cannot be coerced directly by compulsion the Sherman Anti-Trust law organizaor indirectly by means of penalties with- tions of workers have been forbidden to out making him a slave. All relations strike, to discuss or publish facts conbetween employers and employes must be cerning conditions of work, to pay strike construed in accordance with this funda- benefits to striking members, to persuade mental truth if freedom is to obtain. others to join the cause of the strikers. To prevent such infringements upon the rights of free men there was incorporated stitutes Labor's Bill of Rights. Under present conditions of combinations and concentration of the employing interests industrial freedom is impossible in H. R. 15657, sections 15-23, what confor individual workers. Where freedom does not exist in the shop it is barred from the lives of those who work in the shop. Wherever unfreedom gains a foothold a deadly influence begins undermining the freedom of all. Only organization can secure to the workers an opportunity to have a voice in determining wages and conditions under which they work. Organization gives the right of choice. Choice is freedom. All increases in wages, all betterment in working conditions, regulations for the greater welfare of those who work, have all been wrung from employers by the organized efforts of the workers. All these gains that mean so much for the conservation and advancement of the nation have resulted directly or indirectly from the efforts of the organized workers. Organizations protect and benefit the unorganized also. Imagine, if you can, what would be the fate of the workers if the Sherman AntiTrust law as interpreted by the courts were fully enforced and labor organizations were dissolved and outlawed. Workers would be helpless before the conscienceless greed of exploiting employers, the impotent victims of predatory power. Workers would become the cheapest factor in production, of infinitely less value than the things they produce. Through organization the workers insist that human life shall be valued more highly than things; they insist that personal rights are of greater consequence than rights attaching to property. These sections provide regulations for the issuance of injunctions and restrict the scope of the injunctive process. The right to withhold labor power or to withhold patronage has been denied on the ground that it interfered with the employer's property rights. But an employer can have no property rights in the patronage of free man. Patronage implies voluntary choice bestowed wherever it pleases the purchaser and withdrawn at his pleasure. If this patronage is a personal matter, a personal right, how can its withdrawal constitute an unlawful act? The dealer thereby may be ag grieved and may suffer loss, but he cannot claim a legal right to the patronage of any man. Free men have the right to bestow or withhold their labor and their patronage whenever or wherever they may wish. To gainsay this right is to deny freedom. Labor power and patronage are what make the workman effective and forceful they constitute his principal protection and means of self-expression. They must be guarded as the foundation of individual freedom, the precious birthright of a man free to be himself and to possess his own soul. Not only must the theoretical right to bestow or withhold labor power and patronage be maintained, but this must be given reality and effectiveness by permitting men to pursue legitimate courses of action in exercising this right. If the end is lawful and worthy, then the moral By abuse of the injunction process and means for attaining that end must also by perversion and misinterpretation of be recognized as legal and necessary. Contributed EXCESS PRIVATE FORTUNES A MENACE By HENRY H. KLEIN* The war in Europe will awaken the people to conditions in the United States. It will inform them that the wealth of the nation is concentrated, that the people are poor and that there can be no general return of prosperity without a limitation of private fortunes. The nation, not a few private individuals, must become the principal stockholder in most large corporations. most large cities as well as in the nation, has reached its limit. Greed alone is responsible for the present hardship in the United States-the greed of the few to acquire great wealth. Restrict greed and you restore an economic balance to the people. Limit private fortunes and you restore prosperity to the people. Excessive private fortunes are a menace to the nation. They are used mainly for selfish ends. thousand About two years before Those who own great wealth will be made to realize that the safety of the nation depends on their acquiescence in Christ, Moses restored economic freedom the outcome-the transfer of excess for- to the people. He saved them from the tunes back to society. This can easily yoke of the Pharoahs of Egypt, gave them be accomplished, the nation, representing a new moral code, and started them on a civilization which endured until the people, becoming the possessor of all excess wealth. A constitutional limita- Christ. The Decalogue and the Sermon tion of private fortunes must be adopted. on the Mount are the monuments of anThe result will be an immediate reduc- cient civilization. tion in the cost of living and the cost of government will be defrayed out of income on public property. Taxation in *Author of "Standard Oil or The People"; "How to Prevent Economic Disaster in America" and "The Looting of a Great City." new A new morality is needed in the world today. TRUTH AND JUSTICE must be restored. The morality of Christ and Moses has been disregarded. How will this restoration come about? Will reason rule or will anarchy first prevail? The change must come in this country. Real Cause of European War. The present European war which means the slaughter of hundreds of thousands may bankrupt the world-may set progress back for a century. The press heralds throughout the earth the reasons the various governments give for engaging in the war but it does not state the real fundamental cause, viz., business -captalism-the true and only