs fiercely attacked the independent dogs and drove them off or destroyed them, just as the members of the labor trust attack and endeavor to drive off or destroy all independent workers. There were many points in favor of the dog trust, as compared with the labor trust, as far as viciousness of conduct is concerned. The conduct of the capitalistic trusts is selfish, but peaceable. By the destruction of competition the Standard Oil Trust may raise the price of oil one-half cent per gallon above the price of what it would be under normal competition, which rich and poor alike must pay. In its efforts to destroy competition and con- trol the labor market and fix the scale of wages, the labor trust is not only constantly trying to raise the price of labor of its members, which constitute only about ten per cent, of the workers of the coun- try, above the normal level under competition ; but it is also trying to deprive ninety laborers out of every hundred, of the privilege of working at all for wages. We not only find those who control and direct the principles and policies of the labor trust, laying claim to all the work to be done, but of arrogating to themselves the privilege of fixing the price for doing the work, leaving to the employers nothing to say about it except to pay the bills. The officials of the labor trust have such complete control over the union slaves that they propose to make it as difficult for free and independent labor to have a chance to earn 100 THE WHITE SLAVERY a living, as the masters of negro slavery made it difficult for free white labor to earn a living in the South prior to the Civil War. It is indeed surprising that men of ordinary intelligence, like the labor trust leaders, should have the audacious presumption to undertake to corral and organize the vicious and weak-minded elements of the country for the pur- pose of enslaving all other classes and making them pay heavy tribute to the labor trust magnates. But we may readily believe that men like the labor trust officials who will deliberately rob and plunder poor, simple-minded members of their earnings, which should go to support their families, rob them under the pretext of helping them, will hardly listen to our appeals for a broader sympathy and altruism towards the more unfortunate class of our people, who, under the control of designing men, are as clay in the hands of the moulder. We know that the very moment a man pretends to be engaged in the work of uplifting to higher and better conditions, a class of unfortunate people, and charges them for his serv- ices, makes them give up their earnings, that his work is not altruistic, but selfish, and how selfish depends upon their patience and submission to his demands. What would decent, liberty-loving people think of the men of the North if they had exacted of every slave, as a condition of his freedom, that he should give them a lien on a large part of his earnings for life, and that he should agree to do their bidding to assault, murder, assassinate or dyna- mite any men whom his liberators should designate, THE WHITE SLAVEM 101 and carry the torch to burn their property? How much better, if any, would his new form of slavery be than the old? Do the temperance reformers de- mand a perpetual lien on the earnings of the drunk- ard, the inebriate, for lifting him up and freeing him from the demon of rum and leave nothing for his family? Do the missionaries charge the heathen all his life-giving substance to enlighten him? Indeed there is nothing altruistic in the pretended interest in the laboring man by the officials of the labor trust, or of any other trust, but on the contrary the heart- less selfishness that knows nothing of human sym- pathy, and cares nothing for equal rights and jus- tice. While the officials of the labor trust continue to rob, plunder and extort from the simple-minded members of the unions their earnings, they should expect to arouse the indignation of men of enlight- ened consciences and sympathies for the unfortunate classes of our people without regard to their creed or the influence that controls them. The labor trust offi- cials, with their hands on the throats and pockets of the poor, simple-minded members of the unions, and talking to them of grinding toil and sweat shops, as if it was a crime to work, reminds one of the vampire gently fanning with its flapping wings its sleep- ing victim while sucking the life-blood from its veins. It is the history of all institutions of crime, wrong and oppression, that they bring upon them- selves their own punishment and destruction, just as in the case of negro slavery. We know that the leaders of negro slavery were domineering and in- 102" -mb WHITE SLAVERY suiting and paid no attention to the rights of those who differed with them in regard to the questions at issue, as the leaders of the labor trust are now doing, until their oppressions became so intolerable that the people rose up and destroyed the institution of negro slavery, and just as they will rise up and destroy the white slavery of the labor trust. We do not know whether the leaders of the labor trust will precipitate a bloody struggle, a bloody rebellion for the perpet- uation of the union slavery or not, like the bloody war that was precipitated by the proponents of negro slavery; but we do know that the union slavery of the labor trust is becoming more and more unprofit- able to the employer every year, just as negro slav- ery was becoming more and more unprofitable every year to their masters up to the Civil War. Every employer knows that the labor of the union slaves of the labor trust is every year becoming more and more inefficient, less productive, by the methods of the trust, which encourage " soldiering/' that is, of the union employee doing as little work as possible to hold his job; of making work, that is, of doing his work so slouchy, slovenly and careless as to make it necessary to do it over, and in general to feel no loyal interest in the work for the employer whom he is taught by the trust leaders to hate as an enemy. Why should an employer prefer to have in his serv- ice the free and independent worker rather than the union slave of the labor trust? Because he knows that the independent worker looks for his merit and loyalty to the interests of his employer, to hold him THE WHITE SLAVEEY 103 to his job, whereas the union employee cares nothing for the interests of his employer; thinks it his duty to soldier all he can; to make all the work he can, and looks to the union to hold him to his job. This policy of the labor trust leaders to have the members sacrifice their independence, individuality and in- dustrial freedom, to the slavery of the unions, is gradually doing its work, and doing it effectively. In the end, we repeat, slave labor never has been profitable to the employer, and with the advance of general intelligence and morality, it is certain to be- come less profitable. The slave, feeling no interest in his work, has no incentive to initiative like the free man who is always looking for improvement over ancient methods and processes. There can be no industrial peace until the employee comes to rec- ognize that his interest is bound up with the inter- ests of the employer, and until there shall be that mutual good will that should exist between partners in any business enterprise. CHAPTER VII. " DOWN WITH THE EMPLOYER," CRIES UNIONISM. This cry echoes from " the master of a million minds " of the federated unions of this country, down to the head of the local union, if not in the actual words of the heading, yet practically to that effect. What better evidence could we have of the incompetence of labor leaders to understand the progressive spirit of the times, than this wild propo- sition to destroy the hands and brains of those who furnish employment for the members from whose wages labor leaders are supported? This sentiment of Down with the Employer, Down with the Courts, evokes the applause of the thoughtless members of the unions wherever it is uttered by the leaders, who are constantly demanding special privileges for organized labor, showing the kind of constituency they have behind them, and how incapable it is of reasoning and looking after its own interests, how completely it has surrendered its individuality and industrial freedom. When men have not passed that phase of intel- lectual development which permits them to surren- der their individuality and lose their independence, 104 THE WHITE SLAVERY 105 we see how easy it is for their masters to secure their applause and approval of the utterance of any propo- sition, no matter how absurd and destructive of the rights of others, just as the subject of the operator in hypnotism endeavors to obey his will and every uttered command. We cannot even think of laborer, without thinking of employer, any more than we can think of a right hand without thinking of a left hand, of a son without thinking of a father, of a slave without a master. A man was convicted not long ago in Chicago for participating in murdering his grandmother, and his plea as brought out in the trial was, that she died from the effects of torture and exorcism, in which he had assisted in efforts to drive the devil out of her. This tragedy which was enacted in the name of religion, does not equal in intellectual backwardness, the tragical effects of the torturing operations on industrial life, which gives nourishment to all, by the blind devotees of unionism in the name of labor. They would destroy industrial life, which gives them food and clothing and shelter, by torture and exor- cism, because their leaders have impressed upon their minds that that life possesses a devil which ought to be expelled. Where men surrender their individu- ality and set up no claims to freedom of initiative, they follow their leaders with that blind devotion which was characteristic of the retainers of the barons and chieftains of feudal times. An impartial review of the history of unionism would certainly show that its most prominent fea- 106 THE WHITE SLAVERY ture has been its destructive tendencies, its efforts to destroy the ideals of modern civilization, without offering anything in place of them except a state of anarchy, a state in which the individual would find no security for life and property. It is rather an impressive fact that out of a constituency of about two millions of men, unionism has never pro- duced a man of marked constructive capacity, a man with views broad enough to see that its destructive tendencies would have to be checked if it expected ever to accomplish any good, and set itself before the world as a law abiding organization, demanding no more privileges than other classes of citizens. Unionism is simply a survival in the midst of a largely altruistic civilization, of a type of primitive life which was contemporaneous with the hairy ele- phant, the mammoth and cave lions, the bears and hyenas of the glacial epoch, just as the man who murdered his grandmother exhibited a type of life characteristic of the lowest races of men, as under pure socialism. We must not lose our patience in dealing with this primitive form of life as it is manifested in unionism and socialism, for it must gradually pass away like all other forms of savage life. It cannot long exist in contact with the higher intelligence of our modern civilization. The lower forms of life have been yielding to the higher for millions of years during the struggle for existence, all unconscious of emotions of sympathy, or of a sense of wrong in the strong in exterminating the weak and unadapted. THE WHITE SLAVEEY 107 During all this great length of time when the earth was ensanguined by tooth and claw, it was simply a preparation of its habitable parts for the existence of the highest type of man of to-day. Such has been the order of nature, and there is no good reason for losing faith that it will not continue in the future to be the order of nature while the earth shall be fit for this highest type of life and intelligence. These men of primitive, selfish instincts who stand in the way of progress and of a higher life, know not what they do; know not that they are deluded fanatics who throw themselves under the wheel of Juggernaut to be crushed in their efforts to stop the progress of the age, and the development of the sentiment of justice and equal rights, and the ties of common fellowship and interests. It is our duty to protect ourselves against all noxious forms of life which make our existence miserable or tends to destroy us. We have constantly invisible as well as visible foes to fight. We must destroy the mosquito which carries and inoculates men with the germs of yellow fever; we must destroy all poisonous insects, reptiles and animals which stand in the way and threaten or endanger our lives, our happiness and well-being. And we -must efficiently restrain those of unsteady minds who would force upon us their primitive prac- tices, practices and methods common to the lowest races of men, and which take no account of a moral sense or a sense of justice and equal rights without which the highest form of social life cannot exist. These cries of ' ' Down with the Employer, ' ' * ' Down 108 THE WHITE SLAVERY with the Courts, " we believe are the expiring gasps of an organization whose leaders have long been drunk and made mad with a power which they have too long wielded to the common injury without their attention being drawn to the teachings of rational altruism and a broader charity and sympathy for those more unfortunate than ourselves. We have made good law-abiding citizens of In- dians whose fathers were savages, and if we cannot teach the masters of the union slavery and their slaves to respect the rights of those outside the or- ganization, we will curb them and endeavor by altru- istic acts and the education of our public schools to develop a moral sense and a sense of justice and equal rights in their children. We can get along without the masters of the union slavery, who teach their slaves to hate our government founded on equal rights, and to hate everything that tends to bind the people together in common fellowship and interests. We would condemn in the strongest terms the teach- ing of a religion of hate towards the peoples of races far removed from us in geneological descent, but to teach a religion of hate towards our own brothers and kinsmen, should be condemned as a crime by all right-minded men. We can get along without the enemies of industrial and commercial freedom, and the disturbers of social order, but we cannot get along without the employer of labor whose active brain furnishes work for those who are unable to stand alone, and who have never been successful in any business on their own account, and find employ- THE WHITE SLAVERY 109 ment under him more profitable than anything else they are able to do. We cannot get along without the employer whose energy and careful calculations enable him to put thousands of men into positions to earn livings for themselves and their families, and whose life is as useful to others as to himself. No sane man will contend that the race of mankind would be any worse off if there was not in exist- ence a master of the union slavery to extort and ab- sorb the earnings of the poorer men of the country and poison their minds with prejudice and hatred of fellowmen. The misguided masters learn nothing by experience, for if they did they would know that by ruining the business of the employer by strike and boycott, or forcing him to move his plant to some other town, as frequently happens, it would throw the union slaves out of employment for an indefinite period and oblige them to hang around town in idleness, or drift to other places in search of work, leaving their families, their wives and chil- dren, to be taken care of by the community which they had helped to make poor by loss of business and destruction of property by the strikers and by their rioting and turbulence. Retaliation is not only justifiable in war, but the side opposed to irregular war, guerrilla war, as in the execution of prisoners, is sometimes obliged to resort to it, and execute as many prisoners in retal- iation for the same number executed by the other side, to bring that other side to a sense of the weak- ness of its position in violating the laws of war and 110 THE WHITE SLAVERY of humanity. Now the labor wars in this country have reached a point where the unions resort to vio- lence, destructive war on society, to win their fights with employers, putting their leaders in the posi- tion of outlaws or bandits, and fully justifying manu- facturers and employers of labor, to resort to retal- iation, by blacklisting every member of the unions engaged in strikes, boycotting and the destruction of property, until he could show satisfactory evi- dence of repudiating the union slavery and repent- ance for the outrages committed against employers, independent workers and society. Think of the advice given by the masters who live off the grinding toil of those who have not the force of character and the initiative to defend their own rights, to destroy the employer whom they rec- ognize as having better business capacity than them- selves, and to whom they must look for employment to enable them to earn a support for their wives and children. Think of the selfish, greedy masters who never furnish laboring men with a day's employment, and whose sole means of living is by extorting from laboring men their wages and by blackmailing em- ployers having the hardihood of advising them to destroy the employer who promptly pays them every cent he owes them for wages. Those who would fas- ten injustice and oppression upon their fellowmen have often been disappointed in the effectiveness of the measures adopted, the measure sometimes having an effect contrary to that which had been calculated. So the masters of the union slavery in their efforts THE WHITE SLAVEEY 111 to destroy employers of labor, are unintentionally forcing them into the open shop movement, and into employers' associations where they are not obliged to use slave labor, and put up with the domineering conduct of the walking delegate, the restriction of apprentices, the " soldiering " and making work of union employees, and the hundreds of other insuffer- able annoyances borne by those who employ union labor. The intelligent and thoughtful part of the mem- bership of the unions are not in sympathy with the wild-eyed ravings of the professional labor agitator who never strikes or never sweats, and who would to satisfy his own vanity, destroy the employer of labor, and also laboring men who depend upon re- turns for their labor to support their families. The enemies of industrial freedom and teachers of hate and selfishness, in the insane vanity of their power, not only cry " Down with the Employer," but their cry is also " down with our government, its laws, its flag, and its courts ; down with equal rights and jus- tice, down with everybody who refuses to pay tri- bute to them; down with the free laboring man who will not pay a heavy fee for permission to work and give them a lien on his wages while permitted to work; down with everything that will not tamely submit to be a host to which they may attach them- selves as parasites to absorb its life-giving sub- stance. ' ' In different forms of life an individual that be- comes a host for a parasite, if it cannot get rid of it, 112 THE WHITE SLAVERY may be destroyed or greatly weakened. What is known as the Texas fever in this country, a very fatal disease among our native cattle, is caused, as investigations have shown, by a parasite, a small tick that multiplies very rapidly and may be destroyed by dipping the infected animals in crude oil. We can destroy the Texas tick infecting our native cattle by dipping the animals, but the parasites of the social organism, must be got rid of in some other manner than by dipping the host. We can never have healthy social conditions and a healthy social organism, until we find some means of getting rid of those who, by unfair and selfish schemes, take from the honest toiler his wages, with- out giving him anything useful in return. The open shop offers the best solution of the trouble, the best remedy for the cure of the disease that is costing the country hundreds of millions of dollars and hun- dreds of human lives and injured persons every year, for in the open shop the parasites cannot find hosts to which they can attach themselves, and in their dis- appointment and rage, cry " Down with the Em- ployer, Down with the Courts, Down with the Gov- ernment, Down with Industrial and Commercial Freedom everywhere/* In the open shop the em- ployer and his employees are supposed to have been inoculated with the serum cultures of common sense and to be immune to the destructive attacks of labor agitators. They do not demand of Congress or the State legislatures, the enactment of laws giv- ing them special privileges and advantages over other THE WHITE SLAVEEY 113 citizens, as do the leaders of closed shop unionism. They estimate men according to their merits, their good fellowship, their respect for the rights of others, and the man with the union card is given no special consideration. There can be no valid objection to any one preach- ing a rational discontent among those who are short on comforts and happiness ; a discontent that has a tendency to arouse them to self-consciousness and to plan for and strive to attain a better condition; a discontent that awakens them to check up their lives and see where they have wasted opportunities that they should have taken advantage of ; a discon- tent that determines them to make the most of oppor- tunities in the future; a discontent that determines them to equal or excel their neighbors in acts of gen- erosity and friendly rivalry in providing for the com- forts of life, instead of nursing sour moods and envy- ing their neighbors the comforts and good things which industry, thrift and economy have brought them.. We should like to hear of the preaching of the kind of discontent which would propose to reform the world by commencing the reform at home so that the reformer could point to himself as a conspicious example of the kind of man he would like to make of all men. We should like to hear of the preaching of the kind of discontent that would stimulate men to examine their own conduct and weight it in such manner that they would see they should not demand more rights, privileges or immunities for themselves than they are willing to concede to all others ; a kind 114 THE WHITE SLAVEEY of discontent that would stimulate an introspective examination of every one so that he might see his follies and failures in such light as to guide him in his proper course in the future. We seriously object to and abhor the preaching of that kind of discon- tent which appeals to and makes the weak-minded, the indolent, the vicious and the violent covet his neighbor's ass, or any of his neighbor's property which has been acquired by honest toil. We abhor the preaching of that kind of discontent which causes any class of men to charge their failures in life to their neighbors who have been nore indus- trious and provident, and less envious of the success of others. We abhor the preaching of that kind of discontent which appeals to the lowest passions of weak-minded men to commit acts of cruelty and aggressions on fellowmen because these fellowmen claim their natural right to work and make a living to support their families. We abhor the preaching of that kind of discontent which causes weak-minded men to go on strikes and give up remunerative em- ployment to satisfy the whims and vanity of men who never strike and never sweat, but who like most other parasites, absorb the life-giving substance of their host. CHAPTER VIII. INJUSTICE UNPROFITABLE. When slavery was introduced into the Colonies of this country, the colonists thought that it would be immensely profitable to those interested in the institution; but when considered in its totality and in all its bearings, they found that not to be true. With the slaves fed on coarse food of corn bread, pork and bacon, and overseers to keep them at work from daylight to dark, with few intermissions for rest, how was it possible for slavery to be otherwise than profitable, thought those interested in it? But that it was not as profitable as had been calculated, was proved from the fact that one after the other of several of the States abandoned it and freed their slaves, until the Civil War came up to complete the destruction of the institution. Those who had trav- eled in the South up to the Civil War, know that from the great number of worn out and abandoned farms or plantations, because of poor methods of cul- tivation, that slavery was becoming so unprofitable, that the price of slaves must have rapidly declined in a few years to a vanishing point. Aside from the moral degradation of men owning and selling their own children by slave mothers, and the general demoralizing effects of slavery, the Southern States 115 116 THE WHITE SLAVERY were far behind the North in prosperity, in mechan- ical skill, in inventive genius, in the assertion of individual rights, and in all those traits which dis- tinguish the social from the anti-social man. In addition to the demoralizing influences of the insti- tution, there was the constant fear, in many instances amounting to terror of the slave owners, of murder and assassination by their slaves, and also the severe prohibition and intolerance of all discussion in re- gard to the evils of slavery, and its influence on the progress of our country towards higher ideals. There was also a cultivation of sectional hatred and bitterness, which caused every man from the North visiting the South on business or pleasure, to be an object of suspicion and frequently of insult, culmin- ating in the Civil War, with its terrible losses of life and property. When a king of England a few centuries ago de- based the coinage and swore the officers of his mint to conceal the practice, and endeavored to make the merchants of his kingdom believe that the gold and silver coins were of full value, he doubtless thought the scheme was a profitable one although he knew it was a dishonest one. But after awhile when other kings adopted the same practice, the originator of the scheme lost as much on the debtor as he had gained on the creditor side, beside losing his reputa- tion for honest dealing, and making it more difficult to borrow money when he needed it and was com- pelled to pay a higher rate of interest on the loans made him. THE WHITE SLAVEEY 117 The ruling powers of Spain thought that by the expulsion and extermination of the Mohammedan Moors and the confiscation of their property would be immensely profitable to the State, but it proved otherwise, for closely following the extermination, expulsion and confiscation of the property of this industrious and prosperous but unfortunate people, of whom history tells us, fifty thousand were buried alive in a few years, there was national depression and suffering. There were whole provinces in which the suffering was so great that many loyal Catholic subjects died of starvation. Coming down to our own time it has appeared to the superficial thinkers and the leaders of unionism that if they could use a powerful oath-bound labor organization to do their bidding, as slaves do the bidding of their masters, they could control the labor market of the country to the great profit and ad- vantage of their class. By ignoring the equal rights of independent workers to industrial freedom and by ignoring the rights of employers to manage their own business, by assaults and intimidation, and the use of dynamite, the independent workers would not dare to bid for any work the unions wanted, and the employers would not dare to give independent labor any work by standing in the way of the unions. An organization so perfect, with such refined methods of destroying its enemies, who would think of hav- ing the temerity of opposing or standing in its way ? "Was there not here an opportunity of transferring in a short time a good part of the wealth of the \ 118 THE WHITE SLAVEEY country into the hands of the favored class? But like all other schemes based on injustice and the ignoring of the rights of others to industrial and commercial freedom, this despoiling scheme of the dreamers of organized labor, has not turned out as they calculated. As far as may be gathered from statistics and independent inquiry, the followers of organized labor after all their noise and turbulence and sacrifice of their independence and freedom, are not so well off as far as comforts and happiness are concerned, as those who have refused to surrender their individuality and liberty in order to profit by the ruin of others. It has been shown by the reports of the U. S. Bureau of Labor, that the losses to organized labor by strikes amount from fifteen to twenty-five million dollars a year, and that the losses to employers amount from seven to twelve million dollars a year. But the losses to organized labor and to employers, are small items to the total loss to the country by labor disturbances. It has been esti- mated by the industrial and employers* associations that the losses to the country by labor disturbances, strikes, the destruction of property and rioting and suspension of business, amount to about two hun- dred millions of dollars a year, or greater than the losses by fire. It is also shown that in one year, 1903, there were 3,494 strikes, throwing out of employment 656,055 employees, perhaps fully one-half of the mili- tant part of organized labor, being nearly ten strikes a day. We see here that after all the cruelties, the tyrannies, the murders, the assassinations, the cor- THE WHITE SLAVERY 119 ruption of the public morals, the weakening of the ties of common fellowship and interests, and the ignoring the rights of those outside the ranks of unionism, injustice has not been profitable to organ- ized labor. It is a mournful fact in the tragedies of the lives of many great men, that not until it was too late were they impressed that there is no power worth having, or worth wielding, without justice. "We know that it has been the history of all life on the earth from the lowest beginnings, that the less adapted and least intelligent have been gradually yielding to the better adapted, to the more intelli- gent, and that such must continue to be the course of nature. The principles and practices of union- ism being a survival from primitive times, from the childhood of our race, knows nothing about equal rights to industrial and commercial freedom, and is not adapted to that form of social life in which equal rights and justice are coming to be the leading fea- tures. If unionism could see its cruelties, its tyran- nies, its corruptions, its want of respect for the rights of others, its want of sympathy and good will for men of all classes, this would presuppose that it was conscious of what it is doing, and being conscious of what it was doing, presupposes that it purposely does things unprofitable, purposely injures itself. With its record as a disturber of peaceful industrial conditions, and with its record of violence and the assumption of rights and privileges it is unwilling to concede to others, it does itself immeasurable injury, for no law-abiding, peace-loving man wishes to have 120 THE WHITE SLAVEEY anything to do with the membership of an organiza- tion that is just as ready to attack and destroy those against whom it has no grievance as those against whom it has a grievance. It has been so reckless in its disregard of the rights of others, in the break- ing of solemn contracts with employers, in attacking and destroying the property of employers against whom it had no grievance, of persecuting the fam- ilies of independent workers, and in all kinds of acts of violence and lawlessness, that peaceable cit- izens who stand for law and order, for protection and self defence, have been obliged to organize associations all over the country for the purpose of seeing that the laws are enforced, and to curb its numerous outrages. Those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, have time and again brought poverty and suffering to their own people. They have been unable to see or re- fused to see, that under existing social conditions, there is no power worth wielding without justice, without men recognizing and respecting each others rights, to life, liberty and property. In their blind- ness and inability to get beyond primitive ideals, primitive modes of thought, they have been un- able to see that right conduct would have been worth many dollars to the organization in every instance, and that wrong conduct has been costly, sometimes costly beyond calculation. In their reck- less disregard of the rights of others, they have been unable to see that there is such a close interdependence between the different parts of the THE WHITE SLAVERY 121 social organism that one part can not be injuriously affected without injuriously affecting all the other parts ; that the membership of the unions can not be prosperous without the community of which they form a part being prosperous. They have been un- able to see that it has been by the independent work- man who has refused to surrender his individuality and freedom to the unions, that labor has become re- spectable. Let every man of the unions capable of thinking and having self-respect, take the matter home to himself whether he wishes to be looked upon by the community or the intelligent and freedom- loving part of it, as the slave of a master who owns and carries him around in his pocket by bill of sale to dispose of his life, his services, his vote or elec- toral privilege, as he thinks best, as completely as the master carried in his pocket the bill of sale of his slaves, with the right to dispose of their lives and services as he thought best, and then ask himself if he thinks the surrender of his independence and freedom has been profitable. If the members of the unions could have their eyes opened to the evil con- sequences of surrendering their individuality and freedom, there would be less lawlessness, fewer mur- ders and assassinations of independent workers, less wrecking of passenger trains and street cars causing the loss of scores of lives, in this country, than have been chronicled in newspapers lately, and less hatred for independent workers than has formerly pre- vailed. Indeed it should be plain to every observing man that the union slavery is becoming more and 122 THE WHITE SLAVERY more unprofitable to all who have anything to do with it except to the masters in whose interest it is kept up, and who live by the misfortunes of others. When the masters deny their slaves the inalienable right to fit their sons for useful and remunerative professions or vocations, such conduct is unjust and unprofitable to the individuals deprived of their rights, and unjust and unprofitable to society which should have the fullest measure of usefulness of its citizens, for when young men grow up without bus- iness qualifications or a knowledge of the trades, they too frequently become tramps or drift into criminal and wasted lives, lives that are a heavy burden to society. It has been the policy of the masters of the union slavery, to limit the number of apprentices in all establishments, all closed shops, in proportion to the journeymen employed so that there will be such scarcity and demand for each kind of skilled labor, as will keep the price of it above the normal level. It certainly seems in taking a superficial view of the matter, that this method of forcing a scarcity of particular kinds of labor, would be profitable to the members of the unions, but in the last analysis it has not been profitable to them, and will not be profit- able to them while the masters have less than ten per cent, of the labor with which to control the labor market and secure a monopoly of labor. The selfish, greedy masters may be able in many instances to force the wages of the members above the normal level; but in their constant wars with the ninety THE WHITE SLAVERY 123 per cent, independent unorganized labor, and with employers against whom there are daily strikes, the amount of wage paid above the normal level, is more than swept away, clearly shows the fact that in this particular also, injustice is unprofitable. Even if we did not take into account the losses by strikes, the amount of wage paid above the normal level of the wage scale, would be more than consumed by the expensive administrative officials, staffs, organ- izers, business agents and walking delegates of the unions, whose greed is always in evidence and who are not held responsible for their conduct by an intelligent, free and independent constituency. When the masters point with pride to the advance in wages secured for the members by strike, they do not point to the cost in securing the advance, the loss of wages by strikers, and the amounts of fees and penalties paid to union officials, and the great wrong done to men prevented from exercising their right to labor. If the community is to be reckoned with in estimat- ing the benefits and losses, we find that the losses of life and property caused by the unions, make their unjust and criminal conduct exceedingly un- profitable. Think of the masters constantly making war on the industrial activities of the country for the purpose of securing a monopoly of all the labor for less than ten per cent, of the laboring classes, by robbing of their rights and leaving unprovided for, ninety per cent, of those classes. This supreme selfishness of the union slavery, with its many acts of lawlessness, and bloody violence wherever it 124 THE WHITE SLAVERY fastens itself on a community, has been very unprofit- able. But it may be asked, is not this selfish greed profitable to the masters who lay under tribute the public and employers and extort from the simple- minded members of the unions, their earnings, and deprive free workers of the opportunity of sharing in the benefits of honest toil? We reply that such ill-gotten gain may be considered profitable in the sense that the loot of the bandit or burglar is profit- able to him. But no sane man who feels an interest in the common welfare of the community, will con- tend that gain obtained under such conditions as control with the union officials, is profitable to all concerned, to society at large. It would doubtless be an interesting chapter in unionism, if the public could know the number of strikes called off by the masters who were " in- sulted " by the agents of employers putting hundred dollar bills on their desks in the ante-rooms of sa- loons while they were watching the tricks slant-eyed. It is not likely that there are many masters who are not " onto their jobs " in pinching employers in this manner. How else could the representatives of grinding toil afford to ride in automobiles in attend- ing to the business of their slaves ? But what honest man will contend that strikes settled in this manner are profitable to the union slaves, or to anybody except the selfish masters? The teachings of hate and selfishness in the unions are unprofitable to all except the masters, who have shown themselves unwilling to do anything towards THE WHITE SLAVEEY 125 strengthening the ties that should bind our people together in common fellowship and interests. It has been the history of great national evils that they go on increasing the burden of oppression until they become so unbearable to the moral and liberty- loving part of society, that organized opposition de- velopes to check the pretentious and harmful sway of their proponents. It was so with the evil of negro slavery whose proponents were constantly making exasperating and humiliating demands of those who were opposed to the institution, until they were aroused to strike back, and in thundering tones ex- posed the iniquity of slavery and demanded that it should be excluded from the territory which would come in as new states north of a certain latitude. So with the great national evil of union slavery, organized opposition to its oppressions and crimes, is springing up all over the country in the form of the open shop movement and citizens' industrial associations, which promise to limit its further ex- tension and baneful influence, and finally overthrow it as completely as negro slavery was overthrown. CHAPTER IX. COERCIVE METHODS OF THE UNIONS. To better their condition, to secure better wages, the members of the unions must either persuade or compel their present employer to increase their wages or, they must leave him and seek another employer who will pay them more. A disinterested spectator would not enter any objection to the em- ployees leaving their present employer in order to better their condition, to secure better wages, if by so doing they did not violate a contract. But to coerce a present employer to increase their wages against his judgment that to do so will finally bank- rupt him, close down his business and ruin him, is another proposition. He should know better than any one else what he can afford to do in managing his business so that he will not be forced into bank- ruptcy. His employees have no more right, individ- ually or collectively, to coerce him into making a bargain he thinks ruinous to his interests, than he has to coerce them into making a bargain they think ruinous to their interests. Any attempt at coercion by either employee or employer, destroys the good feeling that should exist between them in their bus- iness relations. He who attempts to coerce another possessing self-respect and manhood, arouses a bitter- 126 THE WHITE SLAVERY 127 ness of feeling in that other which will not down. An employer may invest thousands of dollars in put- ting up a building, or in some enterprise, and when far advanced towards completion, his men may strike on him for some trifling grievance, perhaps a sym- pathy strike, and cause him much annoyance and heavy loss, and possibly force him to come to their terms, which he considers unreasonable, and to which he would not yield except under the pressure of unfair advantage taken of him; but such a policy of organized labor, which is always looking for an opportunity to take unfair advantage of employers, can never make such an employer its friend. In all future transactions he will endeavor to get along without using such labor, and if obliged to use it he will endeavor to protect himself against such arbi- trary and unjust treatment. There may be unjust employers, but from whatever point looked at the strike of the members of a union can not be justified as a means of redressing grievances, for the reason that it is always resorted to for the purpose of coerc- ing, punishing or injuring the employer, and for the further reason when it is used as a club of coercion, it always acts as a boomerang. If we endeavor to coerce a man to do a thing which he declares he is unable to do without injury to himself or his be- longings, and then proceed to punish or injure him because he does not do it, we ought to expect our acts to arouse in him a feeling of resentment such as would preclude our future employment by him. No man who is fit to be a leader of organized labor, 128 THE WHITE SLAVEEY will knowiogly advise his followers against their in- terests, and no man whose reasoning powers have advanced beyond primitive conditions, will advise them to accomplish a given purpose by coercion, pun- ishment or injury of those whom they would have yield to their desires. Any organization to have the respect and sympathy of all classes in this country, should be able to write upon its banners " equal rights its industrial and commercial freedom for all." An organization like the unions whose aim and purposes rests upon principles of injustice, special privileges, disregard for the laws of the land, dis- regard for the equal rights of others outside its ranks, and hatred for all who do not indorse its principles and policies, no matter