the hands of ignorance and malice, reverses the basic principles of just government, and introduces the rule of the minority for the sole benefit of that minority. It is the attempt of a small fraction of the population to absolutely control the conditions under which enterprises shall be conducted. Enterprises in which the entire public is vitally interested.

The cause of labor reform is too sacred to be thus madly crippled. The hope of permanent progress lies in the reasonableness of the poor man's protest against enforced idleness; the strength of his appeal to that sentiment of justice upon which civilization is based; the unanswerableness of his argument when he demands a larger share of the wealth his hand creates. Years ago Wendell Phillips said to laboring men-and when had the sons of toil a truer friend than Wendell Phillips-"When you have convinced thinking men that it is right, and humane men that it is just, you will

gain your cause.

What is gained by ar

gument is gained forever.”

The method of education, agitation, legislation, may be slow, but it is sure. It is a method that becomes a freeman and an American.

And now permit me to outline briefly what I consider the better way of conducting this grandest of reforms. A reform that embraces the highest welfare of all sorts and conditions of men.

I would urge, first, the education of workingmen by workingmen. That the mighty energies of united labor be directed to the elevation of the wageearner as a man, as a citizen, and an artisan.

Powerful as money is it can never win against brains. Given in this country a million well-read workingmen, who understand their cause, who are united in peaceful but puissant contest for the rights of men against the tyranny of monopoly, and the future is secure.

Ignorance can be cajoled, frightened, deceived. Self-contained and self-re

specting manhood cannot. Greed and craft can sway poverty and passion to their will. But greed and craft are impotent to rule the mind or the hand of intelligent, self-poised manhood and womanhood. Through self-development shall the laborer "make good his standing place and move the world."

And let no one call this a student's dream. Competent authority (Mr. Chas. Waring), states that ten years' strikes cost the English workmen $143,060,000. In America the loss would not be smaller; and throughout the civilized world it has been estimated that $75,000,000 are annually thrown away in strikes, lockouts and similar disturbances. Certainly the method of "striking" is a costly one.

What if this vast sum were wisely expended in education, and agitation, in elevating the laborer in the quality of his manhood, and in spreading the literature of reform through every nook and corner of civilization, and in securing, by legitimate methods, proper relief through legislation. Can any one doubt

that trades unions would gain by the adoption of these safer and surer methods, and by the immediate abandonment of all "strikes" that include violence to persons or property?

One of the very best of modern publications on behalf of labor (Story of Manual Labor in All Ages) contains, in a chapter on "strikes," these words:

"If men want to quit work in a free country, they may. If they wish to persuade others to quit, that is within their rights. Unfortunately it is at this point that the rank and file of the army of labor mutinies and rejects the wiser counsels of its leaders. We still hear of intimidation, threatening language and actual violence, and until we can get wholly rid of these, the strength of organized labor can never be truly tested."

I firmly believe that these are wise and true words. A "strike" resulting in destruction of property or life, is a blow to labor. Victories so won are both unreal and costly. Friends fall, foes arise. Monopoly rejoices when the workman, with torch or gun, becomes the vandal of society. Brothers, the "strike" must go!

A second necessary step is the condemnation on the part of labor organizations of their worst foe, the licensed grog-shop. The saloon is the workman's Judas. Its smiles betray. Fawning, hiding treachery, is the nature of its pretended friendship. Well may John Burns pause in his labor speeches and entreat the London dockmen to "let drink alone." "On behalf of labor," said Phillips, "the saloon must go." John Swinton, after long battle for the poor man's cause, discovers that "the liquor traffic has always operated against labor." And T. V. Powderly, weighing his words carefully, said to a convention of workmen, "I had rather be at the head of one hundred thousand sober men than a million moderate drinkers. If every member of the Knights of Labor would boycott strong drink in five years time we should be an invincible host."

To these strong words from strong men add this fact-more telling than any words-our annual drink bill con