100 Years Ago

The Politician and the Workingman

Not many years ago politicians did not consider it worth while to pay any attention to the workingmen until a few weeks before elections took place. As the toilers and wealth-producers increase in intelligence, the attention they receive from men seeking political honors increases. A general election will take place next year. The politicians, who are now in office and do not want out, have their eyes on the dear workingman. They are anxious to please him and if they do anything to offend him, it will be by mistake.

The aspirants to office, who are out and want in, are also taking a very great interest in the workingman. If the workingman would be as diligent in searching to find out what he is entitled to, and how to get his rights, as the politicians are in their efforts to discover issues which will enable them to win his vote, class laws would disappear from our statute books and our present unjust and unequal industrial system would be turned topsy-turvy in short order. Our present system, which enables those who produce the least, or nothing, to consume the most, and compels those who produce the most to get along with the least, would soon be abolished.

In former years the employers directed the votes of their employes; therefore, the politicians did not consider the employes (the workingmen) of any consequence. They considered the employing class their masters, and turned out such legislation as was asked for by them. Now that laboring men are beginning to think and act for themselves, are forming trade unions and federations, reserving unto themselves the right to vote for men and measures that they think will advance their interests, and as the organized labor vote constitutes the balance of power between the two great political parties, union workmen are very important factors in the estimation of our political bosses. They need our votes in their business, and cannot get there without them.

Although the presidential election is a little more than a year off, the politicians are holding numerous conferences. They say, for the purpose of trying to find out how to abolish trusts and restrain men who possess and control large aggregations of wealth, and to protect the interest of the "dear working people."

Various plans are being formulated and various remedies to transform our present plutocratic government into one of industrial equality are being offered as cure-alls for our economic evils.

The leaders of the Socialist party tell us that the machine has taken the place of the man, converted him into an industrial slave, and that the only way he can regain his liberty is to take possession of the machine. The remedies offered by the Republican party are protective tariff, the single gold standard, a large standing army, expansion, and benevolent assimilation. The leaders of the Democratic party maintain that industrial freedom can be brought about by free trade, bimetallism, and by smashing the trusts. None of the remedies can be applied by any of the parties unaided by the workingmen's votes, and especially the organized labor vote.

Very nearly all of the orators who make addresses at the different conferences pay high tributes to organized labor.

Such hearty endorsements of organized labor, emanating from men who are powerful in determining and shaping the policies of the nation, and their opposition to trusts, and the wealth of the country being concentrated in the hands of a few, show that, as the membership of labor unions increases, labor becomes more dignified, and that wage-earners will command more consideration from employers and from the office-holding and law-making classes; but the toilers and wealth-producers of the United States will not enjoy industrial equality as long as wage-earners allow themselves to be pitted against each other, and while we depend upon the professional classes to make and enforce laws.

As long as our circulating medium (money) is controlled by a few bankers, and as long as a few stock-jobbers (who do not create anything but accumulate vast fortunes by gambling on wealth created by others) are permitted to set a buying price on the farmer's products and then fix a selling price and compel consumers (the wage-earners) to pay it, that long we will have a very few rich men and a great many poor ones.

None of the remedies above suggested will cure the disease and bring about industrial equality. If the remedy is ever discovered and properly applied, it will be found in the ability and inclination of wealth-producers to band themselves together and elect men to office who are in sympathy with them, and who will abolish all class laws and enact and enforce just ones.

The people's right to do those things were established and handed down to them by the founders of our government. Under our form of government the people have the power to make and unmake their rulers, to make and unmake laws. The only thing left for the citizens of this country to do to maintain those rights is to learn how to govern themselves.

Workingmen, join the union representative of your class! Learn how to help corner on your own labor and put it on the market for a better price, and study the science of government. The over-production spoken of by our political friends can be gotten rid of in two ways: First, by reducing the number of hours wealth-producers are required to work each day; second, by increasing their wages, which is equivalent to increasing their consuming capacities and creating a demand of more of the products of their labor.

50 Years Ago

Forty Million Political Slackers!

by T. C. Carroll, President

It has been estimated that on November 2, 1948, there were 95,000,000 citizens of the U.S. eligible to register and vote.

