Labor Day has come and gone again and it...

LABOR DAY LESSONS.

Labor Day has come and gone again and it is not too much to say that tbis latest observance was the greatest in the history of the day in this nation. Throughout the country the demonstration made furnished conclusive proof that organized labor is marching on and that its ranks were never so numerous as now. Rivalry among the various trades represented in organized labor was confined to getting out the membership of the various orders and making the biggest show possible. And no thoughtful man can read the accounts of the doings of the occasion throughout the country without being convinced of the power of the order and its possibilities for the uplifting of labor when this power comes to be understood and wielded for the advancement of all the interests of the laboring man.

Organization is doing much for labor in all of its interests. It is doing great things for the laboring man in a social way. It is making more of a man of the laborer in conference. It is teaching him how to conduct affairs relating to the betterment of the condition of labor in a peaceful and orderly fashion. It is placing each man under the control of himself more fully than he has ever been before. It is making them strong in conference and council. Organization is disciplining them, teaching them tact and diplomacy. It is educating them and making stronger and better men of them. It is securing for them better wages and causing the powers that be to recognize the worth of the labor element as a large part of our citizenship. Wliile laboring with their hands, organization is rapidly teaching them the power of brain also in the conduct of their affairs and in their efforts to reach a higher plain of living.

Again, organization is giving to the laboring man a better opinion of himself. He is coming to understand the power of the ballot and to use it for his own welfare in securing better government. Through organization he is coming more fully into his own as the bone and sinew of this nation, the class upon which its future welfare in so Iarge a degree depends. And as labor continues to grow in self respect, it is bound to grow in general estimation and to become an ever increasing factor in the affairs of this nation May this onward and upward progress continue and the standard of living and life grow better and higher fo organized labor.

Tom L. Johnson was practically the whole thing in the democratic state convention at Sandusky yesterday. He is a candidiate for the democratic nomination for governor next year and for president in 1904. Thousands of Johnson buttons were distributed at