Page:Back to the Republic.djvu/86

 to destroy property or to do bodily harm to prevent individuals from working where they please, when they please, and for what they please.

Much credit for increasing wages has been given labor leaders and unions which they do not deserve.

The price of eggs has advanced as rapidly as wages have increased, but the hens have no unions. The prices of milk, butter and cheese have advanced as rapidly as wages have increased, but the milch cows have no unions. The price of clothing has advanced as rapidly as wages have increased, but cotton and wool have no unions. We have simply lessened the purchasing power of the dollar through the inflation of values. The law of supply and demand is sure to work, because it was divinely made, and it is as certain as the law of gravitation, the law of growth or the law of life.

Employes should remember that the republic was the first form of government that gave labor a chance. The worst year for labor in the United States was better than the best year for labor in any other country in the history of the world. The republic was the first form of government that made it possible for the section hand to become president of a railroad, a clerk to become president of a bank, a farm boy to become