Competition; Monopolies -- United States; Trusts, Industrial
There is another benefit which the organization of labor has effected
which may, perhaps, be thought an evil by some, but which every broad
and generous man must gratefully recognize as a gain to the whole
community; and in a self-governed nation like our own, it is a benefit
whose importance it is difficult to over-estimate. This is the
maintenance of the laborer's dignity and self-respect. We have but to
look back to the times we have already mentioned, to see the laborer
hardly better than a dog, a cringing dependent, kicked and beaten on
slight pretext, and with almost every vestige of manhood worked and
bullied out of him. We have come upon far happier times to-day, and
there are few corners of the civilized world where conditions so evil
prevail now. But without the organization of labor, the status of
workingmen would be much farther removed from what is just and right
than it now is. Every employer who is wise and honest, and who has the
true spirit of a gentleman, will see that his workmen are treated with
the respect that is their just due. Discipline there must be, but it is
a wrong view of discipline that makes it consist of oaths and brutal
insults delivered according to the prevalent good temper or ugliness of
the overseer. Unfortunately, not every man who is placed in authority is
wise, honest, and a gentleman. Bodily violence is no longer permitted by
law, but too often the curses and insults which are heaped on men with
no due cause are a violence which is more severe to many a man than
actual cuffs and kicks. No man can take such treatment without
resentment, and maintain his dignity and self-respect. Yet in how many
places is petty tyranny of this sort still active, and its victims are
cowed into submission for fear of taking the bread from their children's
mouths.
But the member of a strong labor organization need not be cowed or
tamely accept insult. He has the right to resent it, and has the power
of his fraternity to support him. He knows this, and his employer knows
it. Overseers, big with their importance, and inclined to show it by
attacking the self-respect of the men under them are no longer in
demand.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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