Show Industrial Dis ont t hi ri a aBy By Ambrose rose Bierce 4 L Copyright lest IdU by by W R p R RearM Hearst LIGHTING T r a fresh cigar elgar of tea and ad putting on his electromagnetic J L thinking cap the Future Historian wrote as follows The capital weakness of the Labor Movement in ancient America a fundamental disability which nothing netting could cure was it its ita reliance on moral qualities which are not universal with which indeed human nature Is 15 very sparingly endowed Man than a II as now was wa a gJ tend fond of ot high and noble Il mutt moats ments when without occasion Jon for thor u exercise but in tit all aU practical affairs guided by short and narrow W views new and end Incapable of gener nun ous in furtherance of the Then as now it w was as easy to M a bright flame of enthusiasm for some great ginet cause requiring action and heroic devotion but Impossible to enlist In its us service these t who could see sea a personal advantage in standing aloof aloot For organized labor to it was necessary that all aU laborers be long to the organizations yet tt thia t was w obviously impossible to bring bri about Nor were were matters murn mended by a stem doa approach to it IL The fewer that remained outside ou with freedom free rn of ot o Individual action the greater TV was as the demand dema nd for their labor Jaboor during strikes and the higher were the wages that they could command the re result as 86 might have been foreseen foresee being greater ater defection from front the unions OD So 5 the conditions condition that the unions strove to create were the very conditions moat most fatal to their success Unionism bore in its bosom boom th th s of Its ha it own dissolution At step toward attainment of its is end cad li ered an ai a added premium n to deser every ever tion Its el adde lon It success was father to failure So S paralyzing so incurable and fiur at last so universally obvious a It a was this inherent w disability that as early as during the of ear presidency General Gompers the administration force t o Gerl triad to the constitution making labor tr t unions tn unlawful and congress coJre strikes s an felonious amendment The measure failed because as Senator Dabs Behs explained it was wa needless the common sense of the country was a sufficient protection against the scheming of ambitious demagogues and the mischievous incitements of self elt seeking agitators In s History Hl of f Human Delusions that Ingenious gator relates that owing to the preva of m nonunion work Ingmen so 50 prospered through high wag wagen wag and steady dY employment that theirs their became one of or the th overcrowded profession and a they finally formed a league the National Federation of Scabs purposes e of oC which were wee w to limit Its Us own membership and secure e by strikes and other appropriate means a monopoly of employment The Immediate provocation to this tI action on th their r part is found In the fact that yielding to the suasion of avarice one oe J 1 P Morgan Jio n a man un skilled in the th of use his hi hands threw up a very cery good position tion in Ia a steel trust and want w nt to work In m a nonunion coal anion That says a quaint chronicler chronic of the th period pe rather eb obscurely the limit and called for the kibosh Th Tile This of ot was meaning Jag kibosh is III not now understood The word has a suggestive CIe to W t the of a popular deity deit of or the time frequently invoked particularly in nam name tural affairs Kibosh may ma hav have e been the title of an officer of the con tabu Ai As a practical working organization organisation the Ute National Federation of Scabs appears to ha have e had but a brief existence and a rather rath stormy one ODe Of all labor leagues it was by far tar the most t tyrannical and Intolerant In 1907 during its famous strike against t the t employment of ot union u lon a as nurse me mai maids MS l in m the Podunk Asylum for tor R it committed men so 80 many offenses offense against life lire and aDd property that tbt the tho i military force of the state of ot Buffalo was called out Jor ita suppression Eton lint t was defeated with great gr t slaughter S It W was then attacked by the Grand Army of Dl the tha Republic and the Army Array of Government Pensioners but as neither of these forces torca bad had ever been bee accustomed tomed to the use of ot arms they I snared the fate of or their more experienced Finally the federation was subdued by the Quakers Qua er a powerful tribe of Pennsylvania led Matthew by Quay Its Ita chiefs were banished to Nebraska and a general boycott declared against all its surviving members It went out of existence exl tence in the year JIll II during durinS the presidency pre of John Joha Smith known m in his bis time as the dark horse berm 0 After Afler WI there were no DO more labor troubles in America In that at a great gNat congress of all the industries it ft was almost t unanimously year resolved re that the wage system was a failure government ownership a 8 delusion on co en operation impossible and combination disgusting The congress congre s urged a return to the th ancient and beneficent be system of slavery The advice was eagerly taken by all U and aad thenceforth until the submersion of the continent the he term Industrial discontent more In la the speech of a happy happy people was heard hean no |