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American Federationist.

VOL. VI.

DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS
OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT.

WASHINGTON, D. C., SEPTEMBER, 1899.

No. 7

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A song of labor must be sung today.
A ringing song that, sounding o'er the land,
Will make men listen. At his flaming forge,
His hand upon his bellows-pole, the smith
Will pause and stop the hissing of his flame;
The plowman lean upon the handles of
His plow; the puddler at the furnace halt,
His molten iron half poured; the quarry man
Let
go his drill a space; the miner rest
Upon his pick; and all the men that toil
Will stand enrapt as if they heard the glad
And sweet clear music of a happy dream-
A dream of being free, with happy homes
Filled with content and peaceful certainty
That none can claim a toll from all their toil.

And then a song of labor must be sung
To wake the workers from this spell of dreams;
A song that stirs their hearts to action, like
A ballad of old times the yeomen sang

When marching to the fray-a song that streams
And flaunts like an unfurled free banner high

In the eternal freeness of the sky;

The song-words like a banner's bold device.

This song should come unto the ears of all

The takers of the toll from weary toil.

Unwelcome at first hearing, but as rose

And swelled the music till the world were filled

With sympathetic thrillings of the sense

Of justice, right and the fraternity

Men feel for men, then would they slough the scorn Of lowly mankind they so long have worn,

And raise their voices, bearing each his part

Of the glad burden of the song of love
And brotherhood. This is the song that must
Be sung by the best singers of today.

VLADIMIR KAZANSKY.

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There is among all working men who possess an organization, however imperfect it may be, a sentiment of their moral superiority over their brothers divided by selfishness and enslaved by their own servility. And this sentiment is justified by the social facts, for wherever the trade union exists the workman is skillful, even if he is not a trade unionist; the work is relatively well done and the wages are higher than elsewhere, without adding that the workman is generally sound in body and mind.

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AUTHOR OF THE LABOR MOVEMENT: THE PROBLEM OF TO-DAY.''

FRATERNAL DELEGATE TO BRITISH TRADE UNION CONGRESS (1897).

of the Union, shoulder to shoulder, the skilled mechanic and the laborer, the white man and the black man, the native-born and the foreign-born, men of all creeds and of no creed, of all political parties and of no political party. The Grand Army of Labor-with a history of past achievements grander than that revealed in the history of any nation or of any people; its defeats but temporary repulses; its victories permanent gain.

From the days of the leadership of Moses to our day it has been the army of liberation; its onward

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SECY-TREAS. U. B. OF CARPENTERS AND JOINERS OF AMERICA.

of health and not of pestilence, of storehouses and not of hospitals, of free government and not of imperialism.

The marching hosts are gaunt and hungry through self-sacrifice. Its banners are red with the blood of its martyrs. Contumely and reproach are the earthly reward of its leaders; but the army halts not; out of Egyptian bondage it has passed, never to return; through serfdom, villeinage and chattel slavery it has come, and today the stronghold of wage slavery is crumbling before the fire of its batteries.

Soldiers of the Army of 1899, all hail! Labor

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR.

devotion; union in wisdom, and union in leadership. Trust those who have trusted you. Have faith in those who have faith in you and in the cause. Mouthers and doubters to the rear; put none but tried and true men on guard. Step by step we have captured hour after hour of our time. Individual enterprises have retreated to the stronghold of chartered corporations, the dukedoms of capitalism, and now the corporations are in retreat to the royal strongholds of absolutism. Competition in industry has failed. Industrial individualism is no more. Capital, in its greed, is devouring its own substance; the rich fields of our country

have been exploited, and now new fields are sought. As of old, the armies and navies of the world are but the tools of capitalism. War is made to serve the investors.

Husband your resources, protect your funds and enlarge them. High dues mean high wages. The best disciplined and best equipped unions will be best prepared. Local unions must come into national or international relations, and all unions and national and international unions who are loyal to the labor movement must become one in spirit by affiliation with the American Federation of Labor. Look backward at your past history and gain inspiration from its pages. A quarter of a century ago the Massachusetts 10-hour law went into operation. For more than a third of a century the short-hour men and women waged a contest unparalleled in this country. Opposed to them were hundreds of millions of dollars of invested wealth, the ignorance and prejudice of college professors, and the apathy of the masses. Decade after decade the agitation continued. Our men were blacklisted; some sank into untimely graves; defeat followed defeat; but the short-hour man and woman continued until the victory was won, and this by a handful of men and women. Then followed a more perfect organization, in turn followed by other victories.

Soldiers of the Grand Army of Labor, wage workers, serfs in labor but sovereigns in citizenship-the future is yours as the past was yours. Trusts and monopolists are but industrial kings, to be overthrown in due time. Then shall the

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FRANK MORRISON,

DELEGATE INTERNATIONAL TYPOGRAPHICAL UNION.
SECRETARY A. F. OF L,

Our country is in greater danger than in that hour when the Southern States sought to save chattel slavery by the dissolution of the Union.

As union men we stand for high wages, short hours of labor, comfortable homes, and higher education, a larger liberty, the right of contract and of control over the sale of our time and skill, the right and opportunity to be masters of ourselvesin union one in all and all in one. Where the flag of industry goes, we go, and can not be stayed. Men struggling for liberty are struggling with us and for us.

A large army means despotism, and despotism means low wages. An army does not assimilate those against whom it is directed. It is not the messenger of the gospel of peace and love; it is the messenger of the gospel of mammon and of hate. All capitalistic governments, under whatever name they may assume, have one mottohundreds of millions of dollars for war, but not one dollar for industrial co-operation.

This century has nearly passed. A new century is about to dawn. The sun of this century may set red with the blood of the struggling peoples, and the new century be ushered in with the moans and tears of the poor.

The grand army of labor will need the wisest leadership and the most devoted adhesion to trade union principles. Now is the time for preparation.

JOHN B. LENNON,

GENERAL SECRETARY JOURNEYMEN TAILORS' UNION
TREASURER A. F. OF L.

command to labor fall upon all men. Then the performance of labor shall be no longer disgraceful drudgery, but healthful and ennobling exercise. With equity in the distribution of labor will come

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