how powerful, must sooner or later crumble to pieces, for in our modern life the searchlight of criticism is certain to be thrown upon every thought or action offered to the public for consideration. In the puffed up pride of their importance the leaders of organized labor not only propose in bringing about a strike, to injure and inconvenience their own followers, and the em- ployer whom they desire to coerce into complying with their demands, but they also propose to punish, inconvenience, injure and coerce the public who are innocent parties to the controversy, in an equal de- gree. Think of a thousand men or ten thousand, voting under the instructions and pressure of an organizer, to stop work, and voluntarily cutting off for themselves and for their families, supplies of THE WHITE SLAVERY 129 food and clothing and shelter and comforts, for an indefinite period, for the purpose of coercing an employer to do a thing which he declares he is un- able to do without entailing a loss which he is unable to bear, or because he does not discharge a man whose service is satisfactory, and against whom no one brings any charge except that he is a free and independent worker. If the hundred men or the thousand men of the union could make the em- ployer whom their conduct is intended to affect, suf- fer as much as their aggregate suffering, or injure him as much as their aggregate injuries, there would still be no business sense in a strike except that it may be profitable to the manager of it who always has a selfish interest in its success, an interest en- tirely distinct from that of the members. An animal so game as to attack another animal more powerful and which is certain to destroy it we all agree dis- plays bad judgment, and if all the members of its species are similarly lacking in judgment in attack- ing more powerful animals, its race must gradually disappear. So with the unions, if they continue to attack adversaries from whom they receive harder blows than they are able to give, they must gradually disappear. Those who have controlled and directed the principles and policies of labor organizations, have never been able to see that their attacks on the prosperity of communities and individuals, must of necessity affect their followers as well as those whom they would ruin. In times of negro slavery the slaves were coerced 130 THE WHITE SLAVEKY by their masters to do their bidding, which some- times caused a feeling of strong resentment, even in a slave. But since the overthrow of slavery there has been a decided change in regard to the use of coercive methods as a controlling or governing agency in the family, in the public schools, and in the army and navy, and in its place there has been substituted a milder system of control and guidance based upon love and persuasion and appeal to the individual's sense of justice, fairness and self-re- spect. Even in the treatment of the inmates of in- sane asylums the harsh methods of coercion are being abolished and the more rational method of kindness and persuasion substituted. In the control of hard- ened criminals in many of our penal institutions, severe coercive methods are not" allowed. Those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, are strangers to progress, strangers to the amenities of life, strangers to any form of guid- ance of conduct that would abolish the harsh and barbarous method of coercion in the dealings be- tween men where each should be free to accept or reject the proposition of the other. We have made such progress in the development of sympathy and a moral sense, that we have so- cieties for the prevention of cruelty to children and animals, and a man may not coerce his horse too severely without liability to arrest and fine. A policeman with his billy may coerce a malefactor into submission; but free men dealing with each other on terms of equality, if they cannot come to THE WHITE SLAVERY 131 an agreement in regard to an issue between them, neither should attempt to coerce the other into com- pliance with his view of the matter. He who at- tempts to coerce another into compliance with his views, demands more rights, more privileges than he is willing to concede to that other. Coercion is a prominent feature of unionism, a feature too that must meet with active opposition and resentment from all intelligent men of independent minds who possess a sense of justice and right. In the evolu- tion of sympathy and a moral sense, we are begin- ning to demand less coercion and cruelty in the con- trol of criminals and lunatics in the prisons and asylums of this country, than formerly in spite of the coercive methods of the unions, so painfully no- ticeable in all their conduct. Indeed we are begin- ning to regard convicted criminals so much the vic- tims of circumstances, of heredity and environment, that there is less desire than formerly for punishing them according to their crimes, but instead a de- mand that they be effectually restrained from con- tinuing criminal careers. Now unionism appears totally unconscious of the growth of this humane and altruistic sentiment, extended even to criminals, and endeavors to enforce its dictum of coercion in its dealings with men, employers and independent workers of the kindliest natures, who do not demand more rights, more privileges, more freedom of action than they are willing to concede to all others. All men with the instinct of freedom and justice will resist any attempt to be coerced into making a deal 132 THE WHITE SLAVEEY that they think injurious as well as humiliating and destructive of their individuality. Such a method of securing benefits has only to be pointed out to be condemned by all right-minded men who feel an interest in advancing the public welfare. The men who would use coercion to enforce their demands upon others in business matters, are tyrants and masters who have slaves to do their bidding, slaves who have no conception of justice and the kindly relations that should exist between free men in their dealings with each other. While the unions are generally referred to as voluntary organiza- tions in which the members join freely and with- out any mental reservation and on their own motion, it is well known that their membership is secured almost entirely by coercive methods and by intimidation. No man who is not a slave, will, at the suggestion of another, be a party to coercing a free man to make a bargain which he thinks would be against his interests, and humiliating to his self- respect, or to discharge a man whose service is sat- isfactory and who is satisfied with his wages and treatment. No man who is not a slave, will, at the dictation of another, be a party to coercing a free man to give up his job because he does not surrender his freedom and self-respect and join the union, and does not wish to pay the masters for permission to work, and to encourage them in their acts of selfish greed. No man who is not a slave will be a party to coercing another to join the union and starve his wife and children by giving his wages to THE WHITE SLAVERY 133 the men who have no other than a selfish interest in the matter. That the masters use the members for such purposes of coercion, will hardly be ques- tioned from any source. The masters who control and use the members to coerce employers into making bargains which they think are against their interests and humiliating to their self-respect and to discharge independent work- ers whose services are satisfactory and who are satis- fied with their wages and treatment ; or to coerce in- dependent workers to give up their jobs or join the union, or suffer the consequences of brutal treatment by hired thugs and sluggers of the union, or to coerce business men to yield to union demands or suffer the consequences of boycott, destruction of property, riot and bloodshed, are the men who should be held up to public reprobation, as the enemies of industrial freedom, social order and fraternal relations among all classes. To coerce employers, independent work- ers and other classes of citizens and even commun- ities, to yield to unjust union demands, or even just demands, can never bring about that mutual good will and fraternal feeling, which are the ideals for which all altruistically inclined men are willing to strive. To coerce a man to do a thing he is unwilling to do on his own motion, is to destroy his liberty, his freedom and make a slave of him. The union officials not only endeavor to coerce employers to yield to their demands, to supervise their business in various ways, but if the employer becomes obstin- ate, and refuses to yield they at once commence to 134 THE WHITE SLAVEEY inaugurate a reign of terror, riot and destruction of property, to coerce the community to intervene and compel the employer to yield to the union demands. They not only endeavor to coerce city councils to give the unions all public work, but they also en- deavor to coerce them to require the union label, the trade-mark of the union slavery, to be put on all city printing, by threatening to mass the union labor vote to defeat all members of the council who stand for reelection and who refuse to indorse and work for measures discriminating in favor of union labor as against free labor and the open shop. They en- deavor to coerce the Congress to amend the Sherman anti-trust law so that nothing in it " shall be con- strued as to apply to trades unions or other labor organizations," even when the acts of labor organiza- tions are openly in restraint of interstate commerce, by threatening to mass the union labor vote against the Congressmen who stand for re-election and who have the honesty of purpose to act according to their convictions and to oppose the proposed amendment and defy the threats of its proponents. They have attempted to coerce the courts of the country into conniving at the lawless, acts of the unions by having them refuse to issue injunctions or restraining orders to prevent destruction of property and in- timidation of independent workers by the union slaves, by threatening revolution and the ignoring of the restraining orders of the courts and inducing their slaves to ignore them. They have time and again attempted to coerce the business and law-abid- THE WHITE SLAVERY 135 ing people of the country into acquiescing in and tolerating a carnival of selfishness, hate and crime of the unions for the purpose of giving them special privileges and immunities, special privileges to mon- opolize all the work and fix the rate of wages, and special immunity from prosecution and punishment for their lawless acts, by threatening to tie up all the business of the country if they were not per- mitted to have their way. They have coerced the members of the unions into such slavish obedience and fear that they dare not demand that their sons be permitted to serve appren- ticeships in any of the trades for which they desire to fit them for leading useful lives and good loyal citizens. They have coerced the members into such slavish obedience and fear that on intimation of the masters, they relentlessly persecute their brother members who have incurred the displeasure or curse of unions, by refusing to starve their wives and chil- dren that they may give of their wages to support in luxury labor parasites. They have coerced the mem- bers into such slavish obedience and fear, that they give up without protest their wages to the labor officials for purposes which cannot possibly benefit them directly or indirectly. The coercive methods of the masters are more gall- ing and oppressive to the men who have not had the spirit of freedom and manhood ground out of them, than were the coercive methods of the masters of negro slavery to their slaves. This coercive idea run- ning all through the administrative acts of the 136 THE WHITE SLAVERY unions, which takes no account of individual free- dom and equal rights, is one of the most prominent features of primitive life when the chief's word was law to those over whom he exercised authority. In the present stage of our civilization and of our moral and intellectual development, coercion should find no place in the dealings between men who value their liberty and individuality; that it should be exercised only in dealing with the feeble-minded, vicious and criminal elements of society, and then as sparingly as possible. Every man who possesses an instinct of freedom and feels that he is the peer, the equal of every other man, rebels at the thought of being coerced into doing a thing which he knows it is his duty to do, or being coerced into doing a thing which he knows that he should not do. All the oppressions, all the unspeakable outrages for which the unions are responsible, have been the natural consequences of their unrestrained and un- opposed activity along lines and against interests which should years ago have aroused strong organ- ized opposition. Organized labor has less than ten per cent, of the laboring classes in its ranks, and that this insignificant faction of labor should be allowed to dominate all other labor and all other interests, and carry on its criminal operations, in order to have a monopoly of labor, shows the strong necessity that exists for the organization of all law- abiding elements to check its pretensions and op- pressive conduct. What could be more cowardly depraved and wanting in manliness and courage, THE WHITE SLAVERY 137 than for half a dozen or more union labor strikers and sluggers, picketing the path of an Independent worker and as he passes along going to or returning from his work to earn wages to buy food, clothing and comforts for his wife and children, pounce upon him and beat him to death with sticks and stones and missiles, because he would not surrender his indi- viduality as an American freeman and be coerced by their threats, into desisting from work to enable them to coerce the employer ? This kind of conduct of the unions is an almost daily occurrence in some parts of the country, which forces us to the conclu- sion that we are departing from the idea of which our fathers were fond of boasting, that this is " the land of the free and the home of the brave. " The law-abiding elements of the country, have long rested in the belief that the laws which they have helped to make, and the courts which they have helped to establish, were sufficient to safeguard their lives, their liberty and their property, and have felt it unnecessary to join a vast viligance committee to keep in subjection the lawless and vicious elements like the unions, or to take an active part in electing officers who will enforce the laws without fear or favor. Too often good substantial citizens have prided themselves on the little interest they took in politics and of their indifference as to who were can- didates for positions as officers to enforce the laws. They forget that eternal viligance is the price of liberty, and that the alien bandits and proponents of coercion who wage constant war on the industrial 138 THE WHITE SLAVERY and business interests of the country, never sleep. The coercive methods of the unions under the ab- solutism of the leaders who control and direct the principles, policies and conduct of the organization, are of that malicious character which tends to crush the instinct of freedom out of a man; the kind of coercion that the master exercises over his slaves; the kind of coercion the primitive chief exercises over the members of his tribe; the kind of coercion that the tyrant and despot exercises over his sub- jects. Is it not a more despotic and meaner coercion than a master would exercise over his slave, or a despotic ruler over his subjects, for the leaders of the unions to have a poor member fined five dollars for buying a stove where he can get the best bargain, and to expel him and persecute him to distraction if he repeats the offense? And yet this despotic coercion and persecution of members of the unions is often exercised, and any working member who should have the hardihood to offer his protest, would, at the instigation of the trained labor agitator, be howled down with a storm of hisses and cries of " scab," and probably thrown out. In fact the methods and policies of the unions in making slaves, is as heartless as the conduct of African chiefs who made raids into the territory of neighboring tribes for the purpose of capturing people of their own race to sell into slavery. Think of a union organizer taking along with him, two or three weak-minded men to convince an honest independent toiler that it is his duty to join the union if he would escape the THE WHITE SLAVEEY 139 charge of " scab," and the contempt and hatred of all other men. Think of the cowardly spectacle of two, three or four union pickets armed with clubs and bludgeons, as emblems of their lamb-like natures, waylaying the path of an independent worker to intercept him going to or returning from his work, to convince him of their peaceful intentions and in- terest in him, which, if he does not see and appreci- ate, he may expect to be sent to the hospital or his grave. This is the kind of persuasion which the union officials demand they shall be protected by legislation in exercising. If the slaves or hired thugs and sluggers of the unions are found crouched ready to spring upon and assassinate their intended victim, the free independent worker while exercising his lawful right to work, are restrained by an injunc- tive order of the court of competent jurisdiction from completing their fiendish act, the masters set up a terrible howl about the members of their organiza- tion being deprived of their liberty, and hurl defi- ance at the court, which defiance is heard from " the master of a million minds " down to the business agent of the local. In primitive life before the moral sense had been developed in our ancestors, practi- cally all benefits were secured by coercion, and coer- cion of the fiercest kind, but in modern life all bene- fits worth having, are secured by honest effort, mu- tual good will and free contracting between men. CHAPTER X. THE INDEPENDENT WORKMAN INVESTI- GATES. When we consider the strong pressure brought to bear upon the independent workman of any of the trades to get him to surrender his independence and industrial freedom and join the union and he does not do it, we may know that he finds sufficient rea- son in his own mind for not yielding to such pres- sure. We may suppose that he listens to the argu- ments of his friends, and perhaps the organizer, of the benefits to be derived from belonging to the union. We may suppose that he is a man of indi- viduality and who believes in independence and of a freedom of action limited only by the like freedom of all other men. We may suppose that he is a plain, common, level-headed man who is in the habit of looking at all sides of a question before deciding what to do in any given case. When his friends and the organizer take him up on the mountain to be- hold the beauties of unionism, of which the industrial world has decidedly different views, he determines to investigate and look at the condition of his fellow tradesmen who are claimed by many to have sur- rendered their independence and industrial freedom to the unions, and asks himself if it would be possible 140 THE WHITE SLAVERY 141 for him with such surrender of independence to at- tain that ideal state of comfort and happiness for himself and family which he believes that his own initiative and energj^ under fair and just laws will gradually bring. In his search for information to guide him as to the best course of action for him to pursue, he finds only a small percentage of the mem- bers of the unions who own their homes and the comforts that naturally attach to the home. He analyzes the situation further and sees why it is im- possible for the members of the unions to save enough of their earnings to buy a home and secure the com- forts which he would like to have around him. In his investigation for light and facts to enable him to determine whether it will be to his interest as well as to the interest of society at large for him to join the union, he no where finds that its leaders, or its principles and policies, try to impress upon its members, ideas of thrift and economy, with the view of having each member gradually become independ- ent and a substantial citizen of the community. He soon finds that for a member to even whisper " independence " and ability to get along without the union, is treason to the organization. He also finds that commendable loyalty to the organization requires a member to hate our government, its flag, its laws, and its courts and in all his conduct to give his first allegiance to the union, and if the decrees of his union require him to do one thing, and the decrees of the courts require him to do another, to ignore them and observe the decrees of his union. 142 THE WHITE SLAVERY The want of patriotism and respect for the laws of the country, and the lack of interest in the common welfare, everywhere manifested by the unions, im- presses the independent worker of the dangerous tendencies of the organization towards insurrection, socialism and anarchy. He finds that the socialists are rapidly becoming the controlling influence in unionism, and openly preach the destruction of prop- erty rights, the abolition of the marriage relation, and the substitution of communism and all it stands for. This teaching of hate by the masters of the union slavery for nearly everything that free men regard as essential to organized society, chills the enthu- siasm of the independent workman for the union ; for jn his conception of an ideal social state there must be perfect freedom and independence of the indi- vidual, brotherly love and respect for his neighbors, with no desire to claim more privileges and wider activities for himself than he is willing to concede to all others. Indeed it seems to him to be the policy of labor leaders to bring such great losses upon organized labor by strikes, penalties and squeezing of the members, as to keep them in a hopeless state of dependence in order that they may be the more easily controlled. Before the emancipation of the negro slaves it was quite a common practice for white preachers to preach to the slaves that slavery was better for them than freedom, just as the masters of the union slaves preach to them that it is better for them to surrender their independence and free- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 143 dom to the union, than it is to be free men and act in- dependently and on their own initiative. Our inde- pendent worker comes to the conclusion that the struggle is not really between capital and labor, but between freedom and slavery, between those who contend that the individual should surrender his in- dependence and industrial freedom to the union, and those who believe in the independence of the individ- ual and his freedom to act on his own initiative lim- ited only by the like freedom of all others. He sees early in his investigation that when a man surrenders his independence, individuality and freedom to an- other or to an organization, he is no longer free to move and have his being and to act on his own initia- tive on all matters concerning his interest and wel- fare, like the man who refuses to surrender his inde- pendence and individuality to another and claims the right and freedom guaranteed to him by the laws of the country, to do all that he wills provided that he does not infringe the equal freedom of all others. He knows that the man who asserts his independ- ence and believes in equal rights, is not obliged to seriously injure himself and his family for the pur- pose of injuring some other man, as every unionist must do in every strike. His conception of ethical doctrine has led him to the conclusion that when men shall be guided by the principles of equal free- dom, equal rights ; that when each shall firmly deter- mine to demand no more rights, privileges or free- dom of action for himself than he is willing to con- cede to all others, that there will be practically no 144 THE WHITE SLAVEEY friction between men in their dealings with each other. He finds it difficult to understand how there should be opposition to this simple proposition of equal rights where all claim to be free, but in his investigation of the principles and policies of the unions he finds that they totally ignore the equal right of all outside their ranks and assert the priv- ilege of trespassing upon the rights and interests of those who oppose their policy. He finds that the unions while claiming the right to bull the labor market, to monopolize the labor of the country, denies the right of another larger class of labor, independent labor, to compete with them individu- ally in that market. He also finds that the unions not only denies to the independent workers who will not join them, the right to compete in the labor market with them, but will not allow any of their members to work on the same job with independent workers. He finds that when an employer of labor has union men working for him and wishes to take on other men and they are independent workers, the union men at once demand as a condition that they continue to work, that he shall discharge the inde- pendent workmen. The investigating workman is told by members of the unions that the employment of independent workers by employers has been one of the very common causes which have led the unions to order their members to strike. He is told that if an employer has independent workmen engaged and wishes to employ other men, and they are members of the unions, that they will not work for him until THE WHITE SLAVEEY 145 he agrees to discharge the independent workmen. But he knows that the ethics of the independent workman never demands the discharge of a union man working for an employer if he should wish to work beside the independent worker. He sees that the union man, or the union, to which he has sur- rendered his independence, for him, ignores the principles of equal rights and demands more rights, more privileges, for himself than he is willing to con- cede to another; demands that the employer dis- charge the independent worker, and give his place to a unionist ; but will not concede that the employer should discharge the union man and give his place to the independent worker, no matter how undeserv- ing the union man and how deserving the independ- ent workman. Here the independent workman in his investigation is impressed that the principles and policies of unionism are utterly selfish and incapable of arousing sympathy in its members for the suffer- ings of others, or inspiring them with respect for the equal rights of those outside its ranks. He sees how impossible it is for the unionist with his narrow and clanish view of life, to ever perform any truly patriotic or altruistic act. He has come to look at every step in the recognition by men of each others equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- ness, as a step in progress, and every step of any organization which demands more rights, privileges or liberty of action than it is willing to concede to all others, as a step towards primitive conditions. He no where finds in all the discussions of unionism, 146 THE WHITE SLAVERY anything said about equal rights, or any indication that the unions are willing to treat independent workers with fairness, justice and consideration. He is, however, constantly impressed by all that he sees and hears from union sources, that because an inde- pendent workman prefers to depend on his own energy and initiative, and to make his own bargains with an employer, that he is regarded by the mem- bers and leaders of the unions, as an open enemy. As an independent workman who is unwilling to have his activities restrained except by the like re- straint on the activities of all others, he looks over the economic situation and asks himself whether it will be more profitable to him to depend on his own initiative and energy, or whether it will be to his interest and to the interest of all other men, to sur- render his independence and freedom of action to the union and depend upon them to give him more steady and remunerative employment, without injury or loss of wages to others. In the pride of his healthy manhood he knows that he would prefer to live in the humblest situation with his independence and freedom, than to live in luxury without them, or to live under conditions requiring him to pay masters for permission to work, and give a lien on his wages while permitted to work. Knowing that it is the function of the state or the government to protect him in his equal rights to life, liberty and property, he does not see where the unions can be any benefit to him, and he prefers to depend on his own initiative and judgment in working out the fulfillment of his THE WHITE SLAVEKY 147 ideals of life, rather than be hampered by the whims of labor leaders whom he is unwilling to acknowl- edge as his superiors in tact and business manage- ment, and whose records for lawlessness and violence are not attractive to him. He considers it insuffer- ably intolerable that the leaders of the unions should assume such importance as to regard the members as grown up children or half-witted men, not know- ing what they want, and not to be held responsible for their acts. Every step in the investigation satisfies the inde- pendent worker that the more completely men sur- render their independence and freedom, the greater must be their disadvantages in the struggle for life, disadvantages which must descend to their children. He looks at the homes and comforts of the families of the members of the unions with whom he is asked to surrender his independence and freedom, and he does not find encouragement to warrant it. So far as he is able to ascertain only a small proportion of the members own their homes, and his information leads him to conclude that the leaders do not encour- age the members to save their earnings during periods of prosperity for the rainy day or to buy homes. In his investigation he meets with the com- mon story of members of the unions who, having saved up considerable sums by many sacrifices, were obliged to go on strike on account of some trifling grievance in which they were not at all or only re- motely interested, or on account of their officials call- ing it for a blackmailing consideration, making it 148 THE WHITE SLAVEET necessary to spend all their savings during the months of enforced idleness. His inquiries lead him to believe that those members of the unions who do save part of their earnings, do so for the purpose of having accumulated savings to tide them over dur- ing periods of idleness caused by probable strikes, instead of to invest in homes and comforts. He knows that a member who is receiving good wages and who may at any moment be called out on strike, enforcing him to idleness for several months, cannot safely invest his surplus earnings in a home, for he may need them to meet living expenses during the period of idleness. He also knows that if a member of the union owns a home and with others is ordered out on a strike, the probability is he will not go back to the same employer, but will be obliged to find employment elsewhere, making it necessary to sacri- fice his home. He is able to call to mind instances where thrifty men of the unions who had paid for comfortable homes out of their savings, but who were obliged to leave them and go to some other place when the strike upon which they were ordered out, failed. He is unable to understand how any one with a rational mind, claiming to be a friend of labor, can conscientiously advise laboring men who are earning an honest living with an honest employer and no grievance against him, to strike, leave their work, with nothing else in sight. So far as the independent workman can determine, the strike in nearly every case, hurts the striker far more than the THE WHITE SLAVEEY 149 employer whom it is intended to injure and punish, without vindicating any worthy, sane principle. Believing firmly in the ethical doctrine that we should not demand more freedom of action in carry- ing out our plans of life, than we are willing to con- cede to all others in carrying out their plans of life, the independent worker is unable to harmonize with his views of that doctrine, the practice of the unions of encouraging their members to become disloyal to their employer as if he were an open enemy, and to disregard their solemn contracts with him when it suits their convenience. If disloyalty to employers, hatred of employers, disregard of solemn contracts with employers, and surrender of independence and freedom of the individual to the unions, are essen- tials of the ethics of the unions, our independent worker will have none of them. As the unions de- mand the first allegiance of their members to their principles and policies, which are often antagonistic to the Government, our investigator cannot as a loyal citizen of the Government, subscribe to them, or even sympathize with them. He cannot consent to put him- self in a position, where, after surrendering his inde- pendence and freedom, he would be obliged to go out on a strike to injure himself and employer, because some men in another part of the country have gone on a strike to the injury of themselves and their em- ployers, on account of a grievance of which he knows nothing. To him the principles and policies of the unions as he daily sees them carried out, appear de- structive of the independence and freedom of the 150 THE WHITE SLAVERY individual and of social order, without which he feels it is impossible to have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. Our investigating worker holds that we should not advise a man to do a thing we would not will- ingly do if we were in his place. He contends that if we think we are better informed as to what is best for another to do in order to improve his present condition and secure greater comforts and happiness for the future, we should not advise him to do a thing that will probably impair his present condition, with- out giving him ample security that the thing to be done will not injure him. He contends that a man of wide experience who has seen much of the world and is capable of making a good argument on either side of a mooted question, should not take advantage of another man's weakness, inexperience or preju- dice, to persuade him to do a thing that will likely turn out to be to his detriment and injury. He con- tends that heavy responsibility rests upon those who make it their business to influence the actions of men whose lives at the best are a hard struggle for existence, and who confide to them their interests. He knows that when a grievance against an employer is regarded as sufficient to advise a strike, that the organizer tells the members of the union that there is an ample fund away off somewhere to provide for them while the strike is on and until their demands are met by the employer. He has noticed that on first going out the strikers appear light-hearted and joyous and buoyant, and if it is picnic season, that THE WHITE SLAVEEY 151 they are likely to have a strikers picnic to kill the time they find upon their hands, which hangs heavy with them in a few days. He further observes in the course of the strike that as time passes and the employer does not yield to their demands, their buoy- ant countenances begin to change to expressions of sadness and disappointment. He also notices that a little later when the funds from the last payment from the employer whom they had voluntarily left on the advice of the organizer, have become ex- hausted, and grocery bills are coming in and other necessities for the family are needed, and still the employer does not yield, that they regard the situa- tion as more serious, and an expression of despera- tion comes over their countenances. With their coun- tenances taking on a deeper shade of disappointment and chagrin, these honest, brawny men are debating in their minds whether they shall go to the aid com- mittee for assistance from the benefit fund, or whether they shall seek other employment than that which they left, for to strong, industrious men it is a terri- ble trial of their pride to march up as mendicants to the aid committee to ask a pittance from the benefit or defense fund. The pittance that they get is doled out to them in such a grudging manner, and is so hu- miliating to their manhood, that rather than hang around labor headquarters and beg for it, many of them with overburdened hearts, either seek other em- ployment, drown their trouble in drink, or let their families suffer. In the course of a week or so when the cup of bitterness is nearly full, the strikers have a 152 THE WHITE SLAVERY meeting at labor headquarters, perhaps presided over by the organizer, and appoint a committee to call on the employer to find out how he stands and if there is a prospect of his weakening. He receives the com- mittee cordially and in the conference explains to them why it is impossible for him to yield to their demands. They return to labor headquarters and report the result of their conference, but endeavor to convey the impression to the public that the em- ployer is badly crippled in his business and will cer- tainly yield in a few days. Early in the strike the union appoints certain of its members as pickets to watch the employers plant or place of business to intercept and endeavor to persuade with clubs and sticks any independent workers who may be going there to seek employment, to turn back. If the inde- pendent workers slip in and go to work for the em- ployer, the strikers sometimes become desperate on finding it out, and go in squads to attack them, then a fierce conflict ensues, ending in the death or injury of one or more on a side, and the calling in of the law officers to intervene and restore order. For sev- eral weeks perhaps the strikers hang around labor headquarters discussing all kinds of schemes for compelling the employer to take them back by mak- ing some kind of concession, and if he does not, how they will cripple his business or destroy his prop- erty. In his investigation the independent worker finds that if the employer was inclined to take back his striking employees by making some concessions, he is afraid to do it for fear that they will regard THE WHITE SLAVEEY 153 his act as weakness and prove disloyal to him again on some pretext which can always be easily raised. There are nearly always one or more saloons near labor headquarters frequented by the strikers, and the investigating worker observes that a strike in- variably produces utter demoralization of the men engaged in it, and that it is during such labor dis- turbances that criminal acts are of most frequent occurrence, often too of a very shocking kind. The independent worker finds that when regularly employed, the members of a union are assessed for defense funds, fees and other matters connected with their standing in the organization, which makes a heavy drain on their wages, and curtails the amounts which would otherwise be expended in comforts for the family and in keeping up the insurance benefits to draw on when sick or out of employment. It is difficult to conceive of the masters of the union slavery doing a meaner or more heartless thing than to bring men who were making an honest living to the conditions we have insufficiently described, and then abandon them to start life again. After formu- lating their gievances, if the organizer had honestly laid before the members not only the possibility, but the probability of their losing the strike, if he had truthfully laid before them the exact amount each would receive from the defense fund, and just how long it would hold out, and the probability of the severe hardships they and their families would be obliged to endure, and advised them to take a secret ballot, they would likely have hesitated in voting to 154 THE WHITE SLAVERY strike. A man who could advise men to go on strike under the conditions stated, without any effort of protecting them against loss, is without sympathy and a sense of justice, and is the kind of man who would persecute his neighbor and prevent him from securing employment because he believes in depend- ing on his own independence, energy and initiative. Looking over the principles and policies and the general working of uinonism, the independent worker finds nothing in it inviting, nothing that should induce a free man to surrender his independ- ence and freedom for a form of slavery in some re- spects as debasing as negro slavery. CHAPTER XI. THE UNIONS DESTRUCTIVE OF SOCIAL ORDER. In these enlightened and altruistic times we read with amazement that, leaders in the church a few centuries ago, devout, religious men, counselled their followers to not keep faith with those of different religious belief. No matter how strong the obliga- tion might be for one man to discharge a given con- tract or agreement, and no matter how solemn the promise that he would discharge that contract or agreement, he was commended and justified by the keeper of his conscience in not keeping it if the other man differed with him in religion, and did not indorse the dominant religion of the country. It will perhaps be difficult for many good, intelli- gent people to believe that here in the full light of the Twentieth Century, those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, are teaching this same doctrine of the Dark and Mediaeval Ages, of not keeping faith with those outside the ranks of the organization. Let those who would be further informed on the subject, read the testimony of strik- ing employees before the Anthracite Coal Strike Com- mission of 1902, which had for its purpose an investi- gation of the causes which led to the strike and the 155 156 THE WHITE SLAVERY conditions that existed in that region prior to and during the strike. In the report of that commission it is shown by the testimony of many witnesses that organizers from the west went among the miners and persuaded them to strike and attack the prosperity of a company against whom they had no grievance ; a company that had established an employees insur- ance fund, and had been generous with its employees in many other ways. This action of those who con- trolled and directed the principles and policies of the unions of the Anthracite Coal regions, is typical of the action of the unions in general in this country, in regard to keeping faith with employers and those opposed to their oppressive and tyrannical methods. An organization that is constantly striving to keep up a spirit of persecution against those who refuse to surrender their industrial freedom and join it; that refuses to be bound by solemn agreements, agree- ments of its own seeking, entered into with em- ployers, and refuses to keep faith with and denies equal rights to industrial freedom to those outside its ranks, is a constant menace to social order and indus- trial peace. We are liable to deceive ourselves with the thought that we are fortunate in not living in an age of almost universal ignorance, or in the tempest- uous times of religious persecution when the cruelties of the Inquisition were practiced. We have only to look around us to see that we have in those who con- trol and direct the principles and policies of the unions, an element of cruelty and persecution whose acts are as fierce and unsympathetic as were the acts THE WHITE SLAVEEY 157 of the leaders of religious persecution of the Dark Ages. An organization that in order to enforce its unjust and unlawful demands that freemen surren- der their industrial and commercial freedom, under- takes to bring into operation its rack and thumb- screw of the boycott to starve women and children because their husbands and fathers refuse to sell themselves as slaves and join it, cannot possibly be considered by thoughtful, intelligent, level-headed men in any other light than an evil, and as destruc- tive of social order. Those who control and direct the principles and policies of this organization, have used it in