Newspaper Page Text
THE ATLANTIAN
3
Stye Atlantian
Published Monthly by E. WALTER TRIPP
Box 118, Atlanta, Georgia
THE ATLANTIAN will give free space to all Secret Societies and Labor Or
ganizations.
On the other hand, we put everybody on notice when THE AT LANTIAN makes
a statement which we believe to be true, and such statement goes uncontroverted, we
shall insist that it is true
- Published Monthly by The Atlantian Publishing Co. «
VOL. 3 SEPTEMBER
No. 32
Our Motto: “Pull for Atlanta, or Pull
Out. ”
©
Editorial Etchings
©
Labor Day
The present indications are that the Labor Day demonstration in
Atlanta will be the most notable in the history of the local organiza
tions and that throughout the state and indeed the whole country
the men who toil will celebrate their national holiday with unusual
enthusiasm.
It is entirely fitting that this should be so. There is no class of
people in the state of Georgia who are more genuinely entitled to
their recreation, and, what is more important, to the substantial
demands which they make from time to time, than the great body
of the working people of the state. In every contest for good gov
ernment and high citizenship it is the masses of the people who'
march in the vanguard, and in the long intervals it is they who keep
the beacon lights burning.
It goes without saying that the skill and intelligence of a great
majority of the working men in Georgia stands far above that of
the working men in other states. Here where the infusion of for
eign pauperism is reduced to the minimum, here where the men who
labor with their own hands are literally the children of our own
soil and sprung from our own old red hills, they are in sympathy
with our political institutions and in harmony with the highest as
pirations of good citizenship.
In other sections there have been extremists, at times, who have
brought a certain measure of reproach upon the cause of organized
labor, but here in Georgia they have been found contending for their
rights in orderly fashion, under the forms of law, and striving for
the inauguration and perfection of better laws.
It is impossible for society to overestimate the debt which is due
these people. They live in a wholesome atmosphere and hence the
ideals toward which they strive are wholesome.
The old Romans had a motto, which, turned into English, means
that “Labor conquers all things.” This is only half truth. For
in this world, labor has conquered everything except justice for
itself—that it has never done. The philosophic student of history is
not always sanguine. It seems that the world can progress up to a
certain point—and then there comes a reaction which casts us back
into the pit; from which we begin slowly to emerge, and after cen
turies when we have risen to a point where it looks as if something
would be done worth while—and then, back to the pit we go! So it
has always been. The question is: Will it always be so ?
But for one thing the situation would appear hopeless. But
during the last nineteen centuries there has been a solvent in the
world; and, however little multitudes of men may be influenced in
their personal conduct by that solvent, there is no question that it
has done much toward bringing' about what in the language of
Mr. Roosevelt is called “the square deal.”
Labor can never come fully into its own until “the square deal”
is the rule of action. But labor must give “a square deal,” as well
as take it—and if we know anything about Organized Labor, that
is the basis upon which it works. It is willing to accord justice, and
wants justice. When one takes up the statistical reports of the
country and reads where the men in a good trade have incomes
which pay them less than five hundred dollars a year; and then
sees how protected manufacturers and stock jobbers and bankers
have millions to spend upon gaudy pleasure, and other millions
with which to buy decadent Counts as helpmates for their daugh
ters—it’s rather discouraging. It looks as if the man getting his
five hundred dollars a year is not getting a “square real.” And yet,
that condition prevails in the coal regions, in the cotton mills, and
in many other of the prominent industries of this country. When
men talk about well-paid American labor and the high standard of
living in American labor, we think of these things. And sometimes
when wo hear men talking of this, we cannot refrain from asking
the question: “Iiow would YOU like to live on $500 a year?”
As long as these conditions obtain, we need Organized Labor—
and we need a Labor Day in which the hosts of Organized Labor
can come together and take stock of the situation as they look upon
each other’s faces after the hard struggles of another year, and
thus gain inspiration for the hard struggle to be endured during
the coming year. From Labor Day to Labor Day, one cannot often
see a great advance. But the advance is there. If anyone doubts
it, let him compare the hosts of labor on Labor Day, 1911, with
Labor Day, 1890, and he will see that some gain has been made.
The gain will continue only if the hosts of Labor are true to them
selves. If their leaders are unselfish, persevering and capable; if
their members are peaceable, honorable, law-abiding, determined
and loyal, they will eventually win the fight. Naturally in that
vast body of men that we speak of as Organized Labor, there will
be some unfaithful ones. But if the heart of the great body is
sound; if their practices are correct, they will eventually win their
struggle for equal justice, and for a fair share of that wealth their
labor creates.
No political party can ignore their demands and live; no politi
cal faction or organization can neglect them and deserve to live.
In the broad and patriotic sense they are democratic to the core
and the measures they demand are for the welfare of the many
and not of the few.
The feeble voices of the past have increased in volume and grown
in strength until today the two millions and a half of labor votes
become a factor which every party must reckon with, and the
interests of labor must be consulted by every man who aspires to
office, from the chief magistracy to the militia district.
The Atlantian extends its greeting on the occasion of the na
tional holiday of Labor and wishes for every working man a better
and a brighter year than has ever gone before.
The Congressman From the
Fifth District
The new Congressman from this district, William Schley Howard,
who has just seen his first service in the extra session, has acquitted
himself in a most creditable manner. Mr. Howard has not made the
mistake, that some new members make, of trying to push himself
forward too rapidly—but, in everything that has concerned the wel
fare of his district, he has been right on the spot, and has failed
in nothing that was possible of accomplishment. It is not so much,
however, this that entitles him to full credit, as the fact that the
Democratic party, being on trial at this session, and the lines being
clear-cut, Mr. Howard has shown himself absolutely loyal to the
platform enunciation, and has voted straight in every vote taken
during the session. Not only so, but he has made it a point to be
constant in attendance, and no charge of absenteeism can lie against
him. If he maintains (and we have no doubt that he will) the rec
ord already made, it is a foregone conclusion that the man, who (in