STAR MARK STAR STAR TOBACCO THE LEADING BRAND OF THE WORLD. It is soft, sweet and juicy, and is incomparably THE BEST CHEWING TOBACCO ON EARTH. MANUFACTURED BY LIGGETT & MYERS TOBACCO CO., ST. LOUIS, MO. ATTENTION, CLOTHING CLERKS! You know Sweet, Orr & Co., and you know what unionmade Overalls are. You further know that all goods made by Sweet, Orr & Co. that a pair of Overalls VER are union-made, and sold to your customer gives such satisfaction UNION R MADE that you are sure af comes to your store is shown an Overall, a Pant and a Shirt made by SWEET, ORR & C yona Coff 7-25-39 American Federationist. VOL. VI. DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS WASHINGTON, D. C., MARCH, 1899. From the system of competition, a deadly foe to honest labor, has sprung the heresy of crushing combination, and now we are evoluting through an age of degrading combines instead of practicing the humane system of co-operation. How much has been said and can still be said on these two opposing systems, the former on the plane of brutal selfishness, the latter upon the plane of divine altruism! It requires no strain of thought, no depth of reasoning power, no peculiar and broad knowledge of economics, to see that if labor unions did nothing more than call the attention of workingmen to their past and present conditions and point out what ought and might be theirs in equal and exact justice, they would have done an incalculable service to the sweating masses. And yet further than this, unions educate-teach sociology, economics, economy, better methods of production and distribution, point out effects of social evils and locate the causes, suggest the remedies, and crown this whole course of schooling by demonstrating the greatness and power of an intelligent ballot and the proper education of the masses. The science of government, the principles upon which government is based, and the nature of justice and equity are developed in the unions' meetings through the discussions of men, measures, rights, reforms, and methods of redress. The remedies proposed by these wideawake bodies, existing in the thick of the struggle, provoke the discussions of the savants of the world-professors, editors, ministers, economists, and all classes of thinkers and speakers and writers. Labor unions have produced educators, thinkers, orators, writers, economists, novelists, poets, inventors, investigators, and developed every order of talent out of their own ranks. They have even drawn students and teachers from the wealthy and professional. In a way, they have not only educated men to the point of courage to demand their rights but have developed a spirit to know more of the normal conditions of society and the laws of nature pertaining to the regulation of the same. They have bettered the conditions of thous No. I ands of families by securing for them higher wages, shorter hours, greater independence, and the significance of a higher and an educated manhood and womanhood. Labor unions have caused, from first to last, the publication of a multitude of books pro and con, and have established and ably edited many papers and magazines in the cause of the poor and oppressed. Labor unions have turned into new channels the whole mighty tide of thought on economic subjects and developed the real facts of social ethics freed from the stains of the special ethics of the rich and powerful. A new era dawned upon mankind when the idea was projected upon the firmament of knowledge that all power is derived from the people. The idea exploded the false doctrine of the divine rights of kings. The world then took a long step forward for the better. At first, labor unions aroused an inordinate discontent in the masses. The pendulum swung too far the other way. The lesson was needed and the profit of it was not lost. Now, these educating and elevating organizations are settling into a fuller consciousness of the philosophy of the exigencies of life itself, and recognizing the laws imposing toil as a necessity of existence. They see now more clearly and certainly what has to be done and what are the conditions surrounding the true economic social relations of men. The strike and the boycott, methods of redress that are somewhat back-acting upon the operators themselves, are no longer considered the panacea of their wrongs. So with a higher and nobler spirit they are striving to educate. They see what Henry Ward Beecher once said: "We must educate, we must educate, or we must perish by our own prosperity." [Concluded.] State Socialism vs. Liberty. BY A. S. LEITCH. "For, ever in thine eyes, O Liberty, Shines that bright light By which the word is saved: We shall trust in thee." "No intelligent workman who has passed years of his life in the study of the labor problem," said President Gompers, of the American Federation of Labor, recently, "expects to wake up any fine morning to find the hopes of these years realized over night, and the world on the flood tide of the |