times of strikes to intimidate and overawe communities, and by invoking the boycott, they have driven the daughters of Civil War soldiers and inde- pendent workers from employment as teachers in the public schools and in factories. They have prevented physicians from attending the sick, and interfered with the burial of the dead of those against whom their poisonous influences were directed. They have frequently brought about conditions in communities that deprived many families of the opportunity of obtaining the necessaries of life, and compelled fathers who were willing and anxious to work, to see their little ones suffer from hunger because no one dared to sell them food. They have been part- ners with their thugs and sluggers in the commission of atrocious crimes and cruelties against innocent men, women and children, which have rarely been exceeded by the acts of savages the lowest in the scale of human intelligence. This survival of the 158 THE WHITE SLAVERY savage, primitive, unsympathetic instinct in so con- siderable a class of our people, shows that we have not made as much progress towards higher ethical standards as could be desired. It shows too, that there is plenty of work for those who wish to enlist in the army of rational altruism for the purpose of lifting up all classes to that higher ethical standard which demands that the liberty of each shall be lim- ited only by the like liberty of all; which demands that no man shall ask more rights or privileges than he is willing to concede to all others, and which de- mands that all shall respect each others equal rights. All fair-minded people will agree that more effective restraining influences should be applied to checking the savage, lawless instinct of unionism, as it is now controlled and directed by the masters until it can be impressed with higher ethical ideas and shows signs of possessing a sense of justice and right. This survival of the savage instinct, that revels in the bloody persecution of those opposed to it, and in the destruction and waste of property and social dis- order, and takes no account of justice and right, must every where be met by firmness and decision and made to feel that it should give up its teachings of hate, and strive for the prize of good will and com- mon fellowship among men. There is not a single feature of the unions, as now controlled and directed by the masters, that tends to social stability and mutual confidence and respect of men for each others equal rights to industrial and commercial freedom, without which there can be no THE WHITE SLAVEEY 159 progress and no satisfactory relations between men in the ever increasing sociological division of labor. No pirate captain ever sailed the seas under colors more false than those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions and carry on their war of selfishness, greed and hate, under the flag of union labor. In a few years the masters have caused greater losses and more suffering to the people of this country, than all the losses to commerce by pirates who sailed the seas from ancient times, down to the last captain and his crew who carried at the mast head of their ship the black flag with skull and crossbones. There are hundreds of communities in which the people had lived in peace and mutual re- spect for each other until the union organizer came along and organized a union out of the weak-minded, violent, discontented and vicious elements, and ord- ered them out on a strike with instructions to intimi- date and assault all who showed a disposition to take their places. As soon as the poison with which their feeble and vicious minds had been infected, began to take effect, they were ready to present de- mands on their employer with which he could not comply without feeling that he was submitting to a disagreeable form of slavery. On his refusal to com- ply with the demands made on him, the organizer has called the men out on strike and ordered them to picket the plant or place of business of the offend- ing employer; to intercept all independent workers who seek employment to fill the places of the strikers, and to warn them at the peril of their lives to keep 160 THE WHITE SLAVERY away. All independent workers who may have taken the places of the strikers, and do not promise when intercepted by the pickets, to not return to work, are assaulted and beaten or murdered. If the em- ployer holds out, lawlessness and violence increase until there is almost complete suspension of business in the community, for the manager of the strike hopes to bring about such intolerable conditions that the public will intervene to force the employer to yield. If the public will not undertake to coerce the employer to yield at the suggestions of the strike manager, then after some meetings of the committee of the striking employees with the organizer, the strikers and hired thugs of the union try to dynamite or destroy the employer's property. This reign of terror inaugurated by the strike manager, may last from a few weeks to a year, during which time nearly all peaceable, law-abiding, property-owning citizens feel insecure in their persons and property. It would perhaps in nearly every instance be cheaper to the community and to the employer if, the very moment the organizer infected his employes with disloyalty to his interests, and got them to join the union and ready to make their demands, he would close down his business indefinitely. This method has worked admirably in many instances, and saved employers and communities much trouble and loss and brought home to some employees a sense of their folly in surrendering their industrial freedom and giving their allegiance to the masters of the union slavery, who are interested in keeping them de- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 161 pendent. Here is an illustration out of many cases in which the employer beat the tyrants of the unions in their game of hold up. A manufacturer of stoves employing thirty or forty men, had been doing a good business for several years, and his employees were well paid, happy and contented, and some had paid and others were paying for their homes. They were fairly treated, satisfied with their wages, and had no complaint to make against their employer. An organizer of the national federation came along and had a long tale of woe of the wrongs of laboring men, talked to the employees about grinding toil, sweat shops and scab labor and organized them into a union before the employer knew what was being done. When the organizer got all the men into the union and bound as securely as slaves were ever bound by African chiefs who sold their people, he went to the employer and told what he had done, and that he now had some demands to make upon him in regard to regulating the scale of wages, the hours of labor, the number apprentices allowed, and the priv- ilege of the union officials to inspect his books. The employer listened patiently and told him to state fully his demands and he would give them careful consideration. In addition to regulating the scale of wages, the hours of labor, and the number of ap- prentices allowed, the organizer with an air of authority told the employer that he would be re- quired to show him his books and lay open to him his business. As the employer had been in the habit of running his business in accordance with his own 162 THE WHITE SLAVERY views to make it successful, he naturally demurred to the proposition of having his affairs supervised by an ignorant, irresponsible alien and outsider, and told the organizer that he would require some time to think the matter over, and asked the consequences if he could not see his way clear to comply with the demands made upon him. With an air of authority and importance the organizer replied that he could not wait long for an answer, and that on refusal to comply with his demands, he would immediately call the men out on strike. Having the spirit of free manhood in him, the employer replied all right, that he was not obliged to keep his business running; that it was a dull season of the year when his bus- iness was slack; that considerable repairs to his plant were necessary any way, and that he then and there declared his plant closed down indefinitely. Of course the organizer was greatly chagrined for having thrown all the men out of their jobs, and his usefulness to the cause in making slaves in that locality was at an end for awhile. A few months afterwards the employer reopened his plant and took back singly only men in whom he had confi- dence, and men whom he believed would be loyal to his interests, should they again be approached by an organizer to induce them to sell themselves. This is one out of the thousands of ways in which the masters of the union slavery annoy, hamper, and attempt to take charge of the business of hard work- ing men until the slavery has become such an intol- erable oppression that most intelligent people would THE WHITE SLAVEEY 163 like to see its power destroyed. If some plan could be devised for keeping the hands of the masters out of the pockets of the poor, simple-minded members of the unions and robbing them of their wages, it would be millions of dollars every year to these peo- ple who need ail their wages for the support of their families, besides it would lessen the losses to the public many millions of dollars annually. It would also make it impossible for the masters of the union slavery to work up so much social dis- order, treason, violence and bloodshed, in their schemes to force the public to pay tribute to their desperate piracy. There is beginning to be an awak- ening of the public conscience to the insolent and insufferable conduct of the masters in their frequent attacks on the prosperity of communities and indi- viduals, and in bringing about almost daily in some community, a condition of anarchy, violence and loss of life, frequently appaling losses of life by the wrecking of passenger trains and street cars, and the blowing up with dynamite of railroad stations, and bridges and the homes of citizens who have in- curred the curse of the unions. It has long been known to those who have studied questions of economics that slave labor is not as efficient or productive and profitable to an em- ployer, as intelligent free labor, and business men and manufacturers are coming gradually to note the fact that the labor of the union slaves on account of their policy of making work, slovenly, slouchy work, the waste and the indifference and disloyalty to the 164 THE WHITE SLAVERY interests of employers, is becoming less efficient and productive and less profitable, as compared with the work of free and independent workers who depend upon their efficiency and loyalty to the interests of their employers to hold them to their jobs, and to commend them for promotion. It is an old saying and a true one that no man can loyally serve two masters. In the very nature of things it is impos- sible that men whose first allegiance is to their union, and whose teachings by their masters lead them to regard their employer as an enemy whose rights they are not bound to respect, should serve him as faithfully and efficiently, as free, independent men who regard him as their friend and willing to reward them according to their merit. The policy of the masters of the union slavery to create distrust between employer and employee, or that would have an employee regard his employer as an enemy, is cer- tainly destructive of social order and stability. It is destructive of social order and stability for the mas- ters of the union slavery to send out their hired thugs and sluggers, to assault, knock down and pour car- bolic acid in the mouth of an independent worker, as was done in Chicago, and assault, knock down, kick and beat and gouge out an eye of an independ- ent worker and leave it hanging on his cheek, as was done at another time, and to cause a death and injury list of thousands of men, women and children in a few years. Such conduct of organized labor is destructive of social order and stability. There is here a field for missionary work of the THE WHITE SLAVERY 165 most pressing need, which should engage the atten- tion of all religious teachers and professors in col- leges and universities, and all men of altruistic in- clinations, who would like to see developed in our people a broader fellowship and sympathy, a fellow- ship and sympathy that would lift up and help along with words of kindness and encouragement, a stumb- ling brother, instead of giving him a push and a kick and an oath through grinding teeth, as is now too much the fashion. We should like to see some of the millions of dollars, and some of the vast amount of energy annually expended in converting the hea- then, diverted to home use and expended in teach- ing sympathy, charity, love and a broader fellowship among some millions of our own people who are daily fed on thoughts of prejudice and hatred of fellow- men and of the Government and flag that protects them by ten thousand organizers and officials of the unions. All things are growing or decaying, accumulating matter, or dissipating it, integrating or disintegrat- ing, gaining motion or losing motion, tending to com- plete concentration or complete diffusion. Every mass of matter from a pebble on the shore to a planet or sun, is radiating heat to other masses, and receiving and absorbing heat from other masses. Pursuing this line of thought we must admit that unionism is tending to strengthen the ties that bind our people together in common fellowship and inter- ests, or tending to dissolve those ties. The common man who runs may read that the tendency of union- 166 THE WHITE SLAVERY ism is to dissolve the ties that bind our people to- gether in common fellowship and interests, and to set them at each others' throats in the most primi- tive fashion. When we say that every aggregate is contracting or expanding, integrating or disintegrat- ing, we mean that it is receiving more heat or motion than it is radiating, or radiating more heat than it is receiving. So we say that while unionism is a force that constantly tends to dissolve the ties that bind our people together in common fellowship and interests, to undo what civilization has done, there are other forces in operation in the social aggregate which we may call rational altruism, which tends to bind men together in common fellow- ship and interests, tends to neutralize the antagonis- tic and disintegrating forces of unionism. Should unionism become more potential than rational altru- ism in our social aggregate, or the social aggregate radiate more heat than it receives, it would grad- ually become cold and lifeless as the moon or other masses that have radiated their heat. On the other hand should the social aggregate receive more heat than it radiates, it would gradually end in disinte- gration or diffiusion; the motion or life of the mass would be converted into motion of the molecules, or social units; as the corporate life ceased, there would be only individual life, and as corporate re- straint ceased, every man's hand would be raised against every other man as in a state of nature. CHAPTER XII. THE UNIONS A DISLOYAL ORGANIZATION. This statement will find ample verification in the acts of the unions, and not so much by anything found in their constitution and by-laws. The pro- fessions of innocence and declared purposes and aims of the federated unions " to be to render em- ployment and the means of subsistence less precari- ous by securing to workers an equitable share of the fruits of labor," are all simply platitudes and high-sounding phrases without meaning and in- tended to deceive the unsuspecting and uncritical, for the leaders know that the laws of the country guar- antee to every man equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, without needing any sup- plementary dicta of unionism. The declared pur- poses and aims of unionism as quoted, are false and misleading, for everybody who knows anything about the organization, knows that its purposes and aims are not to " secure to the workers an equitable share of the fruits of labor/* but to secure to a frac- tion and faction of labor, a fraction of about one- tenth of labor, called organized labor, a monopoly of labor, leaving nine-tenths of labor, free independ- ent labor, unprovided for. Stripped of its preten- sions, this labor trust organization is as preda- 167 168 THE WHITE SLAVERY tory as a band of Apaches and endeavors to seize everything in sight by disregarding the rights of all others to industrial and commercial freedom. While the laws of the States and the Nation are based on the conception of equal rights and justice to all, those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, undertake to come in and over-ride these laws by force, organized force, intimi- dation, assaults, murders, assassinations, and deter- mine who shall work and who shall not, who shall carry on his business as he sees fit without trespass- ing on the equal rights of others, and who shall not. In fact the proponents of unionism propose to sub- stitute for the will of all the people as embodied in the laws, their own will and their tyrannical and autocratic authority. They have had the shameless audacity to intimate that because communities that were terrorized and intimidated by the thugs and sluggers of the unions did not organize vigilance committees to resist union aggressions and outlawry, they were in sympathy with them. When the pro- ponents of the unions have set up a reign of terror and violence in a community, and the people have appealed to the constituted authorities for protec- tion, and when a force of sufficient strength has been sent to the locality to check the unlawful aggressions complained of, the masters have protested and howled declaring that the protecting force was not necessary, and demanding its withdrawal. An or- ganization that is constantly striving by force and fraud to substitute its will and authority for the THE WHITE SLAVEBY 169 authority of the peoples ' government, is unquestion- ably committing treason, and treason of the most odious kind. In this country treason is defined as levying actual war against the government, or ad- hering to its enemies and giving them aid and com- fort.* An organization that kills loyal citizens with- out any form of trial because they are loyal to their government, and because they refuse to comply with the unlawful demands of that organization, is a trea- sonable organization. There is very little difference between making and levying war. It is just as in- jurious to the man who pays the government for protection, to be deprived of his equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, by an internal *NOTE. In support of the contention that the union is dis- loyal organization, I quote from the decision of Justice Wright in the Buck's Stove and Range contempt case: " There is a studied, determined, defiant conflict precipitated in the light of open day, between the decrees of a tribunal ordained by the government of the Federal Union and of the tribunals of another federation, grown up in the land; one or the other must succumb." As showing that the members of the unions are taught by the leaders disloyalty to the Government, or that the authority of the unions is paramount to the authority of the General Government, I quote from the Square Deal Magazine for May 1909, p. 69, in the application of William Brooks of Westville, Illinois, a member of the Miners' Union, for naturalization papers in the United States Circuit Court before Justice Wright. Judge Wright asked Mr. Brooks the question : " If it came to a point where the union and the law should differ, an emergency which I don't apprehend will ever come to you, which would you follow, the union or the law?" " The union," answered the applicant with apparent feeling. The Judge said, " You, perhaps don't understand the question. If the union should say that one thing was right and the laws of the United States should say it was not, which would you follow, the union or the law of the land?" " The union," reiterated the applicant. 170 THE WHITE SLAVERY as by an external enemy. While we believe that many of the rank and file of labor organizations are at heart loyal to the government, we are satisfied that the leaders are the rankest kind of traitors ; for who is there that believes that in the decision of a question between their organization and the govern- ment, that they would elect to stand by the govern- ment? Indeed their conduct and expressions on many occasions have been of such a character as to justify all good citizens in regarding them as trai- tors to our country. Their public writings and their harangues to their followers, inciting them to riot and bloodshed and in attacking, assaulting and mur- dering independent workers; to the destruction of property, and the persecution of families, and their total want of respect or regard for the equal rights of others, are scarcely less excusable than open trea- son. It is painful to speak thus of men whom we should like to think of as simply over-zealous and enthusiastic for the sacred cause of labor, of which no man or set of men should have a monopoly, but which should be as free for all as air or light, instead of being held as a monoply by a set of men who never strike or never sweat as a means of exacting tribute from those who do work, by making them pay heavy fees for permission to work and to give a lien on their wages while permitted to work. One who accepts and conforms his conduct to the laws of the State until they are repealed or modified in a regular prescribed way, we consider a loyal citizen, but if he conspires with others to nullify and set at THE WHITE SLAVERY 171 defiance these laws by doing violence to those whom the laws were made to protect, he certainly can not be considered loyal to the State, and if he is not loyal, he must be disloyal. In the federated unions we have a sort of govern- ment within the general government, with its execu- tive head and executive departments and expensive staffs located at the capitol of the country, not for the purpose of strengthening the hands of the officers of the government in enforcing the laws made by the representatives of the people, but for the purpose of weakening, over-riding and nullifying those laws when they stand in the way of the violent acts of those who control the principles and policies of the unions in trampling upon the rights of those opposed to them. The " master of a million minds " not sat- isfied with the enormous losses he has caused to nearly every business by his guerilla warfare against the industrial prosperity of the country, and the suffering and poverty he has brought upon thous- ands of his own people, has thrown off the masque of hypocrisy and declares that he is going into poli- tics with the view of seizing control of the govern- ment in the interest of the unions and of downing all opposition to making them an excepted class, a class of special privileges. Indeed, in the recent election, he endeavored to defeat the present speaker of the lower house of Congress, the second highest office in the government, and had he been successful, it would probably have given him prestige sufficient to have enabled him to have dictated a successful 172 THE WHITE SLAVERY candidate of his own choice and subservient to his influence. From what we consider ample testimony, the unions are not only a disloyal organization, but they are an enemy to our government and a menace to our liberties. Indeed the conduct and expressions of the masters who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, are as treasonable as the conduct of Benedict Arnold, and if they are daily getting to be looked upon in that light by the great loyal heart of the country, they have only themselves to blame for it. We never hear from the lips of these traitors any warm expressions of reverence and respect for our flag, the symbol of liberty and equal rights among men every where, but on the con- trary they are in the habit of characterizing it as a rag, having no important significance, and of sub- stituting in its place in halls of discussion and in processions, the red flag of anarchy and socialism. We never hear of the masters praising that part of the Declaration of Independence, the very founda- tion of our Government, which states that " we hold these truths self-evident, that all men are created equal ;* that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. " It is disloyal conduct for the masters to send out their *We suppose that this expression " all men are created equal," was intended to mean by the authors, that all men are created with equal rights to justice, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The expression cannot be defended on any other supposition, for no two individuals are ever created equal in any other respect. THE WHITE SLAVERY 173 thugs, sluggers, murderers, and assassins to terror- ize communities and set up the authority of the unions as paramount to the authority of the peoples government, as they have been doing almost daily for years. It is disloyal conduct for the masters to harangue the union slaves and teach them to hate our government, its laws, its flag, and its courts, and to instruct them to hate and assault, murder and inhumanly maim, the loyal citizens of our country, and to burn and destroy their property. It is dis- loyal conduct for the masters to cause the discharge of young men from the unions because they belong to militia organizations requiring an oath of alle- giance to the State and National Governments, and to do all in their power to prevent young men of the country from joining the militia organizations, or from enlisting in the army or navy. Indeed if the masters ever draw a breath loyal to our government, or to the communities in which they live, or to any- thing except to their own selfish interests and greed, there is no visible evidence of it. They are disloyal to the interests of the communities where they live, for they make war on them and cripple or destroy their business and prosperity to satisfy their own insane vanity of importance and thirst for greed and power. They teach their white slaves to be disloyal to the interests of their employers, and not to keep faith with them when it suits their convenience, using such coarse expressions as ' ' To h 11 with con- tracts when the interests of the unions are at stake, * ' and to satisfy their own greed, they are disloyal to 174 THE WHITE SLAVERY the interests of their own slaves of the unions, for they rob and plunder and extort from them under various pretexts, their wages, which they know are needed for the support of the families of the men thus robbed, many of whom are poorly fed and clothed. Indeed they intercept the food going to the mouths of hungry children, which they know, or should know, rightfully belongs to them through the efforts of their fathers. It is disloyal conduct for the masters by threats, intimidations, or by any other means, to interfere with the liberty of men and prevent them from fitting their sons for useful and remunerative business or professions and good use- ful citizens, to prevent them from drifting into criminal and wasted lives. It is disloyal conduct for the officials of the labor trust to wage continual war on the industrial activities of the country for the purposes of giving less than ten per cent, of the laboring men a monopoly of all the work, leaving more than ninety per cent, unprovided for. It is dis- loyal conduct for the masters of the white slavery to interfere in any manner with the rights and liber- ties of independent workers, rights and liberties guaranteed to them by our constitution, to work for whom and under such terms as may please them, without being intercepted by union pickets and threatened and beaten and insulted, going to and re- turning from work. An organization that is disloyal to the government that gives it protection and shelter; that is disloyal to the communities from which it asks support; and THE WHITE SLAVERY 175 disloyal to the interests of the employers whom it desires to give its members employment, will cer- tainly not long find favor with an intelligent and free people who do not ask more rights and priv- ileges than they are willing to concede to all others. An organization whose members are regarded as aliens and enemies to the best interests of commun- ities and to the common welfare, and as slaves of masters whose greed and meanness knows no bounds of decency, must gradually bring upon itself a repu- tation so foul as to make intelligent and decent peo- ple shudder to think of having anything to do with it. When we see so many of our people engaged in altruistic works of every kind, from the lessening of the burdens and enforcing kindlier treatment of our domestic animals up to their efforts of bettering the conditions of our unfortunate classes of every kind and degree, and then turn to the leaders of organized labor, and look at their work of crime and blood and the teaching of hatred for all that the rational, sane man regards as good, it makes the heart sick; it impresses us that the evolution of the moral sentiment, has been very slow in a considerable part of our race. The unfortunate part of it all is, that the teachers of hate and selfishness, have by false promises and foul manipulations secured con- trol of the minds and bodies of many of the unfor- tunate classes and turned them with evil intentions and conduct against their benefactors. The men of brains who have worked and saved to get a little ahead, are the men who pay the taxes to 176 THE WHITE SLAVERY provide for and support the charitable institutions, for the unfortunate, and who support the public schools which educate the children of the unfortu- nate and feeble-minded classes, and who furnish work for those classes. In the struggle for existence in a state of nature, the imperfect and unfortunate mem- bers drop out, when the competition for subsistence is severe, and only those fitted for the conditions survive. And we are approaching a time when it will be a serious question as to how the burden borne by the competent in caring for the incompetent and in restraining the vicious and criminally inclined, may be lightened. The burden might be greatly lightened by forcing the men who never strike or never sweat, to take and keep their hands from the throats and pockets of the unfortunate and simple- minded classes which they have brought into the union slavery, and allow them to enjoy the wages of their toil. We know how to improve the breeds of our domestic animals and plants ; we do not allow the scrubs and worthless to multiply and perpetuate their kind, and we hope by a similar process of weeding out the imperfect, to improve our race, that is, by preventing men and women of certain mental or physical imperfections from multiplying. This process of weeding out the imperfect and undesir- ables which has no cruel features in it, would effect- ually eliminate the anarchist, the walking delegate, the organizer, and the wild-eyed socialist, in one or two generations. There are now thousands of men and women who are conscious of their imperfections, THE WHITE SLAVEBY 177 who have sense and interest enough in the common welfare, not to wish to transmit and perpetuate tliem. When we see men like the masters of the union slavery who show no more interest in the common welfare than the bandit or alien and consider the classes from which they draw recruits for their league of hate and selfishness, we are impressed that their power for mischief is very great, and that the evil should be treated by scientific methods. Indeed, their conduct in general is that of aliens or disloyal men who feel no interest in common with the com- munity, and who do not feel distress as all loyal citizens when business is paralyzed by a strike and the demons of hate, murder and destruction are turned loose by the teachers of envy, hate and self- ishness, to do their fiendish and bloody work, in the name of union labor. These aliens and traitors of our country are loud in their denunciations of the courts for issuing re- straining orders to prevent them and their fellow thugs and sluggers from committing crimes against persons and property, ignoring the fact patent to every man of common sense, that the injunctions or restraining orders would not apply to them if they had no intention of committing the crimes com- plained of. The courts never issue a writ of injunc- tion or a restraining order to prevent men from com- mitting crime except on the complaint of some rep- utable person that he has reason to believe that the parties named in the complaint, are about to com- mit a crime, a crime too for which adequate com- 178 THE WHITE SLAVEEY pensation could not be made. It is not likely that a reputable business man would make complaint against innocent men who had always led blameless lives and were in no way connected with a criminal organization, that they were about to commit a crime on persons or property, and should be restrained. A loyal, honest, law-abiding man who has no intention of crime in his heart will find no ground for com- plaint against these injunctive orders of the courts. Indeed the very fact of opposition to such injuc- tive orders is a confession of guilty intention. And when the masters order their union slaves to ignore the injunctive orders of the courts, they are com- mitting treason as much as by firing upon the flag, a form of treason too, which must be firmly met or representative government must end in shame. Any concessions made by the friends of law and order and of equal rights, to the masters of the union slav- ery, who are constant^ demanding that the mem- bers of labor organizations shall have special priv- ileges to trespass upon and ignore the rights of all citizens outside the unions, are certain to be regarded as due to weakness and fear, and to be followed by demands for further concessions until every freeman yields up his freedom. Any demands made by the masters on legislative bodies, municipal, state or na- tional, should be resisted on the general principle that the demands are made by the representatives of a disloyal organization, and that the concession demanded can not be shown to be in the interest of all the people. CHAPTER XIII. THE PESSIMISM OF THE UNIONS. A pessimist is a person who looks at the dark side and takes a gloomy view of everything and sees no good in anything; who regards life more of a curse than a blessing; who doubts whether life is worth living; who never takes a cheerful view of anything and who never laughs or smiles; who never looks for a betterment of social conditions, but of their continually growing worse ; who magnifies a molehill of evil into a mountain of evil ; who never makes an introspective examination of himself to lay bare the evils of his own conduct; who never has a word of praise or encouragement for any one ; who never has an ideal of any kind worth striving for; one whose digestion is bad and who is at outs with himself and all the world ; one who sees no good in altruistic acts with the view of improving the race and securing for it increase of happiness, and who sees in the altru- istic acts of others, an ulterior purpose of selfishness. Now those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, seem to possess these con- ceptions of the pessimist in almost every particular. While most intelligent civilized men regard idleness as an evil and demoralizing to the individual, and work as pleasant and beneficial to him, the repre- 179 180 THE WHITE SLAVERY sentatives of the unions are constantly talking about " grinding toil and sweat shops," as if it was an evil and kind of horrible slavery to which their members are consigned by some kind of evil genius; some Sisyphus who keeps them rolling the stone to the top of the hill to roll it back upon them again to renew the never ending task. It takes a clever mind to detect the trick of the prestidigitator, even when we know that his performance is a trick; but it per- haps takes equally as bright a mind to detect the trick of the labor agitator who takes the feeble- minded and incompetent and holds them up to the gaze of the multitude and declares that these are the men who are the slaves of grinding toil, who have been ground down to their sad condition by the iron heel of capital, and that these are the men for whom the unions are fighting, while at the same time the prestidigitator is picking the pockets of the men for whom he pretends to have so much sympathy. It is these men, the incompetent and feeble-minded, that labor agitators control and use as a club to drive competent and worthy men into the ranks of the unions. It is perhaps these men to whom "the master of a million minds" in his gloomy forecast refers when he speaks of "the workman who toils for wages and expects to end his days in the wage- earning class, as conditions seem to point." It seems possible that these men might be enrolled into some kind of an organization, which, under the guidance of men of highly developed altruistic natures, could be useful to themselves and to society; but the pro- THE WHITE SLAVERY 181 priety of society allowing them to be used by selfish, unprincipled men as a club to control the actions of men capable of managing their own affairs, and of enjoying their independence and freedom, is not only doubtful, but is positively negatived. A moment's reflection should satisfy any thoughtful person that the improvement of the condition of these men who are easy victims of the union leaders, should have been undertaken before they were born. Every man with sympathy in his nature must pro- foundly regret this waste and wreckage of our race ; but the man with a well-balanced mind will not allow it to dwell on this sad picture to the exclu- sion of all that is good and beautiful around him; will not allow these incidental features, these neces- sary features of evolving social life, to cloud his mind with darkest pessimism. We should do all in our power to see to it that there shall be less of this waste and wreckage of our race in the coming gen- erations, and to also see to it that the vampires of the unions shall be prevented from living off of the toil of these unfortunate men. We cannot think of a left hand without thinking of a right hand, and we cannot think of a society without thinking of it having men of all shades of intelligence from the mind nearly a blank up to the mind of a Newton who enunciates laws of matter, motion and force by which the movements and positions of planets in their orbits are calculated and foretold with accuracy for hundreds or even thousands of years in the future. This pessimism with which the unions have always 182 THE WHITE SLAVERY been afflicted ; which prevents them from seeing any good in anything or anybody outside their own ranks, which regards life more of a curse than a blessing, and with which they would infect all others, belongs to that side of our nature which has not the moral courage to face difficulties, or to dive into the fathomless depths of the deep and "drag up drowned honor by the locks." We ought not perhaps be surprised at this organized pessimism of the unions; this survival of almost universal pessimism, when we reflect that up to recent times, the peoples from whom we have descended, were nearly all pessimists; took a very gloomy view of life; looked upon life as a journey through a vale of tears, and regarded life as rather more of a curse than as a blessing. Our ancestors, however, differed from the modern pessimists of the unions in this: that they inflicted pain and suffering upon them- selves, like the Flagellants of the Middle Ages, with no thought of making others suffer, whereas the mod- ern pessimists of the unions inflicts pain and suffer- ing upon themselves for the distinct purpose of making whole communities suffer. But all the pes- simism is not in the unions. To understand why we have so much pessimism among us, we must go back for a moment and look at the condition of the peoples, of the nations from whom we have descended during the long, terrible night of darkness, gloom, affliction, terror and de- spair, through which they passed during the Dark Ages of the eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth and four- THE WHITE SLAVERY 183 teenth centuries. In the religious wars of the Cru- sades for the possession of the Holy Sepulchre and Holy Land, which lasted from the first to the end of the seventh Crusade, about two hundred years in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, during which time Europe was precipitated upon Asia, the Cross upon the Crescent, Christendom upon Mohammedanism, the best blood of the nations of Europe was sacri- ficed, and with it approximately one hundred mil- lions of lives. When the nations of Europe had exhausted themselves in the long and destructive wars of the Crusades, and had fairly commenced to rehabilitate themselves, to rebuild their cities and towns, and improve their feudal estates, which had fallen into decay, a new affliction came upon them with crushing weight, the Oriental Plague, known as the Great Mortality, or Black Death, from the symp- toms manifested, which lasted with extraordinary violence during a period of about fourteen years (1347-60), from China to the western shores of Eu- rope, claiming as victims forty to fifty millions of people. A few years prior to the breaking out of this terrible plague a succession of extraordinary meteorological conditions and unusual natural phe- nomena prevailed in all the countries from China to the Atlantic. The foundations of the earth were shaken; there were subterraneous thunders, destruc- tive earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, meteors of such extraordinary brilliancy as to be visible in the day- time; terrible drouths, and famines with the starva- tion of millions of people, followed by seasons of 184 THE WHITE SLAVEEY torrential rains, causing the overflowing of rivers and streams and inundations of their valleys far beyond their former high water marks, submerging cities and towns, causing great loss of life and prop- erty. These extraordinary convulsions and disturb- ances of the forces of nature, and terrifying natural phenomena in an age of dense ignorance and super- stition and mental weakness; in an age too, when the strongest and best men had been carried away by the religious fanaticism that led them to sacrifice their lives in the wars of the Crusades, had helped to prepare the minds of the people for that deeper pessimism which came upon them during and follow- ing the terrible affliction of the Oriental Plague or Black Death, which claimed its millions of victims of every nation of Europe. There had been other destructive plagues in nearly every century of his- toric times ; but the mortality from the Black Death Plague was so great that some of the countries of Europe lost in a few years from one-half to two- thirds or three-fourths of their population. Indeed in some instances the populations of entire cities and communities were wiped out, and ships lost all their crews and were seen drifting about in the Mediter- ranean and North Seas, spreading the plague where they touched the shores. The long wars of the Cru- sades had continually selected out the best of the population of Europe for nearly two hundred years, leaving at home the mentally and physically weak to multiply and perpetuate their kind, so that when the Black Death broke out with such extraordinary THE WHITE SLAVERY 185 violence and fatal effects, which was without a par- allel and beyond description, the mental shock was so great that many fell victims from fear on the ap- pearance of the first symptoms of the attack. These awful conditions of horror, fear, dread, distress and despair, were not confined to a few isolated com- munities ; but as the plague rapidly spread, they pre- vailed over all the countries of Europe. We are told in the chronicles of the times by those who attempted