Show THE LABOR WORLD 1 t Items of Interest to the Working r 4 People Local Matters and Happenings atInterest Ito I-to All Something to Think Over some political economists call Interest the reward of abstinence A writer in the Arena shows us that if a man should have commenced on the birthday of Christ and have saved l a week every I week since he would have as the result of his abstinence for eighteen centuries sum of f97K0 But if ho could in that t year have by some deal cleared 5100 and then put it at interest 12 per cent and reinvested the interest he could in I0u years only without any abstinence or thrift have a fortune of 8467560 So mvch for interest thrift But the denial by socialists that interest is rjjjht and the similar belief of many workingmen who are not socialists is based upon ignorance of the natural law upon which interest rests Interest for the ust of capital is just as natural and right as wages lor the exortion of labor Capital is that part of wealth which is devoted to the creation of moro wealth It is stored up labor although it may not always be the labor of the capitalist himself him-self It is the tool which enables labor to exert itself more productively and is entitled en-titled to its share of the increased product pro-duct If through the investment of 10000 in machines for making shoes 100 men are able to produce ten times as many shoes as before certainly a proportion of that increased production should go to the capitalist who furnished the machines ma-chines Much of the popular confusion in regard to the rightfulness of interest for the use of money arises out of the mistaken idea that money is wealth when it is only the representative of wealth the medium by which one form of wealth may exchanged for any other If it is wrong to charge for the use of 1000 in money it is equally wrong to ask rent for a house costing 1000 or ask any profits for 1000 worth of goods loaned to any one for a year or any Increase In-crease for the use of a flock of sheep or herd of cattle for year All laws which attempt to prevent usury by fixing the rate of interest are as futile as would laws be which would try to regulate wages f rents or profits The rate of interest is subject to the law of supply and demand as much as is the price of goods or of labor la-bor Interest much in excess of the normal nor-mal rate is in the nature of insurance for the risk of loss Experience in Switzerland proved that the initiative and referendum alone without with-out proportional representation worked unsatisfactorily The injustice caused by majority representation brouch about the Ticiro rebellion not long ago and proportional pro-portional representation was as a result of that disturbance adopted in Switzerland Switzer-land While the present agitation in favor fa-vor of the initiative and referendum in this country is good and while that reform re-form may be desirable proportional representation rep-resentation is even more necessary It A would prevent to a considerable extent that unfair advantage which majorities sometimes take of a minority even when that minority represents a large number of persons The Labor party in Queensland has succeeded suc-ceeded in electing eighteen members to the new parliament It ill The strike of the firemen of Havemey ers sugar refinery again calls public attention at-tention to theinhuman sacrifice human lives on the altar of monopolistic greed The work of the firemen is most exhausting exhaust-ing It is carried on for twelve hours a day and seven days a week in a temperature tempera-ture ranging from 130 degrees upward Five hundred men were overcome with the heat last summer and were taken to r the hospital It is known that many threw themselves into the East river as a relief from the scalding heat The men asked that their hours might be reduced from twelve to eight and in return for this concession agreed to tend four instead in-stead of three boilers Illbe damned if we do UP was the I answer of the sugar king who had accumulated ac-cumulated millions from the sweat of his slaves As a result one hundred firemen and helpers quit work and 3000 miserably paid workmen work-men were thrown out of work Tbe firemen fire-men in the Brooklyn refinery ulso struck These factories members ot the Sugar Trust and their managers are not worry ing any over the situation Said one of the officials What do wo care We will get these men or others to do work Of course we cant make sugar but if we were to thoroughly shut down for two i months then the price of sugar would be raised a point or two and we would make money instead of losing it Of course the men will lose the strike because there are thousands ready to take their poorly paid and exhausting jobs What possible relief Is there for such a situation as this except in disbanding the great army of the unemployed by opening forthem more opportunities for labor This would accomplish what antitrust anti-trust laws cau nevr hope to do II > Labor organizations lose half their effectiveness ef-fectiveness through internal strife and jealousy one another Instead of being thoroughly united in an effort to uplift labor they are too often at loggerheads with one another jealous of advantages or numbers which others have secured t and belittlelng the work which sister organization Jt or-ganization has accomplished When capital organizes for mutual protection ort or-t relief personal differences are sunk and the association stands as a unit against all assaults Union is strength and this is never more true than in organized labor it Another cause for the failure of labor organizations is that they too often get into the hinds of politicians who use the unions to get them into office Such men have no real interest in the causeof labor their chief anxiety is to get office and they use the labor organizations for this purpose It is quite time that many of the reforms demanded by labor must come through legislative enactment enact-ment secured largely through the power and influence of labor organizations But this is quite a different thing from an organization using the influence to help some glibtongued labor leader into a fat ofllco Au amusIng instance of the power of the land owner is being circulated relating re-lating how a colored man owning fourteen four-teen acres of land near the center of the tract Mr Vanderbilt desires to turn into a baronial manor has been able to balk thn millionaires ambition until princely sum is paid for the patch This illustrates illus-trates the advantage of a land owner over a money owner S it Allthe employees of the South Australian Austra-lian government railways have been put on short time which means of course low wages Large numbers of men belonging to the building trades are leaving the city and going east Most of them are going to l points east of St Louis as the depression J depres-sion seems to affect the building trades most seriously west of the Mississippi river Hot many men are coming and those that do are only working their way eastward 5 The report of the washout on the Rio Grande Western railway and the published pub-lished statement that a large force of men would be put to work repairing the I break sent several hundred men down their looking after jobs They were disappointed dis-appointed as only a small number of men Were employed in the work of repair 5 5 The excursion of Building Trades congress to Saltair on Labor Day September Sep-tember 4 promises to be a very Interest I ins occasion Upwards of thirtyfive l prizes 1l beofferedfor winners various contests of skill and speed Among them I j I n 33 is a handsome gold medal for the best trick bicycle riding and a gold medal to the most graceful lady rider In addition addi-tion there will be boat races swimming matches foot races and addresses by prominent local speakers 1 asked a man who applied to me for I work this week why he did not go to Dakota Da-kota as press dispatches stased that I farmers were unable to get men to work in the harvest fields I just came from there said he I read the same dispatch dis-patch in a Chicago paper three weeks ago and went through Minnesota and Dakota but the country is full of idle men and I only got two days work Thousands omen o-men flocked into that country the beginning begin-ning of harvest and there are three men for every job Seekers for work can govern themselves accordingly 5 C If The Denver members of labor organizations organiza-tions propose to make an experiment in cooperative housekeeping A company with a capital of 20000 is being formed 5 Thereis one good thing about hard times They set people to thinking who would otherwise take no interest in questions ques-tions of equity It is for the molders of public opinion to set them thinking in the right direction Twelve hundred members of bona fide labor unions are holding public office in Great Britain Forty of them are members mem-bers of pounty councils and sixty are appointed ap-pointed magistrates DRESSER |