cause. Merchants of one country are being beaten in the game of business by those of another country and their respective governments proceed to settle the matter by stagnated. We are reaping the fruits of the bond issues of fifteen years ago in which the workers were obliged to pay all they could produce to the organizers of industry and the employers see but one way out. War-war will give employment to the idle and agitated workers in killing each other. The slaughter of such great numbers means that there will be fewer to employ and consequently the problem of unemployment will be solved ahead. The money needed for prosecuting the war will insure tremendous bond issues that will place the bankers of the world in perpetual control of the products of the workers. Already millions of dolCapitalism the world over is on the lars in gold are being shipped to Europe verge of collapse. Not only in the United from America, already there has been States but all over Europe the depression quite an advance in the price of wheat is marked, banks are failing, unemploy- and other commodities and many in this ment is growing and the stock market is country-the business element-are look war. ing beyond the piles of mutilated bodies, Prof. J. W. Jenks, of New York Unigrief stricken families and ruined homes versity and Chairman of the U. S. Immito the possibilties of the European war gration Commission, perhaps the leading reviving business. We call this "civili- authority in the country on immigration, zation"-we pretend that we are Chris- says in his lecture on "Recent Immigratians and moral, the fact is barbarism tion," delivered at Yale and printed in was never so brazenly brutal and heath- the Yale Press: enish, never so careless of the lives of the worthy. We boast of our practical methods. Nothing more clearly shows the utter incompetency of capitalism and the ruin it has brought on the world. It is utterly without any plan for the future, wholly without care for humanity. All it asks is profit for itself with malign indifference to the welfare or misery of those it openly proposes to exploit. We are not through with the shamelessness of "Big Business" in Mexico. We are not through with our horror in Colorado and disgust with the New Haven incompetency before capitalism hurls the world into the horrors of war, because one country wants trade, another an outlet for its trade, because the bankers want to lend the money that had accumulated in their vaults, because hereditary monarchial "houses" that have oppressed the people through centuries and all related by ties of blood or marriage have decreed it and because hereditary capitalists related by interlocking directorates reach out for loot-only loot. It seems strange that intelligent and normally good people should offer their sons to death to aid these spoilers. W. W. MURPHY, Immigration Bill Should be Passed. The opponents of the immigration bill now before the United States Senate claim that the country's prosperity depends upon the continual influx of immigrant laborers which is now at the rate of over 1,000,000 a year. "It should not be forgotten that many of the very best authorities-probably the decided majority of the best authorities-are of the opinion that the popula tion of the United States would have been equally as great, and quite possibly greater, than it is now, had there been no immigration whatever during the last 30 years; and that on the other hand, the population of some of the countries, from which hundreds of thousands, or even millions of immigrants have come has not been lessened by that immigration." Immigration has brought to this country a large population of untrained and unadapted races of south and east Europe, enticed here by the economic conditions, and cheap transportation assisted by the efforts of the steamship companies, and by "Big Business." They are working for starvation wages and have lowered the wage standard of the American population, a people accustomed to the highest standard of living. And thus an American population with American training and American characteristics has been very largely displaced. As the influx of foreigners increased and tended to lower the standrd of liv ing, native born families decreased. When the present European war ends and with the Panama canal open, millions of immigrants will overrun the country and reduce the economic conditions to the lowest level. The only hope to escape these conditions is in the passing of the immigration bill now before the U. S. Senate, and which has the backing of the American Federation of Labor and other industrial organizations. BURTON BRYANT, Miscellany THE EUROPEAN WAR President's Proclamation for Peace Prayer Day The terrible European conflict still rages and the great red tide of war ebbs and flows along a battle front of over a hundred miles in length. Up to date of going to press there has been no decisive result, but each day that the war continues brings to the people of the nations involved the horrors of its effects in ever an increasing measure. The slaughter thus far has been terrible, thousands of homes have been robbed of their bread winners and many thousands of little children will grow up without their fathers' support and guidance because civilization has not yet sufficiently developed to avert this barbarous method of settling international differences, and Christianity has not sufficient influence upon the people of the earth to make possible a literal enforcement of God's mandate, "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The end of this terrible war cannot arrive too soon. Humanity in the light of modern civilization stands appalled at the inconceivable destruction of life and property that has resulted thus far and still continues on a more deadly scale than the world has ever before experienced-nor that alone but famine is beginning to manifest itself like a menacing cloud hanging over the countries involved. Pestilence will soon follow in the wake of the armies and defenseless women, helpless children and old men will suffer hardships in the extreme in numbers heretofore unheard of. The