to describe the symptoms and prognosis of the dis- ease, that it infected the air, and that flight was of no avail to those who fled from their homes, because the germs of the distemper adhered to them and they fell sick and died unattended. In the early part of this great scourge when all the countries of Europe were full of desolation, anguish, suffering, lamenta- tions and woe, and involved in the deepest pessimism, there arose in Hungary and afterwards in Germany, the Brotherhood of the Flagellants, or Brotherhood of the Cross, who " took upon themselves the repent- ance of the people for the sins they had committed, and offered prayers and supplications for the avert- ing of the plague." In a short time these Brother- hoods of Flagellants appeared in nearly all the coun- tries of Europe, marching in well organized proces- sions of hundreds, thousands and tens of thousands, with leaders and singers, through the cities, bearing torches and magnificent banners of velvet and cloth of gold, and uttering as they marched the doleful melancholy chant of the deeply penitent. They spread the plague to all the places where they con- 186 THE WHITE SLAVEEY ducted their pilgrimages. They are described as be- ing robed in sombre garments, their heads covered as far as the eyes, their eyes directed to the ground, with expressions of deepest contrition and mourning, each with a red cross on the breast and back and cap, and each carrying a scourge of leathern thongs with three or four knots in it, which they applied to their limbs amid sighs and tears, with such force as to cause the blood to trickle from the wounds. They soon, however, became troublesome to the church and secular authorities. Vice and corruption crept into the order of these religious fanatics. Crimes and excesses were committed by them everywhere, and gradually they ceased to excite reverence and aston- ishment and were no longer welcomed to the cities by the ringing of bells and public demonstrations in their honor. Indeed they fell into such disfavor that their public penances were interdicted by the Pope and they passed out of notice before the closing years of the Black Death pestilence. We should mention that along with the terrible Black Death tragedy, there subsisted a tragedy which, while less destructive of human life, than the former, was of a character that shows the depths to which the human mind had dwindled in its pes- simistic view of life, in the horrible and bloody per- secution of the Jews. The pious humility, lamenta- tions and woe in the midst of the indescribable scenes of the plague, did not lessen in the breasts of devout Christians, their thirst for blood and ven- geance against those who were opposed to the dom- THE WHITE SLAVERY 187 inant religion of the times. We are told in the chron- icles and by the historians of the times that the Jews were accused of bringing the Great Mortality upon the Christians by poisoning the wells and infecting the air with disease. In most of the countries of Europe they were persecuted with relentless cruelty by the Christians and slaughtered and burnt alive by hundreds and thousands and their gold coin and treasure confiscated. It is stated that at Strasburg two thousand were burned alive in their own burial ground, and that at Mayence twelve thousand were cruelly put to death. After the passing of the Black Death Plague, the vanishing of the Brotherhood of the Flagellants, and the extermination of the Jews, the surviving peoples of the almost depopulated countries of Europe, were left in a debilitated, morbid nervous condition. While the effects of the plague were still felt, and the graves of its millions of victims were scarcely all closed, there arose in Germany a strange mental disorder which took possession of the minds and bodies of men and women, causing them to display various kinds of convulsive movements, as leaping and dancing and contortions of the most extraordin- ary character. This demoniacal malady known as the Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages, at the time it was prevalent " was called the dance of St. John or St. Vitus, on account of the Bacchantic leaps by which it was characterized, and which gave those affected, while performing their wild dance, and screaming and foaming, all the appearance of per- 188 THE WHITE SLAVERY sons possessed!" It was stated by observers that while the attack lasted, those affected appeared to lose control of their senses of sight and hearing, and that when they came to themselves they claimed that they did not know what they had been doing, " but felt as if they had been immersed in streams of blood," causing them to leap with the utmost exer- tion. Nearly all asserted that they had been haunted by visions of spirits of some kind or other, or that during the paroxisms the heavens had opened to them, and that they had seen the Savior enthroned with the Virgin Mary. This mental disorder seems to have been contagious by sight from sympathy, for wherever the St. Vitus dancers appeared, their ranks were rapidly recruited from the hundreds and thousands, who from curiosity, flocked to the churches and streets to witness their extraordinary conduct. They are described as forming in circles hand in hand, and losing control of their senses, to dance for hours in wild delirium until they fell down from exhaustion. After falling from exhaustion they complained of extreme oppression and groaned and writhed as if in the agonies of death, until the swathing cloth, which each carried, was applied tightly bound around the waist to relieve the tym- pany which followed each spasmodic raving. As this mental disorder spread over several of the coun- tries of Europe, swarms of the St. Vitus dancers strolled from town to town and were frequently passing through the cities day and night accompanied by noisy musicians playing on bagpipes and other THE WHITE SLAVERY 189 rude instruments which tended to rouse their morbid feelings. We almost invariably hear of music in con- nection with the performances of the dancers, and the testimony of many observers shows that it was an important factor in exciting the dancing fit, and from the effects of which the patients were thrown into a state of convulsions. It also had the effect of contributing to the continuance and spread of the malady; of originating and increasing the viol- lence of the paroxysms, and was sometimes the cause of their mitigation. Music has always had the effect of giving expression to the feelings, and that lively melodies or airs accompanied by the shrill tones of the fife and trumpet, containing transitions from slow to quick measure, and passing from a high to a low key, would excite those affected into the utmost fury of dancing. Think of the streets of the cities filled with thous- ands of these mad fanatics, dancing with wild de- monical fury, and we have a scene which would require the highest skill of the artist to depict with accuracy. Those affected with the disorder had some aversions which they did not hesitate to manifest on suitable occasions. They could not tolerate red, and persons dressed in red coming into their pres- ence, they flew at with such fury as if bent on tear- ing off the clothing which excited their animosity. They also had a morbid dislike for the pointed shoes which had come into fashion since the breaking out of the Black Death Plague, and would not tolerate any other than squared toed shoes, so that an ex- 190 THE WHITE SLAVERY press ordinance was issued that no one should make any other than squared toed shoes, a morbid notion that is matched at the present time by the unions making laws prohibiting any one from working who does not belong to their organization, and would not allow any manufactured article of common use sold or offered for sale that does not bear the union label. The Dancing Mania in Italy, known as Tarantism, appeared at Apulia about the middle of the fifteenth century, and spreading over different provinces as an epidemic, lasted more than two centuries. While the symptoms and manifestations of those afflicted with the malady, were almost identical with those of the St. Vitus dancers, the Tarantists believed or imagined that their disease was caused by the bite of the tarantula, a species of ground spider then found in some parts of Italy. They, like the St. Vitus dancers, had a morbid longing for music, and an ab- horrence for certain colors, and went into ecstasies at the sight of others. We cannot dwell on these nervous disorders, but must pass on and barely men- tion the Dancing Mania or Tigretier of Abyssina, the Convulsionaires of France (1727-90), and Choria, Sancti Viti, or St. Vitus dance, a form of intense re- ligious enthusiasm that swept over parts of 'Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky as an epidemic the early part of last century, persons now living having heard their grand parents refer to it. Passing over the lesser outbreaks of these nervous disorders and mental de- lusions, which perhaps lie latent in a majority of the people to be called into activity under suitable THE WHITE SLAVEEY 191 conditions, we come to the most recent outbreak of them, which appeared under the name of populism, following close upon the almost universal pervalence of La Grippe, and the unusual drouth that affected a large part of the farming population of the middle west, and by reaction all other interests. In Kansas, a State having a population of unusual intelligence and a fine sense of honor, a majority perhaps of those owing debts, were seized with a desire and deter- mination to repudiate them or scale them, so thor- oughly was the nervous disease or mental delusion developed by the ranting and foaming at the mouth of those who always appear on the scene when the conditions are favorable for pouring out their pessi- mistic lamentations. It may be asked why mention these nervous dis- orders and mental delusions extending back through the centuries, in connection with unionism? We re- ply, simply to show that perhaps a majority of per- sons are susceptible of having developed in them these nervous disorders and mental delusions, which when controlled by evil-minded men, may hurry the patient on into deepest pessimism and ruin, such as we see manifested by the unions. Even some of the leaders of the unions who are more gifted with lo- quacity than good judgment, may half believe in the absurdities and pernicious doctrines they are con- stantly preaching, such for instance that organized labor should have special privileges and immunities over independent labor; that state and municipal authorities should discriminate in favor of union 192 THE WHITE SLAVEEY labor in letting out public work. Every sensible man knows that there is no merit in unionism as it now exists, not more than there was in the Brother- hood of the Flagellants, the St. Vitus dancers, or the Tarantists; that it is largely an organization of violent, vicious and feeble-minded, controlled and manipulated by bad men to drive good worthy men into it, and who pretend that they are friends of the laboring man, but who in reality are his worst enemy, and do more to bring suffering and hardships upon laboring men and their families by throwing the men out of work in ordering them out on strikes, and otherwise robbing them of their wages, than all other causes put together. Only those who take a pessimistic view of life, could urge their fellowmen to hate their benefactors or those who enable them to earn an honest living ; to hate the government and the flag and courts that gives them protection, to hate the honest man who loves to work and support his family; to hate the man who will not starve his wife and children to give his wages to men who never strike or never sweat; to hate the man who will not do as little work as possible for his employer to hold his job; to hate the man who loves independence and free- dom and refuses to pay labor officials heavy fees for permission to work and to give a lien on his wages while permitted to work; to hate a member who would be tender-hearted about wrecking a passenger train, dynamiting a street car, bridge, a home, or railroad station, for the purpose of striking terror THE WHITE SLAVERY 193 into the minds of those who would dare question the methods of union labor. No one except those who take a pessimistic view of life, would show such supreme selfishness as to wish to appropriate the means of happiness of nine-tenths of their f ellowmen, or would wish to prevent nine-tenths of their fellow- men from earning an honest living to support their families, or would demand more rights, privileges and immunities than they are willing to concede to all others. No one except those who take a pessimis- tic view of life, could deliberately and maliciously destroy the prosperity of communities and individ- uals, and wholly disregard the common welfare for the purpose of enforcing unjust and unlawful de- mands in order to make himself one of a favored class. CHAPTER XIV. THE GENERAL AND STATE GOVERNMENTS SUFFICIENT. We cannot even think of unionism without asking ourselves, Are the General and State Governments sufficient to secure to every citizen his rights and justice? This question is an issue between those who give their allegiance to the General and State Governments and those who give their allegiance to the unions. It is here held that the laws of the country have been enacted with the view of secur- ing to every man equal rights and justice, and to protect every man in his equal rights. It is truly a satisfaction to know that we have been able to secure the enactment of such just laws, and the enactment of these laws show that more than one-half of the people have, in their sober moments, been educated up to a sentiment that demands that the freedom of each shall be limited only by the like freedom of all. The unions hold, or the directors of their principles and policies hold, that the General and State Gov- ernments are not sufficient, and where the unions are well organized these officials demand that the General and State Governments abdicate their authority and propose to substitute the authority of the unions in regulating the affairs of men 194 THE WHITE SLAVERY 195 and their relations to each other. Whenever the union officials establish a reign of terror in a community by inciting their followers to lawless acts, and the people appeal to the constituted authorities for protection, the masters protest against the sending of the protecting force, and on its arrival demand its withdrawal. The working members of the unions having been prevailed upon to surrender their independence and freedom, have been led by selfish and unsympathetic leaders to commit excesses on their fellowmen that would shame the lowest savages. The treasonable nature of the organization has been time and again shown, by its membership giving allegiance to its authority rather than to the authority of the State. It has with the view of defeating the ends of justice when its members were on trial for atrocious crimes, in which they were caught red handed, caused the assassination of important witnesses who were to appear on behalf of the State. It has made loud complaints of the miscarriage of the laws, when it was the most potent factor in bringing about their miscarriage. It has vehemently denounced the cap- italistic trusts, apparently unconscious of the fact that the Labor Trust is the most oppressive of all trusts. It has suddenly quit the service of public utilities corporations and by violence stopped their operations, and then demanded of the State that it compel these public utilities corporations to continue in operation. Our entire system of government is built upon the idea of industrial and commercial free- 196 THE WHITE SLAVERY dom, and yet the leaders of unionism would destroy that system without offering anything better than an- archy as a substitute. Think of an organization growing up in our midst, one of whose officials may go to an honest, hard working man and say to him, " if you do not do all you can to ruin your neighbor and friend, we will ruin you, ' ' and of the conspirator being able to make good his threat. The head of the General Government, the president, is not clothed with a power by which he can on his own motion, de- stroy the lawful business of a law-abiding citizen, yet we tolerate an organization whose officials openly boast of being able to destroy the business of any man who comes under their displeasure, and who are constantly making good their boast. It will not be denied that a man has as much right to have his business protected from destruction by boycott, as he has to have it protected from destruction by organized bandits. Among thinkers it is conceded that it is the func- tion of government to protect its citizens in their equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit to happi- ness, and the extent that our government has fallen short of this duty, is due to the fact of its leniency in allowing the masters of the union slavery to set up an opposing authority, an authority which is based upon the survival of primitive instincts that disre- gard all laws of justice and equal rights. There is bound to be ceaseless conflict between these dual governments, the government of the people and the minority government of the unions, until one or the THE WHITE SLAVEEY 197 other shall by force of arms or public opinion, be compelled to abdicate its authority and pretentious. In the Pittsburg labor riots of 1877, and in the Debs rebellion of 1894, the State Governments were unable to control the situations, and the General Govern- ment was obliged to intervene and call on the Regu- lar Army to charge the union rioters and disperse them. When the situation became so desperate that the unions and their sympathizers threatened to loot the U. S. Treasury in Washington and a war vessel stood in the Potomac with its guns trained on the approaches to the Treasury, there were in- telligent men who thought that the fate of the Gen- eral Government trembled in the balance. No doubt the General and State Governments are sufficient to enforce the laws for the protection of persons and property if they were loyally supported, but they would not be loyally supported under exist- ing conditions if a labor disturbance national in its scope should be precipitated, for " the master of a million minds " of the federated unions would claim the allegiance of all his slaves throughout the coun- try. This large militant organization, composed of men who have surrendered their independence and freedom as citizens, and obedient to the commands of their masters, is a constant menace to the peace of society and the stability of the government when dominated by such reckless leaders as it has invar- iably had, whose selfish greed and meddling conduct, are as oppressive to organized labor as to the busi- ness interests of the country. It is a notorious fact 198 THE WHITE SLAVEEY that the masters meddle in the daily affairs of mem- bers in matters in which law and custom leave them free, and in which negro slaves were allowed to exer- cise their freedom. Even when the unions by their lawlessness and violence have paralyzed the peaceful activities of a large section of the country, as they have frequently done, the friends of law and order and equal rights among men, have not lost faith in the ultimate triumph of government of the people, by the people and for the people, instead of gov- ernment by a faction and for a faction. These con- stant attacks on law and order by the unions, these frequent displays of the primitive survivals of the savage instincts, ought to be useful to the sociolo- gist in measuring our progress, and as showing the proportion of our people who have no developed moral sense, no developed conceptions of equal rights to industrial and commercial freedom. In the laboratories of bacteriologists, and in the laboratories of research institutes, much information in recent years has been obtained and given to the world in regard to immunity from disease ; in regard to protecting the human organism against the fatal effects of diseases which were once a scourge to the world, by introducing into the system vaccine, anti- toxin, or serums, or by destroying the insect, as the mosquito, which carries and inoculates the individual with the poisonous germ or destructive parasite, as in cases of yellow fever. For centuries there were periodical outbreaks of smallpox, yellow fever, and other diseases, which were terrible scourages, fre- THE WHITE SLAVERY 199 quently almost depopulating communities, but which by scientific treatment, have passed practically under the control of man and lost most of the terror which formerly characterized them. All these terrible dis- eases which have afflicted the human race, belonged to particular stages of intellectual development and civilization, and having been brought under con- trol, certainly encourages us to hope that the conduct of the unions, which is a survival from primitive con- ditions and the scourge of the social organism, will be brought under control by scientific treatment. The influence of rational altruism, charity, and fra- ternal love, and the frequent benefactions of the more fortunate to the less fortunate, must gradually have a leavening effect upon the minds of those who have heard little else than teachings of hate for their fellowmen by the evil-minded proponents of unionism and socialism. The pretended ideals of these two great national evils are somewhat differ- ent, but the teachings of hate by their leaders for all progressive ideals are practically the same. There is no other power that can rightfully super- sede the State, the will of all the people, and it is sufficient to the extent that it enforces their will as expressed in the laws. Our National Constitution was formed after the most careful deliberation in the interest of all the people, and the enactment of any law discriminating in favor of any class tend- ing to make it a class of special privileges, would be unjust to all other classes, as well as unconstitutional. In this age of general enlightment no self-respecting 200 THE WHITE SLAVERY man or body of men who have the public good at heart, can demand such legislation. We have heard a good deal of talk from the re- actionary masters about the ideals of the labor move- ment, but such talk reminds us of the talk about the beauties of negro slavery by its proponents up to the Civil War. With the destruction of negro slavery, the philosophic thinker could safely have predicted the development of a milder form of slavery upon its ruins, for all progress has been marked by as many periods of retrogression as periods of progres- sion. After overthrowing the aristocratic regime in the French Revolution and the corruptions which had grown up under it, the reactionaries of the revo- lutionists who had secured control, were found com- mitting excesses more shameful than those under the conditions the Revolution was intended to remedy. A machine may be constructed according to the principles of mechanics, intended to bear a calcu- lated strain, but if the material of some of the parts are not up to a certain standard of strength, it will break down before reaching the calculated strain. So a government may be founded on correct and just principles, principles and policies which when en- acted into laws and loyally enforced, will give equal protection to all, and equal liberty to exercise their faculties ; but if there is rotten material in the social structure, if there are disloyal elements organized into factions that demand and usurp special priv- ileges, that demand special advantages to the detri- ment and injury of others; that demand and usurp THE WHITE SLAVEEY 201 more privileges than they are willing to concede to all others, then a government that fails to check these aggressions and usurpations of the rotten, dis- loyal elements, fails of its purpose, fails so miserably as to lose the respect of its supporters. It is perhaps a safe proposition to state that a government is not likely to be much better than the average of its people. If the average ideals of the people are of a low order ; if on the average they have little respect for each others rights or justice; if their average conduct is corrupt and vicious, then the government will likely be corrupt, weak and inefficient and un- able to protect fully those who are its main support from the aggressions of the lawless and vicious under the leadership of men who live by creating social disturbances. We believe that our government is founded on just principles; that the laws with few exceptions have been framed with the view to giving justice and equal rights to all, and that the ma- chinery we have built up is sufficient to protect all the people in their equal rights if we see to it, and do not allow too much corrupt and rotten material to get into the different administrative departments. While there shall continue to exist in our midst an organization which we regard, which all law- abiding men regard, as steeped in envy, hate and selfishness, an organization whose purpose is to over- ride the laws of the peoples government, the friends of law and order and equal rights should have a strong counter organization whose object should be to see that the laws are enforced, and to see that 202 THE WHITE SLAVERY the lawless acts and pretentions of the masters of the union slavery are checked before assuming such disastrous proportions as have frequently character- ized them. Take from this organization its purpose and power to interfere with the rights and liberties of others outside its ranks and it would quickly fall to pieces. It thrives on envy, hate and selfishness and the ruin of those whose honest toil and provi- dence have brought homes and comforts to their families. The members, but not the officials of the organization, endure great suffering and hardships in order to bring greater suffering and hardships upon others. It never breathes an honest purpose. Its ideals are predatory as the savage, to grab the good things which honest toil has brought others. The masters and directors of its principles and policies prate about liberty and patriotism when addressing the public, but when addressing their own loyal slaves in their star chambers, spit upon the flag, the emblem of liberty and equal rights, and order their thugs and sluggers to intimidate, assault and murder independent workers because they en- deavor to exercise the rights and privileges guaran- teed them under the laws to work for whom, and under such conditions, as may suit them. Were it not that the law-abiding citizens of the community look to the government which they are taxed to support and maintain, to afford them protec- tion against the aggressions, oppressions and tyran- nies of the unions, they would organize for their own protection, which would of course mean the end of THE WHITE SLAVEEY 203 organized government as we know it. It would mean open war between the two factions and the re-estab- lishment of another government according to the ideals of the successful faction. The masters of the union slavery not only assert the privilege of private war, for plunder and power, as in baronial and feudal times, but they demand of those who stand for organized government, government for the pro- tection of all in their equal rights, that their private wars shall be legalized, and that they and their fol- lowers shall be an excepted class, a class having special privileges and immunities from prosecution and punishment for violation of the laws in cases of intimidations, assaults, murder and destruction of property. They claim that these special privileges and immunities are necessary to improve the condi- tions of organized labor, just as the bandit or robber claims that his operations are necessary to improve the condition and standard of the living of his family. The proponents of unionism are the only class of people in this country who question the sufficiency of our Government, and their opposition is not on the ground that it fails to provide for the equal protec- tion of all, but that it fails to provide for making them an excepted class, a class having special priv- ileges. CHAPTER XV. SELLING AND BUYING LABOR. In the world of labor there are many men who sell their own labor or services and buy other labor or services which they are not adapted or qualified to perform to the best advantage. All sensible men should honor and respect all useful labor. But a man whose occupation is regarded by most people as disagreeable, or dangerous, as for instance, that of the professional miner, should not assume that his class is the only class of men who can justly claim to be laborers. Those who have made investi- gations in regard to the expenditure of energy, know that mental work is as exhausting to the individual as physical work, and that there are even more nervous breakdowns among the mental workers than among the physical workers of the world. Professor W. B. Taylor of the Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ington, was told by a student that the careful read- ing for hours of such abstract works as Mill 's Logic, Herbert Spencer's First Principles, and Principles of Psychology, caused him mental fatigue, and asked the Professor how much physical work eight hours of steady, careful reading of such works would be equivalent to, and he replied that it would be equiv- alent to the expenditure of the energy of a man 204 THE WHITE SLAVERY 205 working steadily on a rock pile breaking rock for the same length of time. Who are the men who talk so pathetically of grind- ing toil and sweat shops as if they were the only people who earned their bread by the sweat of their brows? Behold them. They are the men of big boasting, swaggering conduct, who deal in myster- ious hints and veiled threats of what will happen if they are opposed, and who, from their star chambers direct the movements of the vicious and weak-minded elements of the unions in violent and unlawful con- duct, in short, the men who never strike or never sweat. Every one who has passed his early life in physical work, as the work on a farm, and later undertakes to fit himself for any of the professions, as the law, the practice of medicine, or in engineer- ing, can perhaps testify that his student life passed in fitting himself for his chosen profession, or even after he has entered upon his profession, was as exhausting, as fatiguing, as the work when he earned his living by physical labor. Shall we rule out as unworthy of being called laborers or workers, the lawyer pouring over his briefs half of the nights that he may be able to properly present the cases of his clients to the court and jury; the physician who immediately on retiring after a hard day's work, is called up and obliged to ride nearly all night in storms of rain or sleet and snow, to see and attend a sick patient; the civil engineer who cudgels his brains over some problem in engineering in regard to the strength of material in a bridge or building, 206 THE WHITE SLAVEEY on the safety of which depends the lives of hundreds or even thousands of persons; or even the much maligned railroad president whose executive ability is taxed to the utmost in providing ways and means to make his road pay its stockholders, a large pro- portion of whom are people of moderate means, rea- sonable dividends on the amounts of their invest- ments, and at the same time satisfy the demands of the public and the employees of the road? If the selfish masters of the union slavery were obliged to do some honest work they would probably consider it grinding toil, but perhaps most independent work- ers regard ordinary useful labor as more agreeable than idleness and loafing. To most professional men who have freely expended their energy to be- come proficient in their profession, and are regarded as useful in it by the public, there is little time left to them for relaxation, and they have very little rest during their waking hours. They cannot feel like most laboring men whose work is almost entirely physical, that after eight to ten hours labor a day, that they are free from cares until the next day. In proportion to numbers there are more cases of self-destruction and deaths from heart-failure among professional and business men whose overworked brains and high-tensioned nervous systems have given way under the strains imposed upon them, than among men whose lives are devoted to physical labor. These professional men are obliged to work in competition with each other the same as in un- skilled labor, and their professional services are in THE WHITE SLAVERY 207 demand and earn them good or poor livings in pro- portion to their efficiency and energy in fulfilling the requirements of their profession. Every one who amounts to anything in the world, must enlist in the army of mental or physical workers, and there is no good reason why any one of the professions or occupations should claim all the honor of being the only laboring body, and on that account claim special privileges and immunities by legislation or in any other respect. All men of the different professions and occupations, sell their services or labor, and they buy and sell to each other, and in the general economy of social life, one profession or occupation is about as useful as another. There are many who think that the professional or business man's task is never done. There is a constant exchange of services between men of the different professions and occupations, and a noting of debits and credits. We have the un- skilled laborer calling up the 'physician to attend his sick wife or child, and the physician wishes the laborer to attend his garden, or haul his fuel or per- form some other service for him in exchange for professional services. And so we might multiply instances through all the professional and business channels of life. If the laborer is provident and the physician is improvident, he may in a few years have more of the comforts of life than the physician. A colored woman in Carthage, an ex-slave, made a good living by taking in washing, washing by hand, owned and lived in a good house, and owned three 208 THE WHITE SLAVEEY or four good houses which she had built or bought by washing, from the rent of which she derived a handsome income, and yet she did not stop washing, or complain of grinding toil and that her lot was a hard one. On the contrary she always had a pleas- ant expression as if she felt that life was worth liv- ing. A few years after the Civil War the quarter- master general of the army had a salary of about six thousand dollars a year, and he had a messenger who had a wife and several children to provide for, and who had been with him many years at a salary of six hundred dollars a year, and yet he was finan- cially better off than his superior officer. There is in the individual organism as in the social organism, a constant exchange of service for service between the different parts, and the plan of life of the social organism is built upon the plan of life of the individual organism. The brain presides over and co-ordinates all the parts of the individual or- ganism in securing food ; the hands to seize the food and convey it to the mouth ; the jaws and teeth and tongue and saliva to break down the food and pre- pare it for passage through the alimentary canal to the stomach : the stomach to put it through the chem- ical process of chylefication and digestion, or forma- tion of blood; the lungs to aerate the blood from the stomach in its passage to the heart where it is divided into venous and arterial, and where it is as a coin paid back to each of the other parts that expended energy in producing it. If each of the other parts does not receive the amount of pure THE WHITE SLAVERY 209 blood required to enable it to fulfill its proper func- tion, there will be disturbance among all the other parts in fulfilling their proper functions. Idleness of any of the parts, preventing any of them from fulfilling its normal function, causes more or less dis- turbance in all the other parts, as tying up and ceas- ing to use the hand or foot, or constantly shading the eyes, weakens these parts because they then cease receiving their normal amounts of blood. When each part receives the required amount of blood and performs the normal amount of function, the whole organism is healthy. How senseless then it would be for one part to wish to destroy another part, thus crippling and lowering the efficiency of the entire organism. But each part may demand for the health of the organism, that it shall receive the amount of nourishment due to it to enable it to ful- fill its proper function, for an organ or part like the blacksmith's arm grows and strengthens from use, while another arm dwindles and weakens from dis- use. There must be independence and freedom and cooperation of all parts in contributing to the production of the general supply of nourishment for the health and strength of the organism, for any restraint placed on one part affects more or less all other parts. We thus see that there is an almost complete analogy between the developed social or- ganism and the developed individual organism ; that in one case as in the other, an injury to one part injuriously affects all other parts, and that an im- proper restraint put on one part, restrains all other 210 THE WHITE SLAVEEY parts. With the exception of a few drones who are found in every hive, all the people of this country are workers, and helpful to each other in the struggle for life. As our constitution and the laws are made, as far as human intelligence can make them, for the protection of all alike to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, there is no need of a union to demand special privileges and exemptions from responsibility for their acts for a particular class to the injury of all other classes. It is an intolerable situation for the major part of the community to be constantly kept in a defensive attitude by the quarrelsome and belligerent attitude of a small fac- tion, which derives its power from thorough organ- ization, and whose leaders manipulate it for selfish ends. If the unskilled workman was the only person who was obliged to sell his labor to earn a living, he would certainly be entitled to a large share of our sympathy; but when we see that all classes of men, from those holding the highest to the lowest posi- tions, are endeavoring to provide comforts and happiness for themselves and families, and are obliged to sell their labor for what they can get for it, and to buy other labor, or its equivalent for what they can get it for, we are reminded that we are not warranted in extending our sympathy to one class more than to another. And when we ap- preciate the close interdependence between the differ- ent professions, occupations and business, it is cer- tainly remarkable that any one of these when organ- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 211 ized into a union, should be continually working itself into such a state of frenzy and hate as to wish to cripple or destroy any of the others, and by reaction all the others, because they oppose its selfishness in taking from others the right to work and support themselves. To the minds of thinking men it will appear that the officials of the unions could not employ their time and energy to a better purpose than earnestly pointing out to the members that they are a part of the social organism, and that they cannot injure any other part of that organ- ism without injuring themselves. That the profes- sional disturber and trouble-breeder may always find in the lower strata of social life, conditions, which, when presented in a strong one-sided light, to the thoughtless and feeble minded, will arouse sympathy and indignation, is perfectly true. We shall always have with us a large enough proportion of weak-minded and vicious men and women who are not public charges, but near that mental condition requiring the saner part of the public to look after them, and who, in the general struggle for life, are crowded out into the region of short grazing, into the region of human activities where they are barely able to glean enough of the necessities of life to keep soul and body together. Were it not for the altruism that exists in the provident classes, the classes that save more than they use, these unfor- tunate people would go the way of all incompetents in a state of nature. How far the altruism of those who are able to take care of themselves should be 212 THE WHITE SLAVERY drawn on to support those who are unable to stand alone, is a question we shall not undertake to deter- mine. These incompetents are allowed to multiply in the cities and in the rural population of the coun- try, and on account of their mental feebleness, are forced into the most unwholesome and unsanitary situations imaginable, situations of squalor, poverty and filth, which have only to be seen by men and women of average intelligence, to arouse in them the most active sympathy. These wrecks of the human race strewn along the byways of life, cannot be made very useful to any active business, and when employed at all, are always paid the minimum of wages, enough to provide barely the necessities of life. We should not permit them to be preyed upon by the selfish masters. These incompetents, and feeble-minded, are of every shade of mental strength from those who are public charges, up to the man who will suffer death rather than surrender his independence and freedom to an organization made up largely of feeble-minded and vicious. So notoriously is it true that the feeble-minded and vicious have been used by demagogue union officials to control the competent, that there are brotherhoods who have insisted on the cleavage and will not asso- ciate themselves with the national federation of labor. A rattle-brained socialist will get up on a street corner and attracting a crowd around him, point to the home and surroundings of some well-to- do man, and then to the filthy, poverty-stricken habi- tations of the incompetent and feeble-minded, and THE WHITE SLAVEEY 213 then draw the conclusion that the country is going to ruin because the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. His loose incoherent talk is applauded by some of his unthinking, feeble- minded audience, and he may make a few converts to socialism who are ready to raise the red flag and begin the dividing up. He has his cheap tracts ex- pressing his incoherent thoughts, the thoughts of a loquacious weak-minded person, to distribute among those who will take them, and there is no one at hand to correct his false and shallow teachings. All social- ists are friends and allies of the unions, and many of them are members of the organization, and in times of labor disturbances, the labor leaders find them valuable allies and sources of strength from whom they may draw recruits for almost any kind of un- lawful acts. Of course we know that socialism and unionism stand for practically opposite ideals of life ; that socialism stands for a division of property without regard to the merits of individuals, and that unionism stands for special privileges and benefits of a class at the expense of all other members of the community. All these incongruous elements, no matter how much of a nuisance they may be to the saner part of society, must be tolerated in an evolv- ing social aggregate as a part of the waste and wreckage of our race. But with our knowledge of the prevention of and immunity from disease, we believe it is possible to lessen and better control this waste and wreckage, but not entirely cure it. There is failure, waste and wreckage in all the races 214 THE WHITE SLAVEEY of the animal world, so great indeed that only the strong and healthy and best arrive at maturity and old age, the elimination of the unfit and incompe- tent being considered beneficial to each race. Of a million ova spawned by a cod only one may be left to reach the reproductive age, the others being de- stroyed by enemies in the environment. Nearly every employer of labor, after his em- ployees have finished their day's work of eight to ten hours, and return to their homes free from cares until another day, takes home with him the cares of his business, which he is often unable to dismiss from his mind until the small hours of the morning, having expended much gray matter and nervous energy in endeavoring to determine whether his bus- iness is taking him towards bankruptcy, or towards a condition that will give him reasonable profits on his investment, and permanent employment for his people. He knows that he must have cash customers to take the product he is turning out to enable him to meet the payroll of his employees at the end of the week, and to meet bills for raw material, motive power and incidental expenditures necessary in run- ning his plant ; and he knows he must buy raw ma- terial at such a price as to enable him to turn out the finished product from it at such profit that he can pay the running expenses of his plant, and still leave a net income, small or large. If the expenses and losses of running his plant exceed the income from all sources, leaving no net income, he knows it is only a question of time when he must close down. Think THE WHITE SLAVERY 215 of such a man whose efforts and calculations and foresight are as much in the interest of his employees as in his own interest, having his employees turn traitor to him and endeavor to destroy his business and property at the instigation of an union organ- izer, because the employer insists on having some- thing to say in regard to the manner of running his business. Think of an outsider, an alien, who ignores any interest in the common welfare; whose business is to throw poor men out of employment; who lives by stirring up strife between men who should be friends; who is always endeavoring to fasten himself on some body of men to absorb their life-giving substance like many other parasites that fasten themselves on animals to absorb their life- giving substance, we say think of such an outsider seeking out the employees of a plant to whisper lies and discontent into their ears to turn them against their employer and benefactor with evil intentions of destroying his property because he does not com- ply with the demands put into their mouths by the agent of the league of envy, hate and selfishness, to surrender the control of his business to him. CHAPTER XVI. THE WASTE OF UNIONISM. It has been stated by those who have amassed con- siderable fortunes, that their fortunes were built up by taking as their part of the profits, the by-prod- ucts, or waste, from the product of the plant they operated. Prior to the Civil War the cotton seed ginned out of the cotton for the fibre on the planta- tions of the planters in the South were left at the gin to rot except what was needed for seed the next season. But now, thanks to the expanding knowledge of men in every department of thought, this by-product, the cotton seed, is found to be scarcely less valuable in fulfilling the wants of men, than the fibre of the cotton plant. Many millions of dollars have been expended in erecting cotton seed oil mills in the South, and these mills have turned out millions of barrels of cotton seed oil every year, and millions of pounds of cotton seed oil cake or meal, a by-product of the seed. The oil is used extensively in the domestic economy of the house- hold, and the cake or meal is shipped in car loads all over the country to mix with other feed for stock. In those days when the planter allowed his cotton seed to go to waste and rot, he did not know that he was allowing half of his cotton crop to go to waste. 