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Show A Word to Working-JHen. - Dr. Lyman Abbott contributes to the November Century an article on the labor problem entitled "Danger Ahead," in which he says : "I wish I had the ear of the working-men's organizations. I would put these figures before them, and then I would address them in some such terms as the following : "Do you not see the fatal defect of all your organizations? You combine only that you may not work. In one summer's telegraphic strike you spent $400,000 for the right to be idle. Why did you not expend it for theright'to be independent? Half a million dollars, plus all the best telegraphic talent in the United States, with the sympathies of the nation as a reserve, combined to establish postal telegraphy, might have given you success instead of failure. Strike not for better wages in servitude, but forndependence. Organize not to be idle, but to be busy. Combine not against your employers, but that you may employ yourselves. You battle not for the rights of labor, but for the right not to labor; it is a barren, fruitless fruit-less right not worth fighting for. Victory is as bad as defeat. For combination put co-operation ; for few hours and fair wages put independence ; for a right to be idle put power to-work. Make yourselves capitalists, combine your capital with your industry, and add to it by your credit, and so become your own masters." |