lesson of the war will not be lost on the people of the United States, for it emphasizes to them the menace of militarism in a way that could not be more vividly impressed upon them. The United States is essentially a non-military nation, and in the present crisis is neutral in every sense. The deep sympathy of its people goes out to the sufferers on both sides of the conflict. The sentiment of Americans in their desire for a termination of the hostilities is well and truly expressed in the proclamation issued by President Wilson on September 8th, setting aside Sunday, October 4th, as a day of prayer for peace. That memorable document is as follows: "By the President of the United States of America. "A PROCLAMATION. "WHEREAS, Greater nations of the world have taken up arms against one another and war now draws millions of men into battle whom the counsel of statesmen have not been able to save from the terrible sacrifice, and "WHEREAS, In this as in all things, it is our privilege and duty to seek counsel and succor of Almighty God, humbling ourselves before Him, confessing our weakness and our lack of any wisdom equal to these things, and "WHEREAS, It is the especial wish and longing of the people of the United States, in prayer and counsel and all friendliness, to serve the cause of peace. "Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America, do designate Sunday, the fourth day of October next, a day of prayer and supplication, and do request all God-fearing persons to repair on that day to their places of worship, there to unite their petitions to Almighty God, that overruling the counsel of men, setting straight the things they can not govern or alter, taking pity on the nations now in the throes of conflict, in His mercy and goodness showing a way where men can see none, He vouchsafe His children healing peace again and restore cnce more that concord among men and nations without which there can be neither happiness nor true friendship, nor any wholesome fruit of toil or thought in the world; praying also to this end that He forgive us our sins, our ignorance of His only will, our willfulness and many errors, and lead us in the paths of obedience to places of vision and to thoughts and counsels that purge and make wise. "In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. "Done at the City of Washington, this eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand, nine hundred and fourteen, and of the independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and thirty-ninth. "WOODROW WILSON." "By the President: "William Jennings Bryan, Secretary of State." WAR PRICES IN THE UNITED STATES Monopolies that Control the Cost of Life's Necessities Adopt European War as Pretext to Rob American People-How Long will the People Submit? When the present European war began American food speculators promptly raised to extortionate standards the prices of food commodities in the United States. This they did under the pretext that such a course was necessitated by the trans-Atlantic conflict. Scarcity of supply is the cause upon which increase in the cost of commodities is usually sought to be justified, but in this case no such pretext was available, because there was no scarcity of supply in the United States of those commodities that had been increased in price. There was in fact an over-abundance because of good crops and the fact that little or no food stuffs were then being exported-the merchant ships of the belligerent European nations remaining for the time being in American ports because of danger of seizure or destruction by the enemies' warships should they venture on the high seas. Yet notwithstanding these conditions the prices of life's necessities were increasing from day to day and would doubtless have become prohibitive for a large proportion of the population had not the Federal Government taken such limited action as was in its power to protect the people from the extortions of the food speculators. It is not an exaggeration to say that in the United States the number of men whose weekly wage will not average over $15.00 and who support families on that wage will reach millions. Thus were millions of citizens in a nation at peace, in a land of plenty, menaced with hunger because the food speculators who control the nation's food supply and who have the power to do so arbitrarily, took advantage of a groundless pretext to avariciously increase the cost of food stuffs and thereby add millions and billions of dollars to their own wealth by robbing the people-the ultimate consumers. As a matter of fact there was never a greater plentitude of food in the country than at that very time, but so ravenous did the food speculators become that President Wilson decided that it was absolutely necessary that such action as was within the power of the Government be taken to protect the people. In a letter to the attorney general regarding the matter he said: "The rapid and unwarranted increase in the prices of foodstuffs in this country upon the pretext of the conditions existing in Europe is so serious and vital a matter that I take the liberty of calling your attention to it." Resolutions providing for investigation were introduced in Congress and numerous investigations were set on foot throughout the country, but while they were being conducted the food speculators continued to rob the people and to avail themselves of the opportunity to add enormous wealth to their already vast fortures. True it is that the vigorous action in investigating the situation taken by the attorney general's office through the United States District attorneys, as well as local proceedings throughout the country, have had the effect of slightly reducing the "war" prices of some commodities, but others controlled by the more audacious trusts remain practically at the same figure. But for the prompt action of the Government prices of food commodities would undoubtly have gone so high that thousands of citizens would have actually suffered from want, and this, as we have said, in a land of plenty with unusually bounteous crops and without any reason on earth other than that |