216 THE WHITE SLAVERY 217 In the early days of lead mining in Southwest Missouri, the mine owners threw out as waste what was known as " Jack," a by-product of lead min- ing, which has become as much sought for as lead and is now the leading industry of that section. The smoke from the smelter of lead or zinc ore by a process of recent discovery, is turned into white lead of a fine quality. There is an increasing demand for zinc, which in the crude state is jack, all over the world. In the recent great development of electrical power, from wireless telegraphy or telephony, down to the electric door-bell, the zinc or jack of the miner, is an important factor, and yet it was only recently a waste or by-product of the mines. The co-ordination of the movements of the machinery for lifting, sighting and firing the great guns of the monster battleships of the world, is all done by electrical power. In the packing house plants of this country, the by-products, or what was formerly waste, are im- portant factors in contributing to the profits of each concern. We are told by packers that practically no part of the slaughtered animal is wasted, but that every part is turned into a useful article of com- merce, as the hair for plastering and upholstering; the hides for leather to be used in many forms ; the bones and excreta for commercial fertilizer. Even the despised clinker or cinder, the by-product or waste of coal burned in the furnace, is saved by large establishments and has a commercial value for use in making granatoid walks and basement 218 THE WHITE SLAVERY floors. On every hand we see that those who have built up fortunes from small beginnings, or who have accumulated a competence for the declining years of their lives that they might not be a burden to their friends or society, have saved the by-prod- ucts or waste and turned them into some useful pur- pose. These are the men that those who control the principles and policies of the wasteful unions despise with so much vehemence, and would destroy or cripple in every possible manner, if they refuse to bow to the teachings of waste, envy, hate and selfishness of the masters. All the examples of provi- dence exhibited by the men accounted well-to-do, fail to make an impression on those whose lives are guided by the teachings of the masters, and which lead them to feast while they have plenty, and de- stroy what they can not use ; to go without food and shelter to-morrow, and to curse the provident man who has home and comforts by saving what they had wasted. A friend asked a union leader why he always took two matches to light a cigar, and he replied that he had thought about it that the more matches he used the more work it would make for union labor the more beer he drank the more work it would make for brewery employees. This idea of waste, of wasting as much as one uses, appears to run all through the conduct of the members of the unions. Almost every member seems to think that the more cigars he smokes over the number he could get along with, helps the union cigar maker that much, and that if every cigar smoker would observe THE WHITE SLAVEEY 219 that generous principle, a greater number of union cigar makers would be employed, or the same num- ber at increased wages. The greater number of cars switchmen can break up or have sent to the repair shops by indifferent and careless switching, and the greater number of cars broken up by wrecks on the roads, are all accounted blessings in disguise, for they all make more work for union labor in the car shops. And so we find it in every department of industry where union labor is employed. We heard of an enthusiastic unionist who thought that the destruc- tion of San Francisco by fire, following the earth- quake, was a good thing, because it would give em- ployment to thousands of. union laboring men in re- building the city, for having control of the city ad- ministration they could prevent competition of in- dependent labor, and discourage and keep out union labor from other parts of the country, and thus raise the rate of wages to almost any point desired. Carry- ing out this method of union reasoning, why, if it is a good thing that one great city should be provi- dentially destroyed by earthquake and fire in the in- terest of union labor, would it not be a better thing for the unions that all the great cities of the coun- try should be so destroyed? If all the great cities should not be destroyed according to union philos- ophy, how many should be so destroyed to satisfy the demands of that philosophy? At what point would it intercede with Providence to stay destruc- tion of life and property? There is nothing in the philosophy, reasoning or conduct of those who con- 220 THE WHITE SLAVEEY trol and direct the principles and policies of the unions to indicate that they regard the wealth of the country as consisting of its property in the high- est state of development and usefulness; nothing to indicate that they regard the destruction of prop- erty by accident or otherwise, as destruction of wealth, and nothing to indicate that they recog- nize that the poorer the country in material re- sources, the less able it would be to employ labor at fair wages. This false conception of the unions that the waste and destruction of property are a good thing because it will likely give employment to labor in replacing the property wasted or destroyed, has been as injurious to the unions as to those upon whom the losses have fallen, for every careful thinker knows that one part of the social organism can not be injuriously affected without injuriously affecting all other parts. It is a rather strange anomaly that those who could best stand a little waste in the economies of life, are the ones who are most persistently guarding against it, while those who are least able to stand such waste in the economies of life, are the ones who most persistently insist by their actions, that waste is a good thing. There is waste and repair going on in our bodies all the time, and there is waste and repair going on in the use of property all the time during the life of the property, but to wantonly accelerate such waste beyond its natural rate, is the greatest folly. Those possessed of the false conception that the waste or destruction of THE WHITE SLAVEEY 221 property is a good thing, are not likely to handle the property interests of their employer in such man- ner as to make it profitable to him. Indeed we could hardly expect a member of the union to conscien- tiously look after the interests of his employer, when it has for years been impressed upon his mind by those who control and direct its principles and policies that there is a natural enmity between em- ployer and employee, an enmity that makes the em- ployee more ready to injure than to conscientiously serve him. An independent worker relies on the merits of his work and his loyalty to the interests of his employer, a loyalty that would not see his property wantonly wasted or destroyed, to commend him in securing employment and in keeping him em- ployed, whereas the union worker relies on his union card to hold him to his job, and cares nothing about the merits of his work so that it is accepted, and rather hopes that some defect has been covered up in order soon to give the union more work. When men once surrender their independence and freedom, as they do in joining the unions, there is scarcely any limit to the absurdities to which they may be led by the masters whose interest it is to keep them de- pendent. Idleness is the thief of time, and the loss of time is the loss of money or comforts, and yet those who control and direct the principles and pol- icies of the unions, deliberately bring upon the mem- bers a loss of time, a loss of wages in strikes which amounts to about twenty million dollars a year, be- sides a loss to employers and to the public many 222 THE WHITE SLAVERY times greater than the losses to organized labor, some estimates placing the losses as high as two hundred million dollars a year. Even if they felt no concern for the great losses to employers and to the public, one would naturally think that the enormous losses to organized labor by strikes and industrial wars, would arouse some of its leaders, or some of its work- ing members, to inquire whether there is not some- thing wrong in the head or somewhere, some terrible mismanagement, which, year after year, brings upon the organization such great losses, such waste of energy. Every thinking man who looks over the sit- uation, must ask himself whether there is not enough independence and freedom in the organization to allow some of its members to rise up and demand a change in the management which can show no better results for the confidence, money and power put into its hands. If there is any independence and free- dom in the unions, one would naturally look for some member to ask in open meetings whether or not the great losses the organization annually entails upon employers and the public, do not lessen their ability to employ wage earners in proportion to their losses ? One looks in vain for a gleam of light or sanity to break in upon some member of the unions, when such important questions, questions that will not down with the thoughtful, press for consideration. The fact is the masters are the union, and the mem- bers only dummies. In any other business than the unions, a management that brought nothing but con- stant losses to those interested in the enterprise, THE WHITE SLAVEEY 223 losses always outbalancing the benefits, would cer- tainly be ousted if bankruptcy would be guarded against, and new officials put in charge. It would be encouraging to see some independence and free- dom in the organization, some disposition of the members to break the hypnotic power of their leaders, to throw off the spell of suggestion which has held them in bondage so long, and to demand more freedom and light and more peace and com- forts, and less waste of energy and opportunity, and less waste of material things. Almost daily comes a story over the wires of some industry which had for years been employing hun- dreds or even thousands of men peaceably and satis- factorily to both parties, then suddenly a union or- ganizer appears among them and in a few days or- ganizes a local union. He then formulates a set of grievances, crams them down the throats of his new converts, and takes them to the management and informs it that if his demands are not complied with at once he will order all the employees out on a strike and picket the plant to prevent the employment of independent workers. Of course these demands and threats mean that if the management does not imme- diately comply with them, that a state of turbulence, riot and bloodshed will be at once inaugurated. Hitherto a grievance of any of the employees laid before the management was speedily attended to and adjusted satisfactorily to both parties ; but now since the employees have sold their birthrights for a mess of pottage and joined the union, the organ- 224 THE WHITE SLAVERY izer easily finds grievances for them, which must be redressed at once by a humiliating yielding of the management, or the men will be ordered out on strike. In order to have a good standing with the executive committee of the federation, the organ- izer must show that his work has been productive of results. We find that in a short time after he gets to work, the tone of confidence and good feeling that existed between the management and the em- ployees, has been undermined and destroyed, and the employees instead of looking upon the manage- ment as their trusted friend, now look upon it as their enemy with whom it is their duty to be at war, and whom they should not hesitate to injure if it does not at once comply with demands which they would never have thought of making before the organizer came among them. We loathe the man who under the guise of friend- ship insinuates himself into the confidence of the husband for the purpose of undermining the loyalty of his wife and breaking up the family relations; but such dastardly conduct should not be more severely reprobated than the conduct of the union organizer who goes among the employees of a plant, with his tale of woe and lies for the purpose of de- stroying the good relations that exist between them and their employer, and to weaken their loyalty to his interests. If the organizer could show that his insinuating interference was for the purpose of en- larging the independence and freedom of the men, instead of for the purpose of destroying their inde- THE WHITE SLAVERY 225 pendence and freedom, and if he could also show that his interference was for the purpose of giving them with certainty more remunerative employment, instead of making their employment and incomes more doubtful, there might be rational excuse for his conduct. His conduct in playing upon the pas- sions and prejudices of the men to get them to sur- render their independence and freedom, and their means of earning a living for their families, the loss of wages, shows how heartless and unsympathetic the officials are in dealing with those over whom they secure control, and upon whom they bring such great losses. In this country where there is so much altruism on every hand; where so many men have made fortunes out of the waste of the unions and returned it to them in educational facilities and esthetic art, and where there is so much kindliness of feeling and brotherly love of man for man, it is truly painful to always find in unionism a discordant note, an unbounded selfishness that knows nothing of generosity, and a dire pessimism that sees no good or beauty in anything outside the narrow confines of a league founded and maintained upon principles of selfishness and coercion. It seems strange that some man within the ranks of the organization does not preach cheerfulness and respect for the rights of others, and urge it to throw off its pessimism and join in cooperation in promoting the general welfare, good feeling and mutual confidence between all classes of our national family, instead of wasting its energies in promoting strife and distrust of men for each other. We should all recognize that in an ideal 226 THE WHITE SLAVERY social state there can be no strife between men; no mutual distrust, no waste of the energies or product of the energies, and no desire for men to infringe each others equal rights, equal freedom. While there is scarcely any one able to live up to the highest ideals of developed ethics, we should each firmly determine to live up to them as far as practicable. Now if those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, have made them a league of envy, hate and selfishness, and a system of union slavery, in which the members lose the sense of indi- vidual responsibility, it is easy to see why waste is so prevalent with them, why they use two matches where one would answer the purpose, up to consum- ing eight hours in laying eight hundred to a thousand bricks when that number is laid by the independent brick layer in less than four hours. We are too wasteful as a nation of our natural re- sources and in the economy of the family, and think- ing men are beginning to wake up to the importance of conserving these resources, and of urging greater economy in the family. But the masters of the union slavery seem to have no thought of conserving any- thing useful, for their motto appears to be "waste all you can not use to-day, and to-morrow will take care of itself." They have certainly done nothing to con- serve the energies of the members of their organ- ization and apply them to useful purposes, but on the contrary have been utterly reckless in wasting and dissipating these energies, which should have been a sacred trust in their keeping. CHAPTER XVII. THEY LOSE WHEN THEY WIN. All wars are costly to both sides, industrial wars as well as others, and any war may be more costly to the victor than to the defeated. Again the de- feated party may be more benefited by its defeat, than the victorious party by its success. Most of the wars in recent times have been for the purpose of settling questions in dispute between nations, and the point in dispute that any war has settled in favor of the victor, may have been worth the cost and it may not. If the point gained by the victor has not been in favor of an extension of human rights, for greater freedom of the individual consistent with the like freedom of all, it has not been worth the cost, no matter how much glory it may have brought its victors. We have largely passed that phase of moral and intellectual development when the return home of victorious legions with the trophies and spoils of successful war, largely of women and chil- dren of alien peoples for slaves, should win our ap- plause. We are living in more humane and altruistic times in which there is an increasing demand for our efforts to assist those, who, from any cause, are more unfortunate than ourselves, to help them to help themselves, not by giving them bread, but knowl- 223 228 THE WHITE SLAVERY edge and freedom, and the warm hand of good will and fellowship. When men become jealous of and insistent for their own rights, and no more, they will become jealous of and insistent for the equal rights of all others. After a long or short strike, the members of a union may win, may coerce the em- ployer to yield to their demands, but they do not win back the lost time and the wages they would have had if they had continued to work; besides losing their individuality and industrial freedom by mak- ing themselves the willing slaves of masters who have no other than a selfish interest in them. While they were out they were all the time losing life-giving necessities which they might have had if they had not listened to the masters who manifest no interest in common with them, and who fatten on their losses. The fact that they won in the fight is no more evi- dence that they were right in their demands, than that the defeated party was in the wrong when the trial was by battle or personal conflict, as it was in the courts of chivalry a few centuries ago. When men win by their combined strength, as they do in the mob combinations of the unions, and not by justice, they are certain to lose in the long run. The masters who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, who have been suc- cessful in a strike, like the victorious soldiers in other wars, become puffed up with the pride of power and importance, and regard their van- quished enemy or employer, in the spirit of " we will show you who is who if you attempt to oppose THE WHITE SLAVERY 229 our wills. ' ' The services of the slaves of such masters must necessarily be unsatisfactory to decent liberty- loving employers, employers who desire to control and manage their own business. In every instance if we coerce or attempt to coerce an honorable, intelli- gent man to do our bidding against his protests and judgment, we lose more than we gain in the end. A man who will not do that which is right and just, on proper representation and without coercion, is not a fit man for honest men to work for, and a man or combination of men who would coerce an employer to do a thing against his business judgment, are not fit men to have in his employ. It is shown by recent reports from the U. S. Bureau of Labor, that the annual loss to organized labor in this country by striking employees is approximately fifteen to twenty million dollars, a heavy burden upon a class of men who are the least able to bear losses of any kind. If labor organizations lose as much in the successful strikes as in the unsuccessful ones, they lose from seven to ten millions dollars every year, a large sum for mostly poor men to pay for empty glory and vic- tories, victories which determine nothing of lasting interest to factional organized labor, except that it may serve to gradually force upon the attention of the members that they are paying dearly for their slavery. The same report from the Bureau of Labor shows that the annual loss to employers by strikes has been six to eight million dollars. But these losses of employers and striking employees are no doubt the smaller part of the losses sustained by the country 230 THE WHITE SLAVERY by strikes and the resulting riots, insurrections, de- struction of property and general lawlessness of the strikers. As we have stated with some reiteration, in our complicated civilization, one part of the social organism cannot be injuriously affected, without in- juriously affecting all other parts. It is therefore estimated by some of the industrial associations that the losses to the country by industrial disturbances, strikes and the resulting riots, insurrections and de- struction of property and suspension of business, amounts to about two hundred millions of dollars a year, losses which are equal, if not greater than the losses by fires. An organization so blind to its own interests, so heedless of the common welfare, so destructive of the energy and prosperity of the coun- try, and so reckless in ignoring the equal rights of others, must have organized opposition to check its unjust, tyrannical, selfish and lawless conduct, if we would arrest the tendency towards social dissolu- tion and anarchy. When labor leaders who conduct a strike, force an employer to accept their demands, no matter whether the demands were for an advance in the wages of the members, or for the discharge of an independent workman, or to unionize his plant, they immediately become so intoxicated with power and importance, that the successful strike is hardly settled before they are scheming for another, by making the weak- minded and vicious members of the organization be- come dissatisfied with some feature of their work, or with the terms of settlement. The new demands THE WHITE SLAVEEY 231 may be so glaringly foolish and unreasonable that the masters will not press them hard, knowing that they will not bear airing to the public, and finding no prospect of the employer yielding to a further hold- up, call the strike off. The employer takes the strik- ing employees back, and the masters claim another victory for the supremacy of union labor. "We see here that the only persons who do not lose by the transaction are the union officials, the managers of the strike, the teachers of envy, hate and selfishness. Even if the members secure an advance in their wages by winning the strike, the amount of wages lost while they were out would require many months of the advance to balance ; besides this extra amount in the advance, is in nearly every case, swept away by the inordinate greed of the union officials who must be paid their fees and see that assessments are made for various purposes, as paying lawyers for defending hired criminals of the unions, and in pay- ing lobbyists to look after labor legislation before Congress and the State legislatures. It has been shown by the investigations of the Bureau of Labor that about one-half of the union labor strikes are successful, and yet there is no evidence to show that the members of the unions who were engaged in suc- cessful strikes, are any better off than the members who were engaged in unsuccessful strikes. The successful strike is detrimental to the interests of the members in the respect that it always intoxi- cates the union officials with power and importance to such extent that they are certain to lead them into 232 THE WHITE SLAVERY another strike which may terminate their service with their employer and oblige them to look for jobs elsewhere, with many months of idleness and loss of wages. There is also the great wrong of preventing deserving free, independent men from working who desire to work, and need the wages of honest toil for themselves and families. We thus see it is impossible for the working members to escape losing when they win, for the ever greedy and hungry masters are always on hand ready to take from them a large part of their earnings on some pretext or other. Every successful strike causes the members a further loss of independence and industrial freedom, and increases the power of their masters to more securely fasten the union slavery upon them, and to throttle the last spark of liberty in them. When men surren- der their individuality and industrial freedom to an organization which is always controlled and directed by men who manipulate and use it to satisfy their own selfish ends, they are certain to be treated as slaves and to get no more of the wages of their hon- est toil than the strength of their individuality will insist upon. There is no form of slavery in which the masters are generous enough to allow their slaves to depend upon their own initiative in securing remun- erative employment. Of course we know that the proponents of unionism are constantly talking about the advantages of collective bargaining for those who have their labor for sale. There may be advantages in that system, but it has never been fairly tested, and we cannot know how much merit there is in it until THE WHITE SLAVERY 233 laboring men are permitted to voluntarily enter into it instead of being coerced into it, as now universally practiced. We have frequently referred to the mem- bers of the unions as having surrendered their indi- viduality and industrial freedom, but probably in most cases the surrender was not voluntary, having been brought about by force and intimidation. And knowing that a large proportion of the membership of the unions has been secured by the coercive methods of the masters, should arouse our profound sympathy for men thus enslaved in a country that boasts of being a land of freedom. The false and pernicious teachings of the masters that employers have no rights that the members are bound to respect, can never be an advantage to them, but on the con- trary productive of much harm in preventing the cordial relations between two classes of men whose interests and welfare are indissolubly bound to- gether. There can be no permanent advantage to the members to allow themselves to be used as slaves by the masters, to boycott and destroy the business of men which was built up by years of honest effort and toil; men, too, against whom there were never any charges of unfair dealing, and men against whom nothing could be said except that they would not comply with unreasonable demands of union officials to supervise their business. No thoughtful man will contend that it will be an advantage to the members to give up their independence and freedom and allow the masters to use them as slaves for the treasonable purpose of setting up the authority of the unions 234 THE WHITE SLAVEEY as paramount to the authority of the peoples govern- ment. It will not be to their interest as good citizens to allow themselves to be used by the masters as slaves and criminals, to wreck passenger trains and street cars with awful loss of human life, and to s-is- pend all business of communities until the suffering of all classes becomes so great that the masters hope that the public will intervene and force the offending employer to yield to their demands to save further suffering of the people and losses to business. It seems to be a dominant and favorite idea of the union officials that if, in ordering a strike, they can bring about a suspension of business, and an intolerable condition of suffering and inconvenience to all classes, by the lawless acts of hired thugs, sluggers, murderers and dynamiters of the unions, that the public will appoint committees, always naming a representative of the union on it, to confer with and bring pressure to bear upon the offending employer, to have him yield to the demands of the union of- ficials. This savage, brutal and wicked practice of the unsympathetic, selfish, greedy masters, who will- ingly by rioting and lawlessness, bring upon com- munities a suspension of business and great suffering of all classes, particularly the poorer classes, from cold and hunger, has been successful in a few in- stances in bringing employers to terms by the inter- vention of a terrorized public. We have no hesita- tion in saying that such intervention has made the public wiser, and that it will never again attempt it, for every sensible man knows that such intimidation of the public must have the effect of inflating the THE WHITE SLAVERY 235 sense of importance and arrogance of the union of- ficials beyond all bounds. We heard a good deal a few years ago about the Union and Confederate soldiers clasping hands across the bloody chasm, of fraternizing and forgetting the cause that had for four years of blood and strife on the battle fields made them deadly enemies. Many of us never dreamed that we should ever live to see the day when these bitter foes of the bloodiest war in the history of the world, should march arm in arm at their reunions, and on all patriotic occasions, as we see every year, keeping step to the music of "The Battle Cry of Freedom," "Dixie," or "The Girl I Left Behind Me." The leaders of the men of those mighty armies, have, with few exceptions, from the close of that great struggle, counselled peace, good will and fraternal relations between the Blue and the Gray, and to always remember that they had a common destiny, and were equally interested in the prosperity and greatness of our common country. The generous impulses of the veterans of both sides of that mighty struggle, have sanctioned and en- couraged the intermarriage of their sons and daugh- ters throughout the land which was drenched by their youthful blood. Now we should like to see the leaders of unionism counsel their following to fra- ternal relations with all classes of our people, and on Labor Day, and on all patriotic occasions, it would be pleasing to see unionists and independent workers, marching arm in arm, and keeping step to the music of our National Union now and forever one and in- separable. CHAPTER XVTIL TO SEE OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US. " wad some power the giftie gi'e us To see oursel's as ithers see us." Those whose lives are spent in usefulness to them- selves, to their families and to their fellowmen, will hardly object to seeing themselves as others see them; but those whose lives are spent in a manner condemned by their own conscience and by the pub- lic, will not likely wish to see themselves as others see them. Every sane person should wish his con- duct to be such that when seen and judged by all others competent to judge between right and wrong conduct, it will be reflected back to him in an approv- ing manner. It is the spirit of wishing to see our- selves as others see us, that has in all ages and among all peoples, developed the hero who willing!}' and courageously endured extraordinary dangers and hardships for the purpose of accomplishing some great benefaction for his fellowmen. In all ages and nations those who have unselfishly performed great feats for the benefit of the public, have received hearty applause of all who felt a sincere interest in the happiness and well being of their fellowmen. This desire to see ourselves as others see us, has been 236 THE WHITE SLAVERY 237 a constant stimulus to noble deeds and great achieve- ments, which have crowned the efforts of the grand- est characters through all the ages past. It has from primitive times down to the present day, led men to perform heroic acts for the public benefit, without demanding pay in advance, knowing that they would be honored and applauded and held in high esteem by those upon whom their benefactions fell. It has, without demanding pay in advance from the unfor- tunate, led men of altruistic and generous natures to become public benefactors in a thousand ways. It has kept men of noble unselfish natures in their lab- oratories and in the field of investigation, patiently studying and experimenting with problems and ques- tions which, when worked out, were benefactions to the world, to mankind. It has made men with tender sympathies for their more unfortunate brothers, suf- fer contumely and persecution for daring to do that which they knew was right, as in advocating the abolition of slavery, and which they knew would afterwards be applauded and approved as a public benefaction by an enlightened public conscience. It has been an inspiration to the poet, the man of science, the historian and the business and profes- sional man of every kind, to do something that would connect his name with some public benefaction; something that would enlarge the mental horizon, the independence and freedom of his fellowmen; something that would be useful to his fellowmen while being useful to himself ; something that would make others happy while making himself happy; 238 THE WHITE SLAVERY something that would make two blades of grass grow where one had grown before. It has been an in- spiration for thoughtful, unselfish men to demand for all other men, all the privileges, all the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which they claim for themselves. It has made these unself- ish men look to the future for their highest ideals of life, instead of looking to the past for them. It has made them optimistic, to look to the future for an ideal social state, in which equal rights and justice will prevail among all men, instead of taking the pessimistic view and looking for social conditions to become more chaotic. It has been a powerful correc- tor of the public and individual conscience, and has caused men of sensitive consciences to destroy them- selves after committing acts which were strongly disapproved by their fellowmen, and they were forced to see themselves as others saw them. It has forced men to a knowledge of the fact that they can not get away from their good or bad deeds, and that they are obliged to see themselves as others see them, whether they wish to or not. It has shown men that if their lives are to be held up to them as if reflected in a mirror, that their conduct should be such at all times that they will not have occasion to look upon it with regret or shame. There are, however, many men whose mental en- dowments are so deficient, and their consciences so defective and torpid that they are indifferent about seeing themselves as others see them. We believe that special efforts should be made to have the mem- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 239 bers of the unions, particularly the officials, see them- selves as others outside the organization, see them. Never was there greater need for men to have a mirror of their lives held up to their own souls, than the officials of the unions whose misdeeds for years have been becoming more and more intolerable to the free and independent, peace-loving and law-abid- ing part of the citizens of the country. It should be impressed upon the mind of every member of the unions that he is looked upon by practically all men outside of the ranks of the organization, as the slave of masters whose envy, greed and selfishness, pre- vents them from manifesting any interest in the wel- fare of all the people ; that he is looked upon as being used as a tool by the masters to his own detriment and disadvantage for the purpose of putting money into their pockets and power into their hands to enable them to continue to squeeze and rob them and to blackmail employers; that while he remains a member of the union and under the slavish control of the corrupt masters, he is looked upon as a possible law-breaker, and as an accomplice in some of the desperate crimes which have disgraced the name of the unions in the eyes of all self-respecting men, that he is looked upon as disloyal to the interests of his employer, disloyal to the community in which he lives, and disloyal to the government that pro- tects him. Let every member of the unions be made to feel and see that no man who has not the soul of a slave, and who is not vicious or feeble-minded, would submit to the dictation and slavery of such 240 THE WHITE SLAVEEY wicked, heartless, selfish masters. Probably the more intelligent part of the membership of the unions would not like to be told that they are looked upon by all of the respectable and law-abiding part of the community outside of their organization, as aiders and abettors in the numerous crimes against persons and property, which are continually being fostered by labor leaders. To the vicious and feeble-minded, which constitute such a large part of the membership of the unions, it is perhaps needless to hold a mirror of their lives before them to show them how they are looked upon by the intelligent and decent part of the community who properly value their independence and freedom. It may be asked in all seriousness whether any intelli- gent, self-respecting member of the unions, wishes to be looked upon by the honest, law-abiding, peace- loving part of the community, as a partner of the walking delegate who goes around under instructions from the labor trust officials to order independent workers off their jobs which they have a right to take, or as a partner of the hired thugs and sluggers who are sent out by the union officials to assault and drive independent workers away from their jobs? When the mirror of their lives is held up to them, do these most intelligent members wish to see themselves as cowards and lacking in the manhood to assert their individuality and freedom and refuse to strike when ordered to do so by officials who never strike or never sweat or never give up their jobs ? The in- telligent members of the unions are asked to consider THE WHITE SLAVEEY 241 whether if it is a good thing for the cause of labor that they and their families should go for an indefin- ite time on half rations or no rations, why it would not be a better thing for the cause for the union officials to go on half rations or no rations for the same length of time? A large part of the member- ship of the unions, perhaps nearly one-half, is com- posed of intelligent, good-intentioned men who were forced into the organization by unjust and oppressive methods of the officials, and we ask them when a mirror of their lives is held before them, if they wish to see themselves as the public sees them, asso- ciated with thugs, sluggers, murderers and dyna- miters, in their work of hate, destruction of property, assaulting, intimidating, and murdering independent workers, blowing up bridges, homes and mines, of maiming horses, cutting up and destroying harness and wagons, beating and stripping women naked, interfering with the burial of the dead, and assisting in a thousand ways in bringing about a state of an- archy in peaceful communities wherever a union is organized, all for the purpose of putting money into the pockets and power into the hands of officials who live on the misfortunes of others, misfortunes too which they create? Do these good-meaning men of the unions wish to see in that mirror of their lives, the haggard and troubled expressions of the poorly fed and clothed families, wives and children, of the members of the unions, for whose condition they are in part responsible, just to gratify the sordid and selfish ambition of men who are demanding more 242 THE WHITE SLAVERY power, and who have taken from the members in one form or another, the earnings belonging to the suffer- ing families ? Do they wish to see themselves in that mirror as the public sees them, opposing industrious men in their honest efforts to provide a living and comforts for their wives and little ones? Do they wish to see themselves in that mirror as the public sees them, tyrannized over by the masters who do not respect their individuality and manhood as much as the masters respected the manhood of his slaves on his plantation in times of negro slavery ? The master did provide substantial comforts for his slaves, and did not allow them to persecute each other to distrac- tion, as members of the unions are often persecuted under the direction of vicious leaders, of which there seems to be very many in the unions. "We now propose to hold the mirror of their lives up to the officials of the unions for a moment that they may see themselves as the public sees them. In that mirror they may see themselves as the public sees them, gathering about them in their halls and star chambers, the worst and most vicious characters, the most heartless criminals and moral perverts of the country, and of instructing and urging them on to commit the violent acts and the most atrocious and cowardly crimes known to any age, as