DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT OCTOBER, 1908. Vol. XV. LABOR'S POLITICAL DUTY.* No. 10 Serious and Enthusiastic Discussion of Labor's Political Duty of the Hour by Men who Ably Represent the Views of the Toilers. J. A. Cable. Sec.-Treas. Coopers' International Union. The proceedings of the last convention of the National Manufacturers' Association, as outlined in American Industries, show that they cooed and cuckooed amid the luxuries of the Waldorf-Astoria over the success of their efforts to outlaw the labor movement, unmindful, or perhaps blissfully ignorant, of the appalling want, misery, and deprivation which has been wrought in the homes of the working people of America by reason of the recent money panic. The fact that thousands of honest, willing laborers have for some time been idle, through no fault of theirs, and that thousands more are and have been working only part time, while the cost of *Symposium continued from September. living continues to rise, did not deter this aggregation of labor haters from jesting about the helpless condition of labor and gloating over what they believe to be a knock-out blow to the labor movement of America. From the outline of proceedings at hand their convention seems to have taken the form of a jubilee meeting, where the victors met to feast and drink over the suppression or annihilation of an enemy. The laboring man, too long underpaid, constantly victimized and starved in the mad rush for wealth, with his dependent wife and children in want and hunger in some instances, must be made the subject of jest and jollification for this questionable combination of dollar marks assembled in New York City ostensibly to devise ways and means to further save the nation, but in |