Scientific American Supplement, No. 623 | Page 7

in the street will be first met with inducements

of other employment, with offers of money, afterward with threats, and,
if opportunity occurs, with direct assault. All the features of persuasion,
intimidation, and violence will be carried out as demanded, and
strangers to everybody in the vicinity, but well known as experienced
leaders in this kind of work in other places, be brought in to endeavor
to make the strike a success. Then, young men, is the time to show your
pluck, and our experience is that educated young men will do so every
time. They can be depended upon to go straight ahead with duty
through every danger, bearing patiently everything that may be said,
defending themselves with nature's weapons as long as possible, and
without fear using reserve weapons in case real danger of life is
imminent.
In carrying through a very important strike against a mere desire to
control and not to correct abuses, your speaker desires to pay the
highest tribute to a number of educated young men, mostly from the
technical schools, who fearlessly faced every danger, and by their
example stimulated others to do their duty, and all participated in the
results obtained by a great success.
We would not by such references fire your hearts to a desire to
participate in such an unpleasant contest. It is the duty of all to study
this problem intelligently and earnestly, with a view of overcoming the
difficulties and permitting the prosperity of the country to go on. While
conciliation may be best at some times, policy at another, and
resistance at another, we must also be thinking of the best means to
prevent further outbreaks. It would seem to be true policy not to
interfere with organization, but to try and direct it into higher channels.
Those of the humanitarians who claim that the disease will be rooted
out eventually by a more general and better education are undoubtedly
largely in the right, notwithstanding that some fairly educated men
have acted against their best interests in affiliating with the labor
organizations. It seems to the speaker that enough instances can be
collected to show the utter folly of the present selfish system, based, as
it is, entirely on getting all that is possible, independent of right in the
matter, and by demanding equal wages for all men, tending to lower all
to one common degradation, instead of rewarding industry and ability

and advancing the cause of civilization.
Labor should not be organized for selfish ends, but for its own good, so
as to secure steady and permanent employment, rather than prevent it
by impracticable schemes and unwise methods, which will cripple
manufacturers and all kinds of industry. The men should organize
under the general laws of the State, so that their leaders will be
responsible to the laws and can be indicted, tried, and punished in case
they misappropriate funds or commit any breach of trust; and such laws
should be amended if necessary, so that wise, responsible leaders of the
organizations can contract to furnish labor for a certain time at a fixed
price, when manufacturers can make calculations ahead as to the cost
of labor the same as for the cost of material, and have such confidence
that they will use all their energies to do a larger amount of business
and benefit the workingman as well as themselves by furnishing steady
employment. Such a plan as is here outlined can readily be carried into
effect by selecting better men as leaders. It is well known how well the
organization known as the locomotive brotherhood is conducted, and it
should be an example to others. It has had its day of dissensions, when
the best counsels did not prevail, which shows that any organization of
the kind, no matter how well conducted, may be diverted by its leaders
into improper channels.
When organized under the laws of the State and under by-laws
designed to secure steady employment, rather than any artificial
condition of things in regard to pay hours, and continuance of labor, the
true interests of the workman will be advanced. It may be that some
one of you will develop a talent in the direction of organization and be
the means of aiding in the solution of this great problem. Please think
of the matter seriously, watch the law of evolution while you are
advancing your professional knowledge, and if the opportunity offers,
do all you can to aid in a cause so important and beneficent.
One writer has criticised the technical schools because they do not
teach mechanical intuition. The schools have enough to do in the time
available if they teach principles and sufficient practice to enable the
principles to be understood. The aptitude to design, which must be

what is meant