arson, murder, assassination, perjury and false swearing to shield them from conviction and punishment under the peoples laws, and by hatching treason and incit- ing their vicious tools to riot and to violating and de- fying the laws. In that mirror of their lives they may THE WHITE SLAVEEY 243 see themselves as the public sees them, standing by in fiendish delight, watching their hired thugs and slug- gers, two, three, or four at a time, knocking down with brass knuckles, kicking, beating with pieces of iron, stones or sticks, putting carbolic acid in the mouth, and gouging out the eyes of an independent worker because he refuses to surrender his individ- uality and industrial freedom to the unions ; because he has the courage and manhood and determination to work and provide for his wife and little ones, and because he gives loyal allegiance to the peoples government, which should afford him protection, in- stead of protecting a band of traitors who propose to set up a government of their own within the peoples government to exercise authority paramount to it, and finally to control it for enslaving all the people. In that mirror they may see themselves as the public sees them, chuckling in fiendish delight over the news brought to them by some of their partners in crime of the wreck of a passenger train, causing the death and maiming of hundreds of innocent victims who had never harmed them in any manner whatever, all to satisfy the demands of union labor and to terror- ize the community into obeying the orders of the masters who never manifest any feelings of charity, sympathy and good will towards those outside the ranks of their organization. gales of the sea which waftest the swift ships through the silvery waves, through the surge of the ocean, freighted with pre- cious human lives, be unpropitious to the fiends of the unions, who, with dynamite in their hands and 244 THE WHITE SLAVERY evil intentions in their hearts, are ready to send a thousand souls to the bottom of the ocean, because some traitor to his country, some traitor to hu- man kind, some labor union official did not have his demands complied with that no coal should be used by the steamer which had been mined by the hands of free independent workers. Jove, why restrain thou thy bolts, thy lightnings? Why are they idle? Let us further hold up the mirrors of their lives to the union officials that they may further see themselves as the public sees them, emerg- ing from their solemn conclaves, their star chambers, where schemes of treason and foul murder were hatched, and where schemes were hatched for punish- ing some of their own members for letting slip an expression of independence, or for non-payment of dues, or penalties, or assessments of some kind and had dropped out of the organization; or where the officials had been planning a campaign for bringing some recalcitrant employer to terms by picketing his plant or place of business to prevent independent workers from filling the places of union employees who had been ordered out on strike because the em- ployer would not comply with the demand of the union for the discharge of independent workers, or unionize his plant. In that mirror of their lives they may see themselves as the public sees them, with eyes glistening with fiendish delight when they see the horizon lighted up with the flames of burning prop- erty which their hired thugs and fire bugs had set on fire to punish some owner or employer who would THE WHITE SLAVEEY 245 not comply with their demands to unionize his plant and permit them to take charge of his business. In that mirror of their lives they may see themselves as the public sees them, with homicidal hands stained and dripping with the blood of their murdered vic- tims who had incurred the enmity of the unions be- cause they would not surrender their individuality and industrial freedom to a band of conspirators and traitors who are constantly endeavoring by the foulest of means to set up their authority as para- mount to the authority of the peoples government. In that mirror of their lives they may see themselves as the public sees them, like Shylock with pinched and selfish expression, insisting on securing for them- selves the pound of flesh, no matter how unjust or how much ruin and suffering it would bring to other men outside their organization. In that mirror of their lives they may see themselves as the public sees them, haranguing the vicious, the violent, the lawless, the assassins, the traitors, and inciting them to riot, to assaulting and murdering independent workers; to burn and destroy the property of em- ployers ; to dynamite and blow up the work done by independent workmen; and of preaching to all ele- ments under their control, to hate all men who wish to own homes and to provide for the comforts and happiness of their families, and who wish to enjoy the fruits of their own labor without the masters getting the major part of them. If the union officials have any sympathy in them, any sense of honor or self-respect, they will, waking 246 THE WHITE SLAVERY or sleeping, feel that we have set upon them to pur- sue them wherever they may go, a thousand demons of hate, the spiritual essences of unionism, dancing around them and brandishing close to their hearts and around their heads and bodies, the daggers, the clubs, the brass knuckles, the stones, the brickbats, the missiles, all dripping with the blood of their mur- dered victims who rise up before them wherever they turn, exhibiting to them the gaping wounds, the bruises, the lacerations, the eye-balls gouged out and hanging upon their cheeks; the burned and charred flesh of men, women and little children in wrecked passenger trains, alt terrible sights for mortal eyes to behold. The demons of hate still dancing around them and brandishing their daggers, their clubs and their missiles, close to the hearts and around the heads and bodies of the union officials, will conduct them to the homes of their murdered victims and bid them behold the widows and children in anguish and desolation and suffering on account of the foul and fiendish murder of the husband and father who daily brought home love and affection, food and clothing and comforts, making all happy and life worth liv- ing. The demons of hate still further conducting the union officials will take them to the homes of the members whom they have deceived and squeezed and robbed of their wages under one pretext or an- other, and bid them behold the families, the wives and children, in squalor and poverty, whose sad ex- pressions from hunger and cold and insufficient cloth- ing, will accuse the guilty officials, trembling in their knees from remorse and fear, fear of vengeance THE WHITE SLAVERY 247 that may become contagious among those whom they have misled by many false promises of betterment. The demons of hate still conducting the union officials to other scenes of their fiendish conduct, will visit the chambers of the dead, and on the way will hear the piteous cries of starving babies whose supplies of milk were cut off by order of the guilty officials to convince the fathers and mothers of the power and the supremacy of union labor. On reaching the chambers of the dead, the babies will rise up before the guilty officials, and pointing their little fingers straight to them, accuse them of the terrible crime of their starvation. There is no good reason why a unionist should not wish to see himself as the public would like to see him, striving in generous rivalry with others outside his organization in altruistic acts of all kinds tend- ing to banish envy, hate and selfishness from the breasts of all men, and to develop in their place, charity, love and fraternal relations. The man with generous and noble impulses, who is always ready to help along a struggling and less fortunate fellow, with words of encouragement and sympathy, does not bear upon his countenance the hard expression common to those whose pessimistic natures are full of envy, hate and selfishness towards everybody except those upon whom they are able to fasten themselves. What we want is more of the rational altruism in all classes that will help men to oppor- tunities to help themselves, for no unselfish man will wish to be the recipient of more benefactions than he is able to bestow. CHAPTER XIX. THE UNIONS A LEAGUE OF ENVY, HATE AND SELFISHNESS. There is not a more respectable name for evil- minded men to cloak their misdeeds under than that of labor. And there is not a field in the whole range of human activities in which wicked, designing men may better exploit their schemes of spoliation to their own profit and advantage, than the field of labor. It is only a question as to whether there are men mean enough and wicked enough, to take advantage of the weaknesses of great numbers of their unfortu- nate fellowmen. But we may put it down as a cer- tainty that there are in every community, a few men of selfish, criminal instincts, who are always ready to take advantage of their more unfortunate broth- ers. It is estimated that there are nearly a million insane, feeble-minded men and women in the homes of families and in the eleemosynary institutions of the country. We all know that this class of people shade off by insensible gradations from those who have nearly normal minds to those whose minds are blank, and who are public charges. In this zone from those possessing nearly normal minds to those who are mental blanks and public charges in which there are all shades of feeble-minded, we must place 248 THE WHITE SLAVEBY 249 at least one-fourth of the population in a civilization like ours, a civilization that takes care of its feeble- minded and allows too many of them to multiply and become a heavy burden to the competent. When we take into consideration the feeble-minded who are public charges, the confined criminals, those of crim- inal instincts who prey upon society and upon the feeble-minded in the zone described, we have perhaps accounted for more than one-fourth of the popula- tion of this country. If we should even halve our esti- mate, we see what a terrible tax or drain there is upon the energy and resources of the honest and provident to provide for those who are public charges, and the confined criminals; to help those in the feeble-minded zone, and to restrain those of criminal instincts from preying upon the competent and incompetent members of the community. One of the greatest questions that confront the competent and constructive elements of society is, how shall we most effectively restrain those of crim- inal instincts from preying upon those in the feeble- minded zone, and using them to prey upon the honest and provident to rob and plunder them and interfere with them in the exercise of their independence and freedom and life-serving functions? We thus see that in the name of the unions, evil-minded men from " the master of a million minds," down to the local, have, in the feeble-minded and criminally in- clined, a constituency of several millions from which to draw recruits to keep up their league of envy, hate and special privileges. When we find a man with as 250 THE WHITE SLAVEEY coarse a nature and as deficient in refined sentiments and common decencies, as " the master of a million minds," intoxicated with power and importance, who delights w r ith fiendish satisfaction in hurling his awful anathma " scab " at freedom-loving, inde- pendent workers, and any business concern or insti- tution that dares to oppose his will in its methods of conducting its own business, we should hardly expect to find anything but intolerable arrogance in dealing with his vicious underlings. Such a man fitly represents the head of the league of envy, hate and selfishness, with pupils drawn from the feeble-minded and criminally predisposed elements of the com- munity. With such a man, a man who cannot open his mouth without emitting insulting and vile ex- pressions, at the head of a great organization obed- ient to his will as its leader and teacher, we should not expect more of it than a league of envy, hate and selfishness, making constant war on the industrial and commercial activities of the country. An organization or institution that sends forth from its halls of instruction and discussion, men to set up an authority as paramount and foreign to the authority and constitution of the peoples govern- ment, is certainly a teacher of envy, hate and crime, destructive of loyalty and the best interests of the community. When it sends out from its halls of in- struction and discussion, representatives to endeavor to prevent young men, by every possible means, from enlisting in the army and navy, or from enrolling in the militia, for the protection of the common people THE WHITE SLAVEBY 251 in their peaceful pursuits, from aggressions by inter- nal as well as external foes, it is a promoter of envy and hate that tends to prevent the development of fraternal relations between all classes of our people. When it sends out from its halls of instruction and discussion and from its star chambers, its pupils with orders to assault and intimidate free independent workers, insult their families and destroy their prop- erty, because they desire to support their families as liberty-loving free men, instead of as slaves of the union, it is teaching and enforcing a doctrine of hate and envy that tends to dissolve the s ties that should bind the citizens together in common fellowship and interests. When it teaches in its halls of instruction and discussion and everywhere, its members to hate the government, its flag, its laws, and its courts, and to substitute for these the red flag of anarchy, it is inculcating a doctrine of hate and envy that can never promote the common welfare and develop good will among men. This league of hate and envy of the unions, op- presses with a tyranny that knows no bounds, almost every business interest, and costs the country every year hundreds of millions of dollars, hundreds of innocent lives, and an immeasurable amount of anguish and suffering. For the purpose of enforcing its oppressive demands, it has almost daily in some part of the country turned loose its demons of hate, murder and destruction, and in a short time, pro- duced such a state of anarchy, violence and lawless- ness, that the local authorities could not control the 252 THE WHITE SLAVEEY situation, requiring the calling out of the military forces of the State. It has for the purpose of enforc- ing unjust demands made on an employer, not only called a strike of his employees and forced a suspen- sion of his business, but it has by sending out its de- mons of hate, murder and destruction, caused a sus- pension of all business in the community, with the attendant sufferings and inconvenience of all classes, with the view of having the public intervene to force the employer to yield without any regard to the jus- tice of the demands made on him. It has disre- garded all laws or feelings of humanity, sparing neither age nor sex, in its efforts to enforce its brutal demands, by ordering its thugs, sluggers and mur- derers, to stop the deliveries of supplies of milk, coal and groceries to families, causing intolerable suffer- ing of all classes, particularly among infants and helpless invalids. In its war on peaceful society, it has been destitute of sympathy and unmoved by the tears, the cries, and the appeals of mothers for per- mission to buy food for their starving babies, or coal or fuel to afford them warmth. In all wars between civilized nations, an army invading and occupying foreign territory, respects the rights of the non-com- batant population and allows them to pursue their usual vocations unmolested; but the masters of the league of envy, hate and selfishness, do not spare any class of their fellow citizens, old or young, when they attack a community to enforce their unjust demands. When they have tied up the activities and suspended all business of a community, and crimes of all kinds THE WHITE SLAVEEY 253 become rampant, they chuckle with fiendish delight, and the cries of starving babies make music to their souls, for they seem to think that by their fiendish conduct in exhibiting the awful power of union labor, they can force the public to a humiliating sur- render to their demands to bring pressure to bear upon the offending employer to yield. Think of the masters of the union slavery sending out their hired thugs and sluggers to wreck passen- ger trains and dynamite street cars, and then, after the appalling loss of life and of torn and mangled human bodies, by the wrecks, startle and shock the community with horror, rushing off to the local news- paper office, to deny in the name of union labor, re- sponsibility for the fiendish act. Thoughtful minds of the coming ages will doubtless ask, " why this fiendish war of union labor upon the innocent and unoffending/' by the demons of hate trained in the league of envy, hate and selfishness ? The reply seems to be that the fiendish masters hope to terrorize the community in which they operate, to such extent by a succession of awful tragedies and crimes, that it will gladly yield to their demands and acknowledge the supremacy of union labor. And it is regrettable to know that there are too many good citizens, who, though keenly feeling the unjust pinch of the slavery, are willing for the sake of peace, to allow the masters to have their own way. This weakness of good-intentioned people in seeking peace at any price, with desperate men is always expensive in the end, for it is like yielding to the 254 THE WHITE SLAVERY demands of the blackmailer who is certain to keep up his demands until he ruins his victim. The masters have the supreme audacity to appear before Congressional Committees to demand national legislation that will exempt from punishment, their hired thugs and sluggers when caught, tried and found guilty of committing atrocious crimes upon peaceable and law-abiding citizens. They would have the laws of the country license members of the unions to commit any criminal acts that would tend to drive all independent workers into silence or fear to compete with organized labor, and thus enable them to complete their scheme of controlling all the labor of the country as a labor trust, and to oppress and control the activities of all other classes with an intolerable tyranny as it would be in the hands of such men intoxicated with power and who are unwill- ing to do anything for the public good, and who would not be charged with an unselfish act. They have endeavored to strengthen their power at every conceivable point to prevent the searchlight of in- telligent and just criticism from falling upon their bloody and treasonable conspiracies and murderous deeds in nearly every part of the country. They have had their representatives in many of the news- paper offices and in positions to censor the news and to prevent many of the criminal features of the unions and their numerous lawless acts from going to the public. And then many of the newspaper owners and managers, through fear of offending the unions, or of having a strike of their employees, have THE WHITE SLAVEEY 255 been very lukewarm in criticising and giving to the public current information of the general lawless- ness of the organization, and of their evil influence upon the prosperity, happiness and well being of the community. We have arrived at a time when it behooves every man who is loyal to our government and loves its institutions and who believes in the independence, freedom and equal rights of all men, to be, on guard and ready to assist in resisting the open or insidious attacks on our free institutions by the teachers of hate and selfishness and their socialist allies. For years the masters of the union slavery have watched their chances for putting as many of their pupils and partisans into the elective and appointive offices of the different departments of municipal, state and national governments as practicable, to assist them in carrying out their schemes of envy, hate and self- ishness, by refusing loj^al support in enforcing the laws of the people, or by conniving at the lawless and violent acts of the hired thugs and sluggers. It has been the deliberate opinion of intelligent men in posi- tion to form correct judgments, that perhaps most of the lawlessness, violence and murder, perpetrated by the partisans of the union slavery have been due to the indifference and failure of the law officers of the people to perform their sworn duties, because they have owed their positions to the influence of the officials of the unions. In all counties in which the unions have considerable strength the masters have not failed to have an eye to business when there 256 THE WHITE SLAVERY was an election to be held, and just before the con- vention or primaries, they are ever ready to promise to the candidate friendly to the union, the labor vote, no matter which of the political parties he belongs to. In many of the counties and cities the two dom- inant political parties are so nearly of equal strength, that whichever secures the labor vote, elects its ticket. A county or city ticket elected by this bal- ance of power of the labor vote, is certain to change the entire county or city administration to such friendliness and subserviency to the union, as to give it a dominating influence in all matters, as was done in San Francisco when the unions fused with one of the dominant parties and elected their ticket. Imme- diately after the unions secured control of the admin- istration of the affairs of that city, it rapidly passed into a condition of official corruption, spoliation and lawless and tyrannical exactions of the unions, rarely if ever, equaled in any other city. After a large part of the city was destroyed by earthquake and fire and the enterprising citizens desired to rebuild as rapidly as possible, they were terribly handicapped and crippled by the unions who did all in their power to prevent skilled labor in the different trades from other parts of the country coming to that city to get work, and raised the scale of union wages so high as to be almost prohibitive, so that only a few could afford to rebuild under such conditions. It was stated by a representative of one of the great daily newspapers* who made an investigation, that every- *The New York Sun. THE WHITE SLAVERY 257 thing was so thoroughly unionized that no independ- ent worker could get a job and hold it for twenty- four hours. Finally the conditions became so intol- erable from official corruption and the usual methods of unionism, that the law-abiding citizens rose up and threw off the yoke of oppression, sent the union mayor to the penitentiary, and elected city officials who were not dominated by the unions. For the purpose of preventing independent work- ers from filling the places of striking employees, the masters of the union slavery have invented a scheme which they call peaceable picketing, a scheme by which the striking employees are massed and divided into detachments of two, four, six to a dozen men and sent out to guard all the approaches to the plant or place of business in which they had given up their jobs to go out on strike, for the purpose of intercept- ing every independent worker going to or coming from his work, morning and evening, and persuade him with clubs and brass knuckles, to leave his em- ployer to enable the union to win its fight. Think of two to a dozen men wearing the brand of the union, waiting in the path of an honest toiler for him to come along so that they can peaceably persuade him with clubs and brass knuckles to give up his job, or not to take a job offered him. Such conduct is too cowardly to be thought of among free men jealous of their rights, and too transparently dishonest to be thought of as peaceful picketing. This peaceful picketing means, and the masters have always in- tended that it should mean, a demonstration in force, 258 THE WHITE SLAVEEY that if the independent worker going to the plant or place of business to seek employment, or who has already secured employment, does not when inter- cepted by the picket, then and there solemnly prom- ise to make no further efforts to secure employment, and if already employed, to leave it at once, he is to be assaulted and beaten into insensibility, or per- haps cruelly murdered by the cowardly slaves who are usually in such force as to give him little chance of defending himself. In one instance of peaceful picketing, the pickets gave the alarm of approaching independent workers to fill the places of packing house strikers, and the masters assembled and massed the force of the union, attacked the independent workers in box cars and captured them, forty to fifty in number, and dragging them from the cars, marched them to union headquarters, where they were severely lectured and then deported, marched to the city limits and warned at the peril of their lives, not to return. And all this in the land we boast of as " the land of the free and home of the brave/' The representatives of envy, hate and self- ishness may well feel their importance when they are thus able to over ride the laws and exercise their autocratic authority without opposition. This militant organization, with officers to direct the operations of belligerent forces, as in peaceful picket- ing, or enmasse, ignores the laws of the land, sets up its authority as paramount to the authority of the peoples government, and like a foreign force or invad- ing army, captures citizens, deports or paroles them, or THE WHITE SLAVERY 259 murders them as it sees fit. If such conduct is not treasonable, the word treason has lost its meaning. Think of the thousands of peaceable, law-abiding citizens who have been injured and even murdered by the partisans of the union slavery, and how few of their number have paid the penalty of their crimes, or have even been restrained from commit- ting further crimes. The time has come when the friends of law and order, the friends of organized society should fight back when assaulted by the enemies of our country, and see to it that we shall not be so stupid as to allow them to destroy more of TIS than we destroy or injure of them. General Sher- man said that war is hell, and the masters of the union slavery have made their incessent, one-sided wars of piracy and slave-making, murder and de- struction of property, for nearly forty years, a hell to this country without receiving blow for blow as they deserved. This organization of envy, hate and selfishness that teaches its members to be disloyal to our government, disloyal to the communities where it has any influence, disloyal to the interests of em- ployers, and to brutally persecute their more unfor- tunate brothers, deserves to be treated as an alien in- stitution until it displays a sense of loyalty to our Government and shows some interest in the common welfare. There is a saying as old as the time of Thalez, that tyrants rarely die natural deaths, and the histories of the nations of the Old World show us that the thrones of their rulers have frequently been stained 260 THE WHITE SLAVERY with blood of tyrants. This fact should be an im- pressive lesson for "the master of a million minds ;" chief tyrant and oppressor of the slaves whom he has helped to make, and whose families he has helped to starve by robbing them of the earnings due them ; chief fiend of the fiends whom he has helped to edu- cate to carry the torch, to rob, murder, and dynamite the thousands of innocent victims, men, women and children, who have never harmed him or his partners in hate and crime; chief teacher of hate and envy towards those who wish to live in peace and broth- erly love, and who do not ask any more rights and privileges than they are willing to concede to all others. The saying about tyrants should be an im- pressive lesson to the chief tyrant and disturber of social order, for suppose that by a psychological suggestion some of the desperate characters whom he has been instrumental in educating in envy, hate and crime, should have their attention directed to him and his associate tyrants and teachers, with the view of becoming heroes in the transaction by mak- ing him a victim of the teachings of his own wicked- ness. The teachers of envy, hate and selfishness are either traitors to the country, or aliens, and in the event of becoming victims of those whom they have educated in crime, who would feel interest enough to make complaint about a matter which nearly every one would regard in the light of alien thieves falling out among themselves. They should be able to see that the men they are training to do their foul and bloody work, might come to see as much glory in THE WHITE SLAVEEY 261 giving them a taste of their own perfidy, as in obey- ing orders to butcher poor helpless " scabs/' pour carbolic acid in their mouths or gouge their eyes out while engaged in efforts to support their families by honest toil. If the "master of a million minds " should be knocked down with brass knuckles and kicked and cuffed and have his ribs broken and an eye gouged out by some of his trained thugs or sluggers, what right would he have to appeal to the constituted authorities for protection or redress, or to have his assailants punished, after having trea- sonably set up his authority in many instances as paramount to the established authority of the peo- ple ? He seems to be advancing to such a position at a rapid pace, unless he is more fortunate than most other tyrants of the world who brought about their own ruin. He does not seem to realize that he is play- ing with fire in the most careless manner. There is a widespread belief in a law of compensation; that whatsoever a man measures out to another, shall in due course be measured back unto him. Before the abolition of slavery, an abolitionist wearing a cotton fabric or garment, by the law of association, could hardly look upon it without the thought coming into his mind, that the material of the garment in the raw state was produced by slave hands, by men restrained of their liberty, men who were bought and sold and held as chattels as other live stock. Wherever cotton goods were offered for sale, they bore the seal of the negro slavery of the South, because the Slave States of the South pro- 262 THE WHITE SLAVEEY duced by slave labor nearly all the cotton used in the factories of England and this country. Those familiar with the laws of psychology know that the sight of an object will generally bring into the mind the thought of another object; that we cannot hear a voice without thinking of the person whose voice it is, or trying to associate it with some one we know. Every intelligent, thinking man wearing a cotton garment knew that every fibre in it, when traced back through the various transformations to the cotton seed planted in the ground, had passed through the hands of slaves who were deprived of their liberty, their independence and freedom, on account of the color of their skins. These cotton goods, the trade mark of negro slavery, were a con- stant reminder to the liberty-loving man, the aboli- tionist, that it was his duty to arouse the public con- science and to educate it in every possible manner to a realization of the great wrong of slavery; that it should find no favor with a conscious, self-respect- ing, liberty-loving people, and that there should be no cessation of the agitation until every slave should be free. Shall we, who passed through that great crisis and who did our part in bringing about the emancipation of some four millions of negro slaves of the South, stand idle while liberty lies prostrate and bleeding and not raise our voice in protest against the continued existence of the union slavery and make no effort to emancipate the two millions of union slaves? Every man jealous of his own rights, should be and generally is, jealous to the point THE WHITE SLAVERY 263 of insistence, on the equal rights of all other men. Every man who places a proper estimate on his inde- pendence and freedom, and who desires the inde- pendence and freedom and equal rights of all other men, should not buy or use any article of manufac- ture bearing the Union Label, the trade mark of union slavery. Every free man who sees that label on any article of manufacture, should reflect a mo- ment on its history and what it stands for. He should reflect that it stands for a system of union slavery that has for its object the destruction of industrial and commercial freedom everywhere, and is in many respects more intolerable to communities and more debasing to the slaves than was negro slavery. He should reflect that it stands for a sys- tem of union slavery in which the slaves are bound to masters who are constantly using them to enslave other men; to control and supervise the business of merchants, manufactures and all other lines of trade employing labor; to persecute to the bitter end all members known to have expressed a wish for inde- pendence and freedom, and to have fallen under the curse of the unions and to attack the business of communities and individuals by bringing about the suspension of business, a state of anarchy, riot and bloodshed, and losses running into millions of dollars, because the communities would not consent to the blackmailing demands of the wild, reckless masters. The label of the union slavery attached to any article of manufacture, tells the buyer more eloquently than words can describe, that it is the trade mark of a 264 THE WHITE SLAVERY despotism of hate and selfishness in partnership with anarchy, crime and treason, that has been more heartless and cruel to those from whom it exacts allegiance, and employers whom it has reduced to subjection, than any other slavery that ever existed ; that it has been more destructive and demoralizing to the best interest of communities, than pestilences, than the losses by fires, floods and earthquakes ; that it has attacked peaceable, law-abiding citizens whose only offense was a determination to exercise their inalienable right of independence and freedom, with a fierceness and cruelty unknown among the lowest savages. This label, the trade mark of the union slavery, reminds us that like the black flag, it is a sign or symbol that those who use it give no quarter to those who do not give allegiance to it. No intel- ligent and conscientious man will contend that this label on any article of manufacture, means anywhere good will and fraternal relations among men, or that its use tends to develop fraternal relations among all classes of our national family. No matter where it is used, it is a sign of slavery and envy, hate and selfishness that ought not to be perpetuated. CHAPTER XX. SLAVES NEVER WIN THEIR OWN FREEDOM UNAIDED BY OUTSIDE INFLUENCES. The bettering of the conditions of the oppressed never comes from the complaints of the oppressed to their masters. Before the oppressed find relief from their oppressions, others than their masters must be touched with sympathy and a sense of justice. The enactment of laws for the prevention of the cruelty to animals was never brought about by the complaints of the abused animals. And further along in the evolution of our race, the abolition of the custom of making slaves of prisoners of war, as in ancient Greek and Roman times, was not accomp- lished by the complaints and pleadings of the pris- oners, that it was wrong to hold them as slaves. No intelligent, thoughtful man will contend that the abolition of domestic slavery in this country, was accomplished by the prayers and petitions and ex- positions of their wrongs by the slaves themselves. The abolition of the tortures and cruelties of the Inquisition was brought about by the victims, only in so far as they assisted by vigorous dieussion in developing sentiments of sympathy, justice and equal rights among the most progressive men of the times. Nor have the bettering of the conditions of the labor- 265 266 THE WHITE SLAVERY ing men of this country been accomplished by the teachings of hate of those calling themselves cham- pions of labor, for these champions have uniformly been on the side of those who have denied equal rights and justice for all, and have plead and de- manded special privileges and immunities for a small faction of labor, which they call organized labor. Indeed those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions have done more to oppress the laboring men of this country, except the faction of organized labor they represent, than all other causes put together. It was not on account of the growing sentiments of sympathy and justice, but a knowledge of the fact that prisoners could be made more useful as slaves than by eating them, that brought about the abolition of cannibalism of prisoners among our an- cestors. It was through the evolution of the senti- ments of sympathy and justice and equal rights, that caused the abolition of the tortures and cruelties of the Inquisition in Spain. It was through the evolu- tion of these same sentiments, by heated and persis- tent discussions, that brought about the abolition of African slavery in this country. And it will be by the further evolution of these same sentiments through persistent discussion that will bring about the abolition of union slavery of this country, the slaves of which are still held as tightly in the grasp of their masters, as the negro slaves were held by their masters. The man of broad sympathies who pleads for equal rights and justice for all, would have THE WHITE SLAYEKY 267 a cruel man arrested and fined for beating his over- burdened horse, whereas a pretended champion of labor will stand by and see half a dozen of his loyal slaves beat into insensibility and even to death, a fel- low laborer because that fellow laborer has the cour- age of his convictions to stand for individual free- dom, equal rights and justice. The conduct of those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, which is absolutely bad, will have the useful purpose of calling the attention of thinking, fair-minded people to the character of the unions and their aims. The rapid growth of the anti-slavery sen- timent in this country, was due to the manner in which the evils of slavery were laid before the people in addresses and by lectures of the ablest thinkers of the country. When prisoners were held by their cannibal cap- tors for future use, they were distributed among them in such manner that they had no opportunity to discuss their condition among themselves, to plan concerted movements, or to mass their strength to effect their escape. If they tried to escape singly without weapons of offense or defense, they were certain to be overtaken and slaughtered and eaten by their captors. The spider by its bite will paralyze its prey to hold it alive until needed, so in the con- flicts between primitive groups of men the victors sometimes lamed their prisoners that they might be easily held until needed. In all forms of slavery, the individual has more freedom than a prisoner, for he may go and come 268 THE WHITE SLAVERY and perform many duties out of sight of his master and without fear of bodily harm while his actions are in obedience to his master's will. Should any intimation or information come to the master that his slave has a thought of freedom, he at once be- comes more severe with him and diminishes his lib- erty and sees to it as far as practicable that he does not infect other slaves with his rebellious ideas or desire for freedom. In times of negro slavery in the South, the discussions and arguments of the aboli- tionists of the North, were not allowed to reach the ears of the slaves, and any white man found or even suspected of talking to slaves about their freedom, was certain to be severely dealt with, perhaps whipped like a slave, tarred and feathered and warned to leave. The slaves had no chance to form secret societies and to discuss ways and means for concerted action and massing their strength and striking for freedom. Even if they had managed to secure preconcerted action and to mass their strength of a considerable section and strike for freedom, they would have met with inevitable defeat when pur- sued, overtaken and attacked by the organized forces of the State. It was by the constant and persistent agitation and discussion of the abolitionists by means of the press and lectures, that the public conscience was awakened and educated up to see the blight of slavery, and that prepared the way for the emanci- pation of the slaves, when the war, which had been precipitated by the leaders of the slave power, had been in progress about two years. After the eman- THE WHITE SLAVERY 269 cipation proclamation was issued, giving the slaves their freedom, they were then able and did perform yoeman's service in fighting for their freedom under the leadership of their friends. Now it will probably be as difficult for the union slaves of this country to escape from their ever-vig- ilant masters as it was for the prisoners of primitive tribes taken in battle, to escape from their cannibal captors, until the public conscience is awakened and educated up to see and feel the horrors of the union slavery. Those who stand for great public evils, like the masters of the union slavery, are always defiant and overbearing, and like " the master of a million minds/' are fond of fulminating veiled threats of something terrible that will happen if they do not have their way, in paralyzing or destroying their intended victims. The friends of liberty, independ- ence and equal rights, should have thorough organ- ization to meet the constant guerilla warfare of the masters of the union slavery on the industrial activ- ities of the country, and when the emancipation proc- lamation shall have been issued, giving freedom to the union slaves, they can and doubtless will per- form splendid service, in fighting for their liberty and industrial freedom. When men once lose their freedom, they rarely, if ever, have the courage to take the initiative to recover it without the assist- ance of outside influence, for it is well known that if any of the white slaves intimate a desire for inde- pendence and freedom, and that desire is made known to their masters, the dissatisfied slaves are 270 THE WHITE SLAVEEY quickly made to feel that the chains of their bondage are drawn tighter. If the anathema " in sympathy with scabs," hurled at the offending member is not sufficient to drive him into submission, the educa- tional committee of the union may take him in charge, and nothing further is likely to be heard of his desire for independence and freedom. By this system of oppression and tyranny of the masters of the union slavery, it is difficult for most men of the trades to resist the pressure brought to bear to force them into the unions, and having been forced in, it is almost impossible for the victims to have the courage and tact to get out while the com- munity is so cowardly as to have a mortal fear of offending the masters. In some communities where this oppressive tyranny has had a firm hold, it has been almost as difficult for its victims, or intended victims, to escape from the masters of the union slavery, as it was for the prisoners of primitive tribes to escape from their cannibal captors, or for the negro slaves to escape from their masters in the South. An industrious man with a family to support, with a decided leaning towards independence and industrial freedom, and who does not wish to join the union, says to his wife, ' ' What shall I do. An organ- izer of the unions has been after me and told me that terrible things will happen to me if I do not join the organization ; that I will be looked down upon by all laboring men and called a scab if I refuse to join. My employer expresses himself as satisfied with my work, but tells me that he will have to discharge me THE WHITE SLAVERY 271 or all his union employees will strike, or if he has no union employees that he will have to discharge me because the union has demanded it, and will boy- cott him if he does not discharge me." Every intelligent fair-minded man knows that this is not an exaggerated statement of the case, and he must also know that every class of any community that submits to such intolerable conditions, is being bound as firmly as the meanest slave of the unions. An evil like the unions not only oppresses those whom the masters drive into the organization, but its galling oppression is felt more or less by all classes who would like to enjoy independence and freedom, equal rights and justice. It sometimes looks as if the evil of the union slavery had taken such hold upon our country as to require a desperate remedy to remove it. The slave-making chiefs of Africa who made war on neighboring tribes to cap- ture people of their own race to sell into slavery, and the officers of the ships in the slave trade, were not engaged in a more cruel and heartless business, than the masters who are engaged in fastening the union slavery upon the country. Through the cow- ardice and indifference of those of our people who are capable of placing a proper estimate on indi- vidual freedom and independence, the masters have so firmly established the union slavery upon the coun- try, that the slaves by their own efforts and initia- tive would never be able to recover their independ- ence and freedom without assistance and influence outside their organization. 