49,363,798 of these citizens voted in the November 2, 1948 election. The remaining 45,636,202 eligible citizens did not vote.

Estimating very generously that perhaps 5,000,000 of these citizens had some good, legitimate reasons which made it impossible for them to register and vote, this left 40,000,000 citizens who regarded their privileges, their duties and their obligations as citizens so lightly that they just did not bother to register and to vote. Forty million political slackers!

Our governments of the United States and Canada are the biggest businesses on the North American continent, and in our democracies these governments are the people's business. Certainly, the citizens of Canada and the United States--all of them--should be tremendously interested in their own business, their own government, but it is truly amazing how many just don't seem to care.

September 1, 1949 marked the tenth anniversary of Hitler's invasion of Poland which touched off the most destructive war in all recorded history. It cost a thousand billion dollars to carry on the almost six years of savage butchery; the terrible destruction of homes, factories and other property cost countless billions more and increased the material cost of World War II to a staggering total, almost beyond human comprehension. But all these material costs pale into insignificance when we think of the 22,000,000 dead and more than 34,000,000 wounded--millions of them so seriously maimed theirs is really a living death.

And what was accomplished by all this terrible carnage? Did it bring about a greater realization of the duties and obligations of good citizenship and good neighborliness which are so desperately needed to awaken and arouse the conscience of humanity? In the war-torn nations of Europe and Asia, where they have lived or existed through the grim realities of war, yes. Here in America, where we are rapidly forgetting our millions of dead and wounded, no.

In the war-ravaged nations of Europe and Asia, wherever really free elections have been held since World War II, it has not been uncommon to see 90 percent or more of the eligible voters exercise their sacred right of franchise--the right to say what kind of government they shall have and who shall govern them. They know from their own bitter experience the terrible consequences of letting control of government go by default to a ruthless, power-mad minority. Their own neglect has blighted and burdened not only their own lives, but the lives of generations to come. We, here in America, are too smug, too satisfied, too sure that everything is going to be all right no matter what happens. Mark well the tragic warning of what has happened to other peoples who were also indifferent.

When almost half of our citizenship, 45 out of every 100 who are eligible to register and vote, are just too stupid or too indifferent to appreciate and cherish their priceless heritage of freedom for which millions of our boys have fought and died--when nearly half of our citizens have so little conscience that their sacred duties and obligations as citizens mean nothing at all to them--when we have FORTY MILLION POLITICAL SLACKERS, as we did in 1948, OUR DEMOCRACY IS IN MORTAL DANGER!

10 Years Ago

Looking in the Crystal Ball of Rumored Rail Mergers

Sitting back and gossiping is a favorite activity during the last, slow days of summer.

The Journal of Commerce has put its ear to the rumor mill and reports the following:

• RUMOR: The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe may merge with the Burlington Northern (BN). FACT: The Santa Fe is looking at a lot of red ink following a huge anti-trust award and has signed new marketing and service agreements with the BN.
• RUMOR: The Union Pacific, already threatened by the Santa Fe-BN coziness and a drop in business this year, is looking for new markets and new partners. Talks revolve around CSX and the Norfolk Southern. FACT: Union Pacific has signed on to finance a big chunk of the buyout of the Chicago and Northwestern Transportation Co.
• RUMOR: CSX is unsure of its corporate direction, and may be looking to merge. FACT: CSX is in the middle of an extensive downsizing program.
• RUMOR: Everyone and his brother is sizing up Conrail for a leveraged buyout attempt. FACT: Conrail does lose congressional protection against a takeover in April 1990 and does have a solid balance sheet.
• RUMOR: The Southern Pacific Transportation Co. Is the monster that ate the rail industry. FACT: Philip Anschutz set out to merge his Denver & Rio Grande Western with the Southern Pacific and did. Then he set out to buy two lines into Chicago and did that too.

Only Jean Dixon knows what, if any, mergers are in the works, but with the leveraged buyout craze still in full swing, anything is possible. Employes can only hope that someone--Congress, perhaps--is keeping an eye on the situation considering the risk leveraged buyouts hold for the nation's economy and workers.