272 THE WHITE SLAVEEY We who believe that a man should be restrained and fined for beating his horse or mule; we who believe in extending altruistic acts of every kind towards our fellowmen as far as practicable without impairing our own usefulness and happiness, and we who believe that every man should have freedom to do all that he wills provided that he infringes not the equal freedom of all other men, should awaken to the danger of the new form of slavery, that threatens the very foundations of our liberties ; that threatens the destruction of all law and order, and that has, when it has felt strong enough, set up its authority as paramount to the authority of the peoples govern- ment. We who have enlisted for the war for the preservation of free institutions, and for the aboli- tion of the new form of slavery, that has become such a menace to our civilization, have inscribed on our banners " industrial and commercial freedom, and equal rights for all, with special privileges for none." While all the people of our country should dwell together in peace and brotherly love and re- spect for each others rights, as the members of one great family, the enemy to such views, the masters of the union slavery who make ceaseless guerilla war on orderly government, teach their slaves a religion of hate ; to hate everything and everybody who does not meekly submit to the teachings of the league of hate and crime and special privileges. To stop the extension of the union slavery and to free those already enslaved, our campaigns should be devoted mainly to the education of the susceptible, THE WHITE SLAVERY 273 and to inspiring with courage those inclined to be weak, that they may go forth as missionaries in the good cause of enlightenment and freedom, respect and brotherly love. Special efforts should be made to impress upon all classes the fallacy and wicked- ness of the doctrine of hate, hatred of everything that we regard as best, that befouls every breath of the masters of the union slavery in their crusade of stirring up strife between those who should be friends. There are no two sides to the questions as to whether a man shall be free or a slave, for in the Declaration of Independence our fathers declared that * ' we hold these truths self-evident, that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." Probably nearly nine-tenths of our people believe in the free- dom and independence of the individual, that the freedom of each should be limited only by the like freedom of all, but there are too many who have not the moral courage of their convictions, and so long as their own rights are not directly invaded, are too indifferent to the conduct of their f ellowmen towards each other. It is owing to the moral apathy and in- difference of the intelligent and substantial classes of our people as to that which has been going on around them, that the union slavery has been permitted to get such firm hold upon the country that it may re- quire a bloody war to overthrow it. CHAPTER XXI. INSTITUTIONS AND MEN JUDGED BY THEIR CONDUCT. In order to evade responsibility for their acts, labor organizations refuse to incorporate and operate under State Charters, showing clearly that they do not propose to be governed in their conduct by the laws of the land, the law of equal freedom, equal rights and justice. Those who control and direct the principles and policies of these organizations have not yet made sufficient intellectual and moral prog- ress to understand that one part of the social organ- ism cannot be injured without injuring all other parts ; that one part cannot be perfectly free until all are free; that one part cannot be perfectly moral until all are moral ; that one part cannot be perfectly happy until all are happy. There was a time when the dogs of different quarters of Constantinople who lived on the garbage and refuse of the city, would fiercely attack the dogs of other quarters of the city who invaded their territory to share with them in feeding on the refuse. And history informs us that most of the wars between savage tribes have been caused by invading each others hunting grounds or territory in pursuit of game. So we see in the con- duct of the unions the survival of that predatory 274 THE WHITE SLAVERY 275 instinct of supreme selfishness which will not tolerate any one outside the organization to compete with it in the labor market for the work to be done in any of the lines of trade for which its members are fitted. With the evolution of sympathy and the moral senti- ments in those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, and its members, the pred- atory instinct, and the instinct which takes no more account of the rights of others than those of the tribe or clan, must gradually die out, because those posses- sing such instincts will be placed at a disadvantage in the struggle for life. In the savage state when the members of a tribe were obliged to struggle with wild animals and other savages, only the strong, cunning, selfish and unsympathetic were fit to sur- vive for the weak and sympathetic would be the first to fall before their selfish and unsympathetic ene- mies. For long ages after conquering chiefs had consolidated tribes into nations, and men were obliged to live in the presence of each other under some form of government or control, they still re- tained selfish, unsympathetic natures which fitted them for the destructive activities of the savage, un- sympathetic state. Considering the natures of their environments it was needful that they should still retain in a large measure, selfish unsympathetic natures while they were liable to attack by other tribes or nations in whom such selfish, unsympathetic natures predominated. Even now after all the pro- gress that has been made towards an ideal social state, peaceful nations and individuals must con- 276 THE WHITE SLAVERY stantly keep themselves in defensive attitudes against the aggressions of the selfish and unsympa- thetic. There has been a good deal of talk in recent years, when discussing social questions, social prob- lems, about the brotherhood of the human race. That sounds well in connection with thoughts of ideal social conditions, but such conditions are very far off in the future, and have little more than a specu- lative interest for us. What we want first is a brotherhood of the people of the same nation, or same race, meaning by brotherhood a recognition by all of the equal rights of each to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness ; a recognition that the free- dom of each shall be limited only by the like freedom of all. From our first settlements in this country along the shores of the Atlantic, we have had to struggle with Indians and wild animals, and some of our people have been engaged partly in the preda- tory life of hunting and fighting, and some in the settled life of agricultural, manufacturing, mercan- tile and other kinds of industrial pursuits. While all this was going on the children of our fathers were inheriting predispositions and tendencies fit- ting them for destructive activities and peaceful activities. Hence as a matter of self-preservation, we have been obliged to give considerable play to the selfish and unsympathetic feelings, thus prevent- ing the more rapid development of the altruistic and sympathetic feelings. But now the Indians have been brought under control, and excite no fears of the population, and the wild animals against which THE WHITE SLAVERY 277 we have had to contend, have been mostly destroyed, so that in the future there should be an increasing development of the altruistic and sympathetic sides of our lives, an increasing recognition of each others equal rights. Thus the unions with their concomitant strikes, picketing of the plants of employers, intimidating, assaulting and murdering of independent workers, may be looked upon as a passing phase of that primi- tive life when strength and valor were the traits that made men distinguished and measured their greatness according to the estimates of their fellow- men. From whatever point of view looked at, the union slavery like the negro slavery of the South, is an evanescent form of evil, a survival of barbar- ism, which we are certain to outgrow, as certain as anything in the future may be foretold. Both of these forms of slavery, negro slavery and the union slavery represent the phase of our moral and intel- lectual development, and the degree of our fitness for an ideal social state, just as the different pale- ontological remains found in different geological strata, represent the different forms of life which have lived and died during the past history of the earth. An organization like the unions must always be judged by the general conduct of those who control and direct its principles and policies, and not by their professions, which are intended to deceive the uncritical and unsuspecting. It is the almost univer- sal verdict of all men outside the ranks of the unions, 278 THE WHITE SLAVERY that the kind of unionism that has prevailed in recent years in this country, has had a tendency to make its members trouble-breeders and disturbers of the peace of communities, disloyal to the interests of employers, disloyal to the government, and always ready on the slightest pretext to go on a strike, engage in riots and in the destruction of property of employers, and intimidate, assault or murder inde- pendent workers who take their places. When a man in the employ of another feels that he can no longer be loyal to the interests of his employer and regards him as an enemy, he should have enough self-respect to give up his job at once and not ask to be taken back. It is a strange sort of man who does not wish to be worthy of his hire ; who does not wish his service to be the service of a free man in fulfill- ment of a contract between two free men. The men who were ready at a moment's notice to turn dis- loyal to the interests of their employer, to their com- munity and to their country, expect the men whom they employ to be loyal to their interests. If they found that their physicians were keeping them sick to increase their bills for professional services, to get money out of them, or were guilty of malpractice, they would not hesitate to bring suit for damages against them. If their lawyers to whom they had paid retainers, took cases against them, or gave con- fidential information secured from them to the other side, they would not regard such conduct as loyal to their interests, and they would no doubt make great complaint about it. We may suppose that THE WHITE SLAVEBY 279 these unionists would discharge their physicians and lawyers after finding out their disloyal conduct, and employ other physicians and lawyers in whom they had confidence. And then suppose the discharged physicians and lawyers should notify their patients and clients that they would not allow other physi- cians and lawyers to treat their patients and handle the litigation of their clients, and we have an illus- tration of the conduct of organized labor of almost daily occurrence. We are closely approaching the time when for his own protection the employer of labor will be more careful in taking into his employ men whom he may have reason to believe will be disloyal to his inter- ests, and who would be ready on the suggestion or at a sign from an outsider who has no interest in common with the community, to break a contract solemnly and mutually entered into. We have now made enough progress towards an ideal social state, to warrant the belief that men cannot willfully and persistently ignore the equal rights of others without bringing punishment upon themselves in loss of com- forts and happiness, which an honest and straight forward course would certainly have negatived. Those who are ready to play the traitor to their bene- factors, to those to whom they should be loyal, will be judged by their conduct and not by their profes- sions, and as they are even now greatly in the min- ority, their progressive elimination must go on with the increasing respect men have for each rthers rights to industrial and commercial freedom 280 THE WHITE SLAVERY Those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, are fond of expatiating on their efforts to emancipate the laboring classes from the thralldom or servitude of capital, meaning of course the union faction of labor. While pretending to the public that they are champions of all laboring men, they do not tell us that they are the champions of the labor trust, and are all the time making des- perate efforts to secure a monopoly of labor for the unions, the members of the trust, and that they have been making a bitter war to prevent free laboring men, who constitute more than nine-tenths of all labor from getting work at all. Those whom the masters of the union slavery claim to have emanci- pated, appear to the free and independent laborer, to have only changed masters, to have changed from the masters who gave them bread and clothing and comforts for their labor, to masters who absorb their wages and give them only promises, hunger and squalor for their loyalty as slaves. If the masters of the union slavery had something substantial to show for their high sounding promises ; if they could point to the numerous happy homes their followers owned in their own right in the communities where they live, and of their desirable citizenship, then union- ism would have something to commend it to a ra- tional mind. It would also have much to condemn it, if it were shown that for every union man who had prospered, nine free laborers were deprived of their right to work and had lost the good things that hon- est toil will bring. The free and independent laborer THE WHITE SLAVEEY 281 may well exclaim, "save me from the emancipation which unionism offers." As men become more inde- pendent, free and intelligent, they will insist that unionism shall be judged by its fruits, by the condi- tions of those who enlist under its standard, and their conduct as desirable or undesirable citizens. It must be able to show that its members are better off in every respect, have more of the comforts of life, than the free and independent laborer engaged in like pur- suits, and display as much patriotism and interest in the common welfare as other citizens, to commend it to intelligent, thinking men. Those who control and direct its principles and policies, should adopt en- lightened, modern methods, in dealing with those from whom they seek favors, instead of the brutal, domineering and coercive methods of primitive tribal chiefs, to give it standing with men jealous of their freedom. They appeal to prejudice and class bias, instead of reason and common sense to influence those whom they desire to bring into their organiza- tion. In the face of the millions of dollars given every year by men of altruistic instincts, for the founding and support of colleges, libraries, museums, and laboratories, unionism has nothing to offer for the common good but a growl and a pinched expression of hate and envy and greed of its leaders. In its leadership it nowhere inculcates thrift, economy sobriety, morality, patriotism and respect for the laws and the rights of others. Its leaders are ignor- ant, and conceited and selfish and unsympathetic and 282 THE WHITE SLAVERY display no interest in the common welfare, and en- deavor to keep alive their primitive, barbarous methods after the people generally have outgrown them. Its reckless waste of the efforts and energy of its members by those who control and direct its principles and policies, if properly husbanded, would have provided an insurance fund that would have amply secured the families of deceased members against want and poverty, and supported living members in old age and during periods of enforced idleness caused by recurring financial and industrial disturbances. An educational campaign should be inaugurated under the auspices of an altruistic fund to expose the fallacies and wickedness of the masters of the union slavery and to enlighten the minds of the members of labor organizations to see their own interests, which are always bound up with the inter- ests of the community. Our efforts and energy are rapidly coming into competition with the efforts and energy of foreign nations in such manner that we cannot afford to con- tinue the reckless waste of these life and comfort- giving forces, which are being dissipated by the dominance of union labor leaders. If we are to hold our place in the world as a nation fit to live, and as approaching nearest to ideal social conditions, we should regard every unit or foot-pound of energy expended as precious as grains of gold to be treas- ured up in securing life-giving substances and com- forts. We should endeavor to arouse among the members of labor organizations a spirit of investiga- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 283 tion that will tend to free them from the bondage and grip of selfish and unprincipled masters who hold nothing before them but a plodding, tread-mill kind of life, and the knowledge of a constant ab- stracting of their wages for war funds for the sup- port of strikers and the masters of the union slav- ery who have a dread of grinding toil and sweat shops. It should not be difficult to show the most intelligent of the members, that there has never been a strike that filled the larder, better clothed the children, brightened the hopes of the wife, strength- ened the individuality and independence of the father, or added comforts and material prosperity to the family. We believe that there is a large field of usefulness for labor organizations, but that the field of usefulness should be along different lines than those hitherto followed, which have made their existence depend upon trespassing upon the rights of others; that they should be altruistic in character as provided in the Federal statutes giving them a legal status, instead of militant and supremely selfish in character. Let the surplus energy of the members of these organizations be directed to securing useful employment for their more unfortunate brothers and helping them in various ways to make life more tol- erable and worth living, and this too without inter- fering with the rights of other men to work for whom and under such conditions as suits them. There are many ways in which we can be like sup- plementary eyes and ears to our neighbors and more beneficial to them than by giving them a part of our 284 THE WHITE SLAVERY substance. Would it not be better to have pointed out to us methods of preventing the waste of our energies, than to give us outright the amount of our wasted energies in life-giving necessities and com- forts? There are many channels into which the sur- plus energy of labor organizations might be turned for the common good, instead of to the common injury as now. The burden of the argument of labor agitators has been that there is eternal war between labor and capital, a fallacy they do not care to have corrected, as they are the only beneficiaries from such wars. There is and justly so, enternal war be- tween all free labor and capital and those who con- trol and direct the principles and policies of factional labor, or organized labor to the end of securing and holding a monopoly of all labor, for this less than one-tenth of all labor. In this country practically every man who is not a public charge, is a laborer, and owns some capital, and according to the doc- trine of the labor agitator must be at war with him- self. Where shall we draw the line between the pea- nut-vender and the man of millions and say this man is not a capitalist and this man is? All labor may be regarded as an expenditure of energy di- rected to accomplish a given purpose, and may be classed as useful or useless, and as physical or men- tal. By studying the transformation and equiva- lence of forces we find that so many bushels of wheat or corn as food may be transformed into so many units of energy, and that so many units of energy may be transformed into so many bushels of corn THE WHITE SLAVERY 285 or wheat. The amount of energy a man expends in producing a bushel of wheat or corn, may be ex- pended by another man to no useful purpose, as sitting on a drygoods box day after day whittling a stick, or in haranguing idle loafers to hate and envy their industrious and provident neighbors. The man who wastes his energy day after day must live on the surplus products of his transformed energy in the past, or on the transformed energy of some one else. No man who is not a proper burden upon the State, in this country, should live on the transformed energy of others. We who have been free and independent workers all our lives, and who ask no more freedom, no more privileges, no more liberty of action than we are will- ing to concede to all others, and who are many times more numerous than the membership of organized labor, challenge a comparison, member for member in the different trades and professions, with the mem- bership of organized labor, as to sobriety, morality, patriotism, property interests, and all those elements which make for good citizenship. Free labor claims that it can and does make a better showing than the membership of organized labor in all those elements essential to our progress towards an ideal social state. Free labor also claims that statistics will show that the free and independent worker has greater respect for the law, greater respect for the keeping of solemn contracts, greater respect for the equal rights of others, and provides better for his family in the way of owning a home and comforts than 286 THE WHITE SLAVERY those who have surrendered their individuality, inde- pendence and freedom to their masters of organized labor. The man who surrenders his independence and industrial freedom to a slick-tongued labor agi- tator or confidence man, on a showing of being bene- fited by the injury of some one else, may be a good conscientious man in many respects, but such men are frequently made dangerous instruments of op- pression when under the influence of unprincipled and ignorant leaders. We believe that if these peo- ple who have been induced by the teachers of hate, envy and selfishness to surrender their independence and freedom, on promise of receiving in return sub- stantial benefits, by the ruin other honest men could be reached and impressed with the rational views which govern free and independent workers, that they would in large numbers break away from the thralldom in which they are held by tyrannical mas- ters who have robbed and deprived them of millions of dollars of their earnings for years without giving them the promised rewards for their loyalty. The masters of the union slavery have a terrible indict- ment constantly facing them, if they would but see it displayed in the sad countenances of the wives and husbands in thousands of homes made desolate by the ill-advised strike, by the quitting of employ- ment that was both agreeable and remunerative, at the suggestion of a walking delegate or man in whom they had confided their most vital interests. No matter how conscientious and honest people may be, if they accept bad advice, advice which THE WHITE SLAVEEY 287 causes them to ignore and attempt to trample upon the rights of others, they are certain to bring upon themselves the hard conditions they were ready to impose upon others. There is great room for men of altruistic inclinations to assist in putting before such misguided people the best thought of the great thinkers of the world in regard to the ideal relations which should exist between men. Only by an aggres- sive campaign of education will it be possible to open the eyes of members of labor organizations to the folly and wickedness of the masters of the union slavery in endeavoring to keep them in darkness in regard to their true interests as demanded by indus- trial freedom. There is a common expression that governments are about as good as the average of the people for whom they exist, which means that unionism is about as good as the average of its mem- bership. It is probably true that the government of every people is the kind that they require, and that they would not tolerate any other radically different. The Russian people for instance, have not been sufficiently schooled in self-control, toleration and respect for each others rights to make our form of government acceptable or practicable for them. If they were qualified for living under our form of government they would soon have it. And so we say that institutions and men must be judged by their conduct, as to how far they are fit for living under ideal, social conditions. CHAPTER XXII. TRADE SCHOOLS TO FURNISH SKILLED LABOR. We mean by Trade School, a school under State or municipal control, or a private or incorporated school, equipped for teaching the trades, and whose function it is to teach the different trades to young men who desire to prepare themselves for certain trades or professions. It should be noted that the manual training school is different from the trade school in its purposes and aims, in this, that its work is in the line of higher education. Very few of the young men attending these schools have any thought of becoming wage earners in any of the skilled trades. It is the aim and purpose of the trade schools to make the young men graduating from them finished and skilled workmen in the different trades they have chosen for life pursuits, the same as apprentices who served full terms under masters under the old system. There are many advantages to the young man who graduates from the trades school over the young man who serves his apprenticeship under a master of the closed shop of the union slavery. A young man graduated from a trade school over which daily waves our national flag, and who has been constantly 288 THE WHITE SLAVEEY 289 impressed with ideas of loyalty to our Government, loyalty to the community in which he lives, loyalty to himself and his family, and who feels and shows an interest in the common welfare, will certainly be more acceptable to an employer than a young man who has served his apprenticeship under a master of the closed shop of the union slavery, with the teachings of hate for the employer, hate for inde- pendent workmen, hate for honest work, hate for the man who would do honest work, hate for the man who would be loyal to our Government and love our flag, hate for the man who would be loyal to his community, and feel a loyal interest in the common welfare, and who has been particularly im- pressed with the importance of the methods of en- forcing the demands of the unions by strikes, boy- cotts, picketing, slugging independent workers, and of the destruction of property. Even if the closed shops of the unions allowed a sufficient number of apprentices to supply the de- mands of employers for skilled labor, which they do not, there is still objection of a fair-minded em- ployer to using that kind of labor graduated from the school of hate and selfishness of the closed shop, in which the young men are taught like aliens to have no interest in common with the community. The young men turned out from such schools are likely to be much more efficient organizers and man- agers of strikes, boycotts, and picketing, than effi- cient workmen for an employer, and more like fire- brands than messengers of peace. 290 THE WHITE SLAVERY Why should any employer or any man who feels an interest in the common welfare, wish to encourage and sustain nurseries of crime and treason of the unions even if they did turn out efficient skilled workmen, which they do not? Already the officials of the unions are beginning to see the handwriting on the wall, and are endeavoring to secure the en- actment of laws to prevent the discrimination against the inefficient slave labor they have been furnishing. For the purpose of keeping the wages of skilled labor of the different trades above the normal level, it has been the policy of union officials to restrict apprenticeships in the closed shops which they have dominated, so that only a very small proportion of young men to the number of journeymen employed, have been allowed to learn the trades, thus making it impossible for employers to secure efficient skilled labor of the kinds they desired. The right of a boy to learn the trade of his choice should be as free to him as the air and the sunlight, and that the narrow selfish policy of the unions in barring American boys from the trades, has made the development of trade schools a necessity, a necessity too, that must tend to the elimination of the nurseries of crime and trea- son of the closed shops of the unions. Think of the heartless selfish greed of the masters of the union slavery, who deliberately drive Ameri- can boys into wasted lives and crime rather than allow them to exercise their natural rights to learn trades and become useful citizens. Let any one who wishes to ascertain the causes which led the inmates THE WHITE SLAVERY 291 of the penal institutions and the reformatories of the country into criminal conduct, inquire of the superintendents of these institutions, and he will find that investigations show that about ninety per cent, of the inmates have no knowledge of any of the trades. There is no doubt that men of good habits and skilled in any of the trades can always find employment at good wages, and are not as likely to form criminal associations as men without a knowl- edge of any trade. While we are all deeply interested in the import- ance of the work of the Institutes of Preventive Medicine, and in the laboratory work of such men as Simon Flexner in investigations in regard to im- munity from diseases, which have annually swept away thousands of our race, it is also gratifying to know that there are men equally earnest in their investigations in regard to the causes of crime, and the remedies for the prevention of crime. It is the judgment of those who have investigated the causes of crime, as far as we know, that they regard the surest remedy for the prevention of crime, would be to have our boys learn useful trades and profes- sions. It is a strange commentary on our social life when thinking men of altruistic inclinations should feel obliged to protest that the States are doing more for the criminal boy who is sent to a reforma- tory where he gets his board and clothing, and where he is put to learning a trade that will make him self- supporting when he gets out, than they are willing to do for the boy who is not a criminal, and who is 292 THE WHITE SLAVERY not allowed to learn a trade on account of unionism gone mad. Through the pig-headedness of the masters of the union slavery and teachers of envy, hate and selfishness, in barring our American boys from the trades, many of these boys have committed petty offenses that will send them to reformatories where they get their board and clothing and a chance of learning a trade. It has been stated that foreign parents in some of our cities, having become ac- quainted with the advantages of this scheme, have encouraged their children to commit petty offenses, in order to be sent to the reformatory, and after being sent there, of writing them and urging them to learn the English language and a trade so that when they get out they could speak good English and have a useful trade. When the slavery of the unions has become so oppressive under its masters that a member dare not teach his own trade to his son, it is time that the public should lose patience and assert its rights; it is time that it should insist on giving the sons of poor parents as good a chance to learn a trade that will fit them for earning a living, as the boys released from reformatories and penal institutions. If then the want of knowledge of the trades has been a potent factor in driving so many of the youth of our country into wasted and criminal lives, as criminal statistics show, we have it in our power by establish- ing trade schools as a part of our public school sys- tem, and giving every boy an opportunity of learn- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 293 ing a trade, to prevent much of the crime chargeable to this educational deficiency. The old system of apprenticeship is passing away, and the trade schools afford the only means by which employers may hereafter secure skilled labor. Now if we find by investigations that by a false policy we are making a large proportion of our criminal population out of good material, every thinking man of altruistic inclinations, should not hesitate in lend- ing his influence to correct that policy. The trade schools for turning out useful skilled workmen, will be bitterly opposed by the masters of the union slavery, who fatten on the earnings of the members ; but as we consider the host more important than the parasites, the opposition and protests of selfish greed must be ignored. All progress has always met with opposition and always will, and any progressive measure to prove its fitness to live, must have its struggle with and destroy the influence of those who champion the more primitive methods and measures. Conditions have so changed that a common school education furnished by our public school system, which was sufficient up to thirty to forty years ago, to give a young man a fair chance of earning a live- lihood, is no longer sufficient. His common school education needs to be supplemented by a trade school education that will graduate him a skilled workman in the trade of his choice, and enable him to at once secure remunerative employment. It has been stated by those interested in the success of the trade schools, that there is a job ready for every man on 294 THE WHITE SLAVERY graduation as a skilled workman in his trade. There is cooperation too, between employers and officials of the trade schools in finding employment for the skilled workmen turned out by the schools. Nearly all employers of skilled labor are enthusias- tic believers in and supporters of the trade schools, many of them having contributed largely in their special lines in the equipment of these schools, so that when they need skilled workmen naturally turn to the trade schools to supply them, instead of to the unions. To save the annoyance from having to put up with the tainted and disloyal and inefficient skilled labor furnished by the unions, some large employers of labor have established their own trade schools for turning out their own skilled workmen. This generous altruism of manufacturers and em- ployers of labor in contributing largely to industrial schools and in establishing trade schools to enable young men to learn trades of their choice, without cost, is in sharp contrast with the selfish greed of the unions in requiring their members to pay heavy fees for permission to work, and of taking a heavy lien on every man's wages while he continues to work, even if it causes the suffering of his wife and children. When the union officials show a genuine altruism by seeing to it that not one cent shall be taken from the wages of the poor members and diverted from their families to support a government within a gov- ernment, with its expensive staffs, administrative departments, delegate conventions, and congressional THE WHITE SLAVERY 295 lobbies, they will no longer be charged with using the unions as a scheme for robbing and extorting from members their earnings to satisfy selfish greed and vanity. A young man graduating from a trade school and starting out to assume the responsibilities of life, has many advantages from his teachings of respect and loyalty and devotion to the common welfare, which will be difficult, if not impossible, to overcome by the workman who has served his apprenticeship in the closed shop of the union, with the general teach- ings of hate for everything that those outside of the union regard as good. It should be an advantage to a young man for his prospective employer to know that his life up to his graduation was passed in an environment in which loyalty to our government, its laws, its flag, and its courts, loyalty to the interests of employers, and respect for the equal rights of others, were taught and impressed upon his mind. And one may naturally believe that it would be a disadvantage to the young man for his prospective employer to know that he is a probable trouble breeder, in as much as his life during his apprentice- ship in the closed shop of the union was passed in an environment in which the teachings of envy, hate and selfishness were strongly impressed upon his mind. There are other advantages in favor of the young man graduated from the trade school over the ap- prentice turned out as skilled workman by the closed shop of the union. It is well known that the trade 296 THE WHITE SLAVERY school is an up-to-date institution equipped with laboratories and scientific technique, whereas the union with its primitive ideas and ideals is opposed to progress of every kind, opposed to improved ma- chinery methods and processes, and endeavors to keep the apprentice in the old ruts as much as pos- sible, and thus if not unfitting at least poorly fitting him for handling the improved machinery, and us- ing the new methods and processes, which are being developed along with our advancing civilization. Recently two young men who were printing a daily newspaper in Berkeley, California, on an old press, purchased and set up a new and improved power press, which would not only do nearly double the work of the old press, but would also dispense with the services of two helpers ; yet the union would not permit the owners to use the new press except on condition of employing the same number of helpers as were employed on the old press. Instead of mak- ing two blades of grass grow where one had grown before, it is the unalterable policy and purpose of the unions, to make one blade of grass grow where two had grown before. Every man of common sense knows that the manu- facturer who sticks to the old machinery, methods and processes, cannot successfully compete with the manufacturer who adopts and uses the newest im- proved machinery, methods and processes, in turning out his products for the market. And the manufac- turer who puts three men to man machinery that re- quires only one man, cannot successfully compete THE WHITE SLAVERY 297 with the manufacturer who distributes his help to meet the requirements of his machinery. But an intensely selfish alien organization like the union that manifests no interest in the common welfare, cares nothing about the business of employers being successful so long as its own selfish greed is satisfied. An employer of the open shop who uses the skilled labor of graduates of the trade school, would not have this trouble, would not have his business tied up if he refused to employ three men to do one man 's work. It is gratifying to know that some of the larger trade schools of the country, like the Winona Technical Institute of Indianapolis, are receiving the financial support and encouragement of the dif- ferent national associations of employers in the spe- cial departments in which they are interested, from which they desire to secure skilled labor. These national associations of employers feeling that the trade schools are the only means by which they will be able to secure skilled labor, have contributed gen- erously to the scholarship funds and equipment for teaching the trades in the departments in which they are interested. For instance the national lithographers associa- tion, contributed two thousand dollars to the scholar- ship fund in the Winona Institute, and put in sixteen thousand dollars worth of equipment for teaching the trade to students in the department of lithography. A young man who comes to the Winona Institute wishing to learn a trade, and who has not the money to pay his tuition, is loaned $100 out of the scholar- 298 THE WHITE SLAVERY ship fund for which he gives his unsecured note for ten years without interest, and which he is expected to pay in installments after he graduates and be- comes a skilled wage earner. The officials of the in- stitute report that the young men who have been thus helped and who have graduated and gone out into the busy world to earn a livelihood are making good and paying off their notes, some of them hav- ing already done so. Many manufacturers and employers of labor in the different trades, are sending their sons to the Winona Institute that they may be taught special technical knowledge to fit them for managing the business of their fathers when they retire or become incapaci- tated from age or other cause. There will come up many questions for school authorities to decide in regard to industrial education in connection with our public school system. At what age and how much of the time of the boy shall be given to industrial edu- cation, and the extent of equipment of the industrial school in which the trades are taught, will have to be considered. When we find by investigations in our penal insti- tutions that the want of a knowledge of a trade has been a potent factor in the cause of crime, we are brought to a realization of the necessity of giving the youth of our country an industrial education, and fitting them for the different trades as far as prac- ticable. There should no longer be an excuse for parents to encourage their children to commit petty crimes in order that they may be sent to a reforma- THE WHITE SLAVEEY 299 tory where they will get their board and clothing and be put to learning a trade. With the trade schools as a part of our public school system, they are accessible to the children of poor parents the same as the public school. Nearly all men have a feeling of respect and loyalty for the school or insti- tution that sends them out into the world well equipped for meeting the requirements and responsi- bilities of life. This is an asset that should not be lost sight of in preparing young men for useful trades and loyal citizens of our country, loyal citizens who will not be afraid of " grinding toil " and 11 sweat shops " as described by those who never strike or never sweat and live on the fat of the land by absorbing the earnings of the white slaves of the union. We are constantly finding out that we could not make a better investment of the money we pay into the public treasury, than spending a part of it in pre- paring our youth for useful trades and professions, instead of allowing them to drift into wasted or criminal lives, as many are doing. To nearly every boy of ten to twelve years of age, it would be con- sidered a desired recreation to be taken from the close application of his studies for an hour or so a day for instruction in the use of tools in learning a trade. Every man of mature years may recall when he was a boy, the strong desire he had to make things like those with which he was familiar, as wagons, wheels, boats, mills, if he could only get the tools and materials with which to exercise his me- ' k& 300 THE WHITE SMVE& chanical bent of mind. It is as natural for a boy to want to make something that has long been in use by our race, as it is for dogs to play in mimic the chasing, catching and downing their prey. There is a tendency of the young of different races of animals and of our own race to do the things which their parents and ancestors were in the habit of doing, and which were necessary to be done in the preserva- tion of life. We see this tendency very early in the lives of our children, as little girls playing house- keeping and dressing dolls like their mothers, and little boys playing riding horse or other kinds of ac- tivities in which their fathers were engaged. These tendencies of children are nearly all along useful lines and only need developing as the children grow, to lead to useful pursuits and useful lives. The unions have been a blight and more destruc- tive to business interests and the peace of communi- ties than pestilence, fire or earthquake, where they have been a dominating influence, and over every union headquarters there should wave a yellow flag to warn the public that the institution covered by its folds spreads a disease worse than smallpox. The masters of the union slavery will bitterly oppose the trade school and everything that tends to promote the welfare of the community. Here and there over this country could be pointed out towns whose business interests are dead and grass growing in the streets, towns which a few years ago were prosperous with manufacturing establish- ments employing thousands of men at good wages to THE WHITE SLAVERY 301 s. support their families. On inquiring as to the cause of so many idle men on the streets in tattered cloth- ing, of so many empty houses, and of so little busi- ness activity, one is told that there has been no busi- ness since the big strike; that the manufacturers who had employed thousands of men had either been ruined by the strike, or had moved their plants to some other town on account of the strike troubles. After a city passes through a strike, if it has not been permanently ruined, it takes its business longer to recuperate than after having passed through a pestilence like the yellow fever, with this point in favor of the pestilence, that it does not leave the people arrayed against each other in bitter antago- nism, like the unions. Shall an organization whose influence is more disastrous than that of a pestilence, fire, or earthquake, be permitted to stand in the way of trade schools for fitting American boys for useful skilled workmen in the different trades and thus save them from criminal and wasted lives? CHAPTER XXIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATIONS. If the members of labor organizations were intel- lectually and morally able to stand alone, and if they were able to measure their rights by the equal rights of all others, and to limit their freedom of action by the like freedom of action of all others, they would not surrender their independence and freedom and become slaves. As the absolute gov- ernment of the Czar is better for the Russian people than no government or anarchy, so the moral and intellectual development of labor organizations is such that they are not fit for that form of govern- ment which limits the freedom of each by the like freedom of all. Their primitive predatory instinct is so strong, and their moral sense so weak, that laws are required to restrain them from trespassing upon the rights of others. Their increasing aggressions and oppressions in ignoring the rights of others, and in injuring them in person and property, have be- come so oppressive and intolerable to those who de- sire to live under conditions of industrial peace and social order, that they have been obliged to organ- ize in self defence and to insist on the enforcement of the laws which were enacted to restrain the law- 302 THE WHITE SLAVERY 303 less and turbulent elements. It has gradually dawned upon the minds of the intelligent and pat- riotic classes of the country, that the perfect organ- ization of less than one-tenth of the laboring classes under aggressive leaders who displayed no interest in the common welfare, and whose sole interest ap- peared to be greed and power, could easily dominate and oppress to an intolerable extent, the other nine- tenths of the workers who were not organized. In- deed the situation was too tempting for the dem- agogue labor agitators to overlook, and their de- mands upon their helpless victims for tribute and the surrender of the management of their business in- creased with every concession of employers of or- ganized labor. They have been less generous to their victims than the Bedouins of the desert, who, after taking the tribute from their victims of the caravans passing through their country, allowed them to depart without any desire to utterly ruin them. When there was no organization of merchants and manufacturers and employers of labor and free la- borers, it was easy for those who controlled and directed the principles and policies of the unions to ruin a man in his business who had incurred their displeasure, by the strike and the boycott. But now that employers' associations and industrial alliances are springing up all over the country, where labor unions exist, we may look for industrial troubles to be less one-sided in the future than they have been in the past. These associations and industrial alii- 304 THE WHITE SLAVERY ances for defence against the common enemy of in- dustrial peace, social order and equal rights, have already made their influence felt, and done much to check the unlawful and oppressive aggressions of labor unions on personal and property rights. Before these industrial associations and alliances came into existence, striking unionists in the large cities had almost a free hand in the destruction of property, in picketing the plants of employers, and in assault- ing those known or suspected of being opposed to their policies and methods, because nearly every one was intimidated by the fear of offending them. They might satisfy their mad desire to destroy property and make assaults without hindrance in the pres- ence of many witnesses without fear of arrest and trial because witnesses did not like to testify against them. Under the control and directions of their masters they have frequently set up reigns of terror and carnivals of crime in our cities by the destruc- tion of property and the assaulting and murdering of independent workers and those who would not bow to the slavery of the unions. They knew that no single individual dared to oppose them when mem- bers of the organization like squads of soldiers were assigned to do certain work calculated to intimidate the public. But now that their enemy, the employers' and manufacturers' associations have commenced or- ganizing for defence, and for aggressive campaigns if necessary, and will be able to strike back, giving blow for blow, we may look for those who have been all powerful in defying the laws, to have more THE WHITE SLAVEEY 305 respect for them hereafter. Indeed they have al- ready commenced to show more caution, for they know that the laws which were made for the protec- tion of persons and property, have more eyes and ears that see and hear, since the organization of employers' associations and alliances, than formerly, when the unions had no organized opposition in in- augurating a reign of terror and anarchy. It is well known that there have been many instances of the law officers catering to the lawless elements of the unions in times of strikes, by closing their eyes to the lawless acts of the strikers and their sympa- thizers, with the tacit or avowed understanding with union officials of receiving in return the friendship and political support of the unions, when again can- didates for office. But now with the organization of employers' associations, which stand for the law and order elements of society, politicians will find that the proponents of unionism are not the only people to be reckoned with. Instances could be named in which men who were candidates for important city offices, and who openly bid for the union support, were badly beaten in the election, and that they charged their defeat to the activity of the employers or industrial associations because the candidates could not show clean hands in regard to the enforce- ment of law and order in times of industrial dis- turbances. Let it become known that these em- ployers' associations exist for the purpose of giving the law better eyes and ears to see and hear and know what is going on in the way of discharging its 306 THE WHITE SLAVEEY proper function of preserving the peace, and the criminally inclined would likely in most cases hesi- tate before plunging into crimes that would certainly bring upon them just punishment. It is in this field of law enforcement in the turbu- lent times of strikes, that the influence of employ- ers' associations and industrial alliances will be most usefully felt in our cities where the unions have hitherto had their own way. There is an antidote for nearly every poison, and these employers' asso- ciations and industrial alliances are the best antidote that could be prescribed for the poison with which our civilization has been infected by those who con- trol and direct the principles and policies of present- day unionism. The remedy is so simple and when properly applied so effective, that doubtless many intelligent, thoughtful men who have suffered from this poisonous growth on our social system, have been surprised that it was not discovered and applied long ago. Think of the outrages, the intimidations, the assaults upon innocent people, the murders, the assassinations, the interference with the burial of the dead, the persecutions of independent workers and their families, and the annual loss to business enterprises of hundreds of millions of dollars, by the industrial wars of the unions, and then let any intelligent fair-minded man ask himself if it was not time to look around for an antidote to counteract such an intolerable state of affairs. It is sometimes asserted by the representatives of labor organiza- tions that there is nothing in their constitutions and THE WHITE SLAVEEY 307 by-laws, that requires members to do anything that will interfere with their duties as good citizens. While this may be true of some of the unions, we know that it is an unwritten law of unionism to intimidate, assault and injure in every possible man- ner, their open shop competitors when ever it can be done with safety. If unionism as now known by its most prominent features, honestly required its members to observe the laws and the equal rights of others, it would soon go out of business, for it would have nothing to offer to walking delegates and thugs and sluggers, the hyenas of society. We call an organized society a social organism, for it has differentiated parts that perform particular functions necessary to its existence, like the differen- tiated parts of a highly developed individual organ- ism which performs particular functions necessary to its existence. If the manufacturing and distribut- ing industries of this country should become badly crippled from any cause, the farming or agricultural industries would in a short time feel the effect and suffer. And then if the farming industry should from any cause, be destroyed for a single season, not only the manufacturing, but all other industrial enterprises would be brought to a standstill. This leads us to say that the manufacturer, the merchant, the employer of labor and independent labor, can get along and prosper without the unions, but that those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, the parasites of the unions, cannot live without the manufacturer, the merchant 308 THE WHITE SLAVEKY and the employer of labor. The host can live and thrive without the parasite, but the parasite cannot live without the host. If the unions are something that the social organism can do without, and if they are a general detriment and nuisance to that organ- ism, they ought to die, and the sooner they administer chloroform to themselves the more commendable would be their action. As they make no pretensions of standing for equal rights and fairness, and dis- play no interest in the common welfare of the com- munity, no earthly interest except the interests of the masters who never strike or never sweat, would suffer from their early demise. All useless parts of an organism absorb nourishment required for the health and strength and usefulness of all other parts, and are to that extent detrimental to it. So unionism, a useless part of the social organism, absorbs and wantonly destroys nourishment that should go to nourish and strengthen all the useful parts of that organism. Anything we can do without, and are in every respect better off without, is a waste and detri- ment to us to have or use. We find that unionism cannot even justify its existence on the ground that it is a luxury to the employer. Let us call an em- ployer and question him. Mr. Employer, the representatives of the unions state that they are a luxury to you employers, What have you to say about it? Employer. If breaking a contract and leaving me in the midst of a piece of work I had employed union men to do, causing me serious loss and inconvenience, THE WHITE SLAVERY 309 is a luxury; if destroying my property and intimi- dating and asaulting my loyal and faithful employees who live up to their contracts and do not try to give me a dishonest day's work for an honest day's wages, is a luxury, then the unions are a luxury. All wild cattle need horns for offense and defense ; but our domestic cattle do not need horns, and among most breeders perhaps, horns are considered useless parts and detrimental to all animals of the herd. We are now breeding cattle without horns, and we could in a little while if desired, have all our cattle bred hornless. So unionism represents that primitive form of government when every tribe had a chief, and when every man was a warrior and his own weapon maker, and when right as we under- stand it had no meaning. But we as a nation have passed beyond that. We have an army and navy to do our fighting for us if our corporate existence is threatened, and policemen and constables and sol- diers to preserve the peace if threatened by internal enemies. Now as the unions are as useless a part of the civilized social organism as horns are to domestic cattle, we shall after awhile develop a race of men without the useless horn of unionism. We are glad to note that the employers' associations and indus- trial alliances are dehorning the unions and depriv- ing them of the power of being as harmful as form- erly, and by the time they are all dehorned a race of men will likely grow up without the useless union horn. After the long struggle, in the course of evolution, 310 THE WHITE SLAVERY for individual freedom and equal rights of all classes of our people; after securing the enactment of laws guaranteeing individual freedom and equal rights among all classes, and then to have an organization come into existence for the avowed purpose of limit- ing individual freedom and of denying to those out- side its ranks the right to work for whom and under such conditions as they may see fit, is not only trea- son, but worse than the treason of Benedict Arnold. Those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions should not complain when they are told and made to feel that they are looked upon by nearly all except a small fraction of our people as traitors to our country, traitors to justice and equal rights, and traitors who would nullify our laws which guarantee to all equal rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, for the purpose of building up a class with special privileges who would dictate to all business men how they shall carry on their business, and whom they shall employ, with heavy fines and penalties for disobedience of their orders. There is danger in the insidious attacks of the masters of the union slavery on our government in their efforts to establish a class of special priv- ileges, from the fact that their attacks are made under the false pretense of endeavoring to better labor conditions. We should not be deceived by this pretense of the masters of the union slavery, who are endeavoring to establish a class of special priv- ileges, for we see every day that their action tends not only to limit individual freedom, but to crush all THE WHITE SLAVERY 311 who are opposed to their faction and its methods. It is sometimes asserted by those who would extenu- ate the treasonable conduct of the masters of the union slavery that they are honest and conscientious in their efforts on behalf of labor. This may be true in isolated instances, and still not lessen the culpa- bility and treasonable effects of their actions. In his History of Civilization in England, Mr. Buckle has shown that those who kindled the fires of the Inquisi- tion and who applied the rack and thumbscrew and other refined methods of torture and consigned to the flames those who differed with them in matters of religion, were honest, conscientious men, and did their terrible work in behalf of religion. Nearly all the persecutions of one class of men by another, of which we have any account, have been in the name of some sacred cause. No cause, or principle, should be held sacred or venerated, that does not limit the freedom of each by the like freedom of all. We would not by law or custom give any man a special privilege that would give him an advantage over other men in the struggle for life, as unionism is constantly doing. There can be no cause more sacred and more entitled to our veneration and respect, than the cause of labor; but those who would trample in the dust the equal rights of others because they do not join the union to secure a monopoly of labor, are no friends of labor, but the friends of a privileged class who ask more than they are willing to concede. It is admitted on all sides that civilization has grown out of conditions when there was no such thing as a 312 THE WHITE SLAVERY recognition of rights, equal rights among men, and that this recognition has been a matter of slow growth, so slow indeed that in most civilized coun- tries there are many yet in whom it is but slightly developed. So far as this sentiment of equal rights is concerned, there appears to be abundance of evi- dence to show that the proponents of unionism have never advanced beyond that state of the primitive man when fear was the only restraining influence that controlled his actions. In the face of these facts an organization like the employers' associations that stands for law and order and the civilizing influences of the times, has become a necessity in checking the lawlessness of unionism. The selfish and unsympa- thetic nature of unionism would never have abol- ished African slavery for fear that the labor of the freedmen would have come into competition with union labor. And in this respect it has been a slave to its own fears that it would suffer from the free- dom of others, just as the slave owners were slaves to their fears that they would suffer by the freedom of their slaves. In all unionism it has never pro- duced a man big enough to see that no legitimate interest will ever suffer from the largest possible measure of individual freedom consistent with the equal freedom of all. It has never been able to un- derstand that it has been by the independence and assertion of individual rights to industrial and com- mercial freedom, for which the employers' associa- tions stand, that the wasteful and destructive prac- tices of the unions have been tolerated. It has never THE WHITE SLAVEEY 313 been able to see that those who do not assert their own independence and individuality, will never de- mand the freedom, independence and equal rights of others. Its leaders with few exceptions have been of that kind who are always tuned to catch the applause of the most vicious and turbulent and least reasoning elements of the community. We are told by travellers that the Yakutes, a tribe in northern Siberia, very low in the human scale, when food is plentiful, gorge themselves with thirty to forty pounds of meat and blubber at a single feasting and then lie dormant or in a hybernating condition for two or three weeks to a month. So we find pessi- mistic unionism feasting and gorging itself to-day, and starving to-morrow, taking no thought in times of plenty to provide for its wants in the future. On account of the tyrannical and unreasonable demands of those who control and direct the principles and policies of the unions, with the accompanying turbu- lence and want of respect for the rights of others, and the growing inefficiency of union labor, it is getting more and more to be an undesirable kind of labor. If an employer cannot use such labor with- out a strong probability of sustaining a loss from its constant belligerent and quarrelsome attitude and disloyalty to his interests, he will do all in his power to get along without it. These chronic disturbers of social order and industrial peace he dreads and will have as little to do with them as possible. Those who are able to see the greater respect all men out- side the unions have for each others rights in this 314 THE WHITE SLAVEKY country, than they had fifty years ago, and the greater diffusion of altruism than then existed, will have faith in our continued progress towards higher ethical standards, which must gradually have the effect, with the restraining influence of employers' associations, of eliminating the unionism which has become a school of hate and crime and special priv- ileges. From the earliest times in which men were divided into opposing groups, about equal attention has been given to developing the best methods of attack and defense in war and in games, the prize aimed at always being ascendancy, predominance. To meet the attacks of stronger and aggressive tribes, weaker tribes have endeavored to make up for their weak- ness by strategy and skill, and planned the ambush and sometimes destroyed their more powerful enemy. And so on down to the construction of our modern battleships, if one nation produces a battleship with armor plate of a thickness and resisting power that no projectile has been able to penetrate, inventors go about experimenting with high power explosives until they get a projectile that will penetrate it. But if any nation sticks to its ancient methods of attack or defence too long, it must yield to the more progressive nations such ascendency and supremacy as it may have once held. And so we say of union- ism, it must drop its primitive ideals of force and harshness and supreme selfishness in dealing with those outside its ranks, or it must gradually become an obsolete and decadent force in the affairs of an THE WHITE SLAVEEY 315 enlightened and progressive people. It has perhaps served the useful purpose of showing in a convincing manner, that the employing classes, the progressive classes, must organize for defence against the tyran- nies and oppressions of selfish men controlling the organized factions of the classes seeking employment. The unions on account of their general pessimistic views of life, and primitive ideals in sticking to ancient methods and processes, and in resisting the introduction of improved machinery, methods and processes, must rapidly become an obsolete and de- cadent force, must destroy themselves in blindly attacking scientific and progressive forces of the age, which are being utilized to further the happiness and well being of mankind, forces which, when properly interpreted must tend to strengthen the ties that bind men together of the same race in common fellowship and interests. Even men of ordinary intelligence are beginning to see that we need more progressive men of broad, rational sympathies, who are willing to de- vote their energies to building up and strengthening our social structure, and fewer men of cold, selfish, unsympathetic natures like the leaders of organized labor, who are obstructionists and destructionists of everything progressive in our civilization, and who insist on using ancient methods, machinery and tools long after they have become obsolete. CHAPTER XXIV SYMPOSIUM ON SOCIALISM. Two honest toilers returning from work in the evening pass a store on the way home, and notice a man of unkept appearance sitting on a box whit- tling and talking to two or three other men who look like tramps. In passing and repassing the store the two workers had often noticed the same man sitting or standing about the store, or in the neighborhood, whittling and talking to and entertaining about the same kind of audience. The two toilers were not in the habit of loitering on the way, for when their day's work was done, their thoughts turned to their modest homes and the affectionate greetings of their wives and children. Their attention having been drawn to the persistent whittler, one of the workers, said to the other, " the steadiness with which the man whittles should not take him many months to whittle up a cord of wood, and that his knife handle would likely callous or blister his hands." And he further added, " I would rather do the work we have been doing than the whittling that fellow has done. I do not see how he makes a living whittling all the time. I could not support my wife and children and keep up our home by sitting around day after day whittling and talking to idle loafers, as he has been 316 THE WHITE SLAVEEY 317 doing. I heard that he was a socialist. Let us listen to him a moment talking to those fellows who seem to be taking in all he says. One of them I know by reputation. He is weak-minded and has been in an asylum on account of a vicious tendency to steal and set fire to property. The other fellows look like they are barely responsible for their conduct, and the whittling philosopher looks like he had only a shade the advantage of his audience, and that the shade of advantage was in the gift of loquacity. Hear him expounding the socialist philosophy to his audience. ' ' In his talk the socialist philosopher went on to say that " no free man can be a wage slave; that all men who work for wages are wage slaves; that the two men who pass and repass the store every day, with their dinner pails, going to and returning from their work, and live in the pretty cottages on Labor Street, are wage slaves, and robbers, and when social- ism gets into power, those pretty cottages they live in will belong to all men, and men who refuse to be wage slaves will live in them." After thanking his audience for applause, the socialist philosopher went on to ask the question, " why are we obliged to beg or steal and live on husks to get enough to eat to barely satisfy the demands of hunger? You know the reason. It is because if we give up our freedom and work for wages, we become wage slaves, and if one man works for another he becomes a wage slave of that other. This proposition of having free men work for other men to make them richer is a great scheme. Think of it. We spurn the proposition. 318 THE WHITE SLAVERY We will have no such slavery, besides we have no tools with which to work, for the rich men own all the tools, all the land, all the mines. We saw in the papers where we could get tools free with which to work, but this is a scheme of the rich men and the wage slaves to get us to give up our freedom to make other men rich. Look at the soft hands of the rich men, the clerks and business men, showing that they do no hard work, and then look at our hands, the horny handed sons of toil, and then look at my cal- loused hand. Look at the good clothes the rich men and wage slaves wear, and the plenty of good things they have to eat, and then look at the patched cloth- ing we have to wear, and the poor food we have to put up with. When socialism does way with all this inequality and all the clothing and all the food and all the houses shall belong to all men, we will wear as good clothes and have as good things to eat and live in as good houses as the rich men and the wage- slaves. Our big men who know all about the science of socialism, sympathize with poor fellows like us, and when they get into power, they propose to take all the pretty houses like those on the terrace on Labor street, and give them to all men with plenty of good things to eat and plenty of good clothes to wear. Some of the wage slaves who work for the rich to make them richer, get offended to call them wage slaves, but they are wage slaves all the same, for the rich men have all the work for them and own all the tools and get all the wealth their labor produces. You saw that wage slave who came in THE WHITE SLAVEEY 319 town just now with a load of wheat to sell to the elevator man who wears good clothes, to make him richer. The wage slave with the wheat may think that he owns the farm he calls his, but he does not, for all he raises on it except the little that he and his family eat, he hauls to town to make the rich men richer. When under socialism all men own all the land, all the farms, and all the tools, we will get what is coming to us, and fare as well as the rich and the wage slaves. All free men who would not be wage slaves, should work only a few hours each day and have plenty of rest. Do you want to be a wage slave? Of course you do not. No socialist wants to be a wage slave. You saw the two men stop there a few moments ago with their dinner pails on their way home, but who have stepped out of sight. Well, they are wage slaves and live in the pretty cottages on the terrace on Labor street. They think that they own the houses, but they do not. The houses belong to all men. They are the kind of wage slaves who talk about their families and of the love and affection of their wives and children, as if they were all that makes life worth while. The family. What nonsense to make an ado about the family. We socialists are not bothered about the family. That is a part of the competitive or wage slave sys- tem. One woman is as good as another to us, and if children come by association of the sexes, there would be a home for them where they would be taken care of as children of the community. Why, we take a calf from its mother at a few weeks old, and 320 THE WHITE SLAVEEY they both get along just as well as if they were allowed to remain together until the calf was half grown. No one but the rich and wage slaves would have a wife and children tied to him all the time. When children are brought up in a home under so- cialist teachings and influences, what will they care about mother and father and a home ? As free men we have got to get rid of the false notions about the sacredness of the family, and that it is necessary to satisfy the parental and filial instincts." The two toilers having changed to a position of rest out of sight of the socialist philosopher, heard his discourse through on the family, and then started home. " Well, we have heard socialism expounded on several important questions, " exclaimed one of the toilers to the other, " and what do you think of it?" The companion replied "that he did not see how any sane man would think well of it. If the man and his audience are a good illustration of so- cialism, one is naturally led to inquire whether such men must not be supported by the labor of wage slaves, or some other kind of slaves ? Would they be less idle and shiftless under a socialist regime, than under a competitive system of individual freedom where every man profits according to his efficiency in providing life-giving necessaries and comforts, as in the natural order? If this class of people were more useful to society under socialism than under the competitive system, there would evidently have to be agents of the social aggregate whose business would be to see to it that suth men performed their THE WHITE SLAVERY 321 part for the general welfare. They would not do their part in providing for the general stock of necessaries and comforts, stored in the common crib, without agents of the governing power to look after them and make them work. Socialism then presup- poses a system of bosses, overseers, or regulating agents of the governing power, whose business would be to see to it that the idle and lazy, like the social- ist whittler and his audience, should do their part in providing for the general welfare ; to see to it that the members of all crafts or trades, do their duty ; to see to it that all house- wives or, women assigned to household duties, keep their houses or kitchens in proper order under pain of chastisement, as under the socialist government of the Ynca civilization. What evidence have we that under a socialist form of government the army of overseers or agents of the governing power appointed to supervise the affairs of the humbler members, would not be as tyrannical and overbearing as the state appointees for such pur- poses, as under past socialist regimes ? What redress would a poor craftsman or housekeeper have if knouted by an officer of the socialist commonwealth who carried with him on all occasions the emblem of authority and punishment? He would have none, and the idle and lazy, of which there would be many, when made to work by the generous application of the knout, could hardly boast of being free men, or any better off than wage slaves. Every department of the socialist government would have its numerous bosses or agents of the ruling power, to enforce its 322 THE WHITE SLAVERY regulations and to see that each worker performed his duty according to prescribed forms. According to socialist teachings we are wage slaves because we work for a man or company for wages, and for all he knows we may be silent partners in the business ; we are robbers because we have saved enough from our wages to build modest homes, and we are awful bad men because we have hired men, brick-layers, car- penters and plumbers, to build our houses. How can a sane man believe in a doctrine that would take from another the home and comforts he has won by honest toil and give them to all men whether they work or not? If a man shall not have the fruit of his own toil, what stimulus is there for him to work ? It is easy to see how socialism may be attractive to two classes of men, those whose ambitions lead them to wish to be bosses to drive other men to work, and those who have not force of character strong enough to urge them to work on their own motion. Those who are weak-minded and of little force of char- acter, and those who wish to be bosses to control them, are able to make enough noise to convince many people that they are the most numerous class. You remember we heard the socialist philosopher tell his audience that they had no tools with which to work, and refer to the soft hands of the rich men who he alleged did not work, and then draw atten- tion to his own calloused hand. Why if he was not afraid of being a wage slave by working for another man, he could earn enough in a few hours to buy any tools he would need. And as to his calloused hand, THE WHITE SLAVERY 323 the fellow got that in whittling, an expenditure of energy no use to any one. The amount of energy wasted in whittling and teaching weak-minded men to hate work for fear of becoming wage slaves, would, if turned into useful channels, have bought him a home and comforts. Think of the teachings of socialism that he and such idlers have as good a right to our homes as we have, who have worked for them ? He was as free as we were to work and have a home if he wanted one. Even in the animal world, we see every day that the efficient profit by their efficiency, and that the inefficient lose by their ineffi- ciency. This seems to have been the law of all life in the course of evolution, and no other law would be just. A reversal of this law would mean the ex- tinction of all life. In a socialist commonwealth where the people would be divided into a governing and governed class, as they have been in all past socialist societies, one-half would be employed in making the other half work, like in a community of slave-making ants, or all would starve to death. We have no accounts in the histories of ancient socialist communities, where the governing classes permitted the governed classes to have all the good things to eat and all the good clothes to wear ; but on the con- trary they were given the coarsest and insufficient food and clothing, and were sometimes obliged to live on grass and roots. How do we know that the governing classes under a modern socialist regime would treat the governed classes any better than under former socialist regimes! "We do not know 324 THE WHITE SLAVERY it, and have no reason to expect that they would be less unselfish, for it is notorious that socialist leaders are the least charitable and the least altruis- tic of any class of our people. Those who would con- trol the big crib from which all would feed, would likely furnish the governing classes the best, the ten- derloins, leaving the husks and scraps to the gov- erned classes, the weak-minded. Does any sensible man believe that a return to the primitive mode of life, to communism and solialism in their purest form, would make men more generous in their natures? Does he believe that the governed classes would live in as good houses as the governing classes? Hardly. The selfish natures of men may not be changed in a day or in a century. Our present social conditions are the outcome of evolution through tens of thou- sands of years. Our fastest race horses, the fleetest the world has ever known, have had their fleetness increased by seconds through years of careful selection. While under a socialist regime competition would be abol- ished and the workers would not work for wages, would not be wage slaves as the socialists call it, yet if they were driven to work with knouts by the agents of the governing classes, the slavery would be more galling to the liberty-loving man than under the competitive or wage slave system. Individual competition has been the natural order in the strug- gle for existence throughout the long course of evo- lution of life, but under a socialist regime the compe- tition would be indirect, that is*, the men of force THE .WHITE SLAVEEY 325 of character of the governing classes, would compete for positions in the different departments of the regulating, productive, manufacturing and distrib- uting agencies of the socialist government. That there would be sharp competition for such positions of life tenure, cannot be reasonably doubted. Any one will not compete for a thing unless he considers it will be an advantage to him to secure it, and how advantageous such positions would be to the holders would depend upon the skill of each in manipulating it to his personal gratification. Any one who doubts that there would be sharp competition for such posi- tions, has only to call to mind the competition among candidates for business agent of a union, a quasi socialist organization, to get an idea how severe the competition under pure socialism would be. We heard the socialist philosopher speak of us as wage slaves who talk about our families and of our love and affection for our wives and children, as if they were all that makes life worth while, and that such notions are nonsense about which social- ists do not bother themselves ; that one woman is as good as another to them, and that if children come by association of the sexes, they should be sent to a home and taken care by the community. Then social- ism proposes to abolish the family and the marriage relation and substitute communism, promiscuity, polygamy and polyandry, leaving the sexes to live together just like animals, or for each of the govern- ing classes to have as many women as his position would attract to him. With our views of life, the 326 THE WHITE SLAVERY abolition of the family and the marriage relation, as socialism proposes, is not attractive, and it would be impossible for us to have the love and affection for other women that we have for our wives, the mothers of our children, and we could not have the love and affection for other men's children that we have for our own. Even a hen knows and discriminates against a stray chick that gets into her brood. From what we know of the history of the human race, we are justified in believing that the family as we know it, has been an evolution due to conditions of envir- onments requiring large numbers of the same race to live in contact with each other; that promiscuity, polygamy and polyandry, may be thought of under very primitive conditions and under certain condi- tions of environment ; but that neither of these forms of sex relation can be thought of as existing in the highest type of civilization. Promiscuity of the sex relation, such as socialism seems to sanction, has existed only among the lowest races of men where everything was in common, and could certainly never promote patriotism and strengthen the social aggregate, which has always been, and always will be necessary to enable any social aggregate to main- tain its autonomy. Politically, socialism tends to weaken the social aggregate, for it is without patriot- ism and cares nothing for strength to maintain itself against foreign aggressions. Its tendency is towards feudalism. A thoroughly organized intelligent power like Japan could easily conquer the rest of the world if the rest of the world was under a socialist regim6. THE WHITE SLAVERY 327 Politically, socialism tends to despotism under any political headship likely to develop, which might or might not put enough aggressiveness, militancy, into it to fight for its existence. All despotisms have been more or less socialistic, for the individuality of the individual counted for nothing. The govern- ment, which meant the governing classes, furnished employment and food for the governed classes. But socialism has flirted so much with anarchists that many people regard the ideals of the two as prac- tically the same ; that the political head of socialism would probably be frequently marked for assassina- tion would seem to be the natural order of such a combination. As socialism does not presuppose the social aggregate divided into political parties, the political head would not likely be elected more than once, for once in power, like the head of the Ameri- can Federation of Labor, he would build up a ma- chine that would re-elect him perpetually. He would in return for their electoral votes keep his supporters in perpetual positions, so that the social aggregate would be divided into a governing class and a governed class, like unionism, the child of socialism, is to-day. There would be no appeal from the acts of the governing classes, and the humbler members of society would have no better chance of securing redress for their grievances, than a mem- ber of the union has of securing redress of grievances against one of its officials. Russia would be a mild form of despotism compared with the despotism and slavery of the socialist democracy that is now clamor- 328 THE WHITE SLAVEEY ing for ascendency and promising so much to the weak-minded and vicious elements of society and impressing upon their minds that if they work for another for wages that they become wage-slaves. c ' We do not feed from the common crib and take the husks after the governing agents with the knouts have taken the best, and we do not see where we would be better off under socialism than under indi- vidual freedom, " was the parting shot of one of the workers as they separated, each in a moment to cross the threshold of his happy home, and receive the affectionate greetings of his wife and children. As showing the intimate connection between union- ism, socialism, and anarchism, we submit the follow- ing syllogistic nut to crack : All socialists are unionists. Most unionists are socialists, All anarchists are socialists, Therefore unionists are anarchists. The End. X" TS T> TT ~ UNIVERSITY OF OAT^ORNIA LT (M GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKE! 6000321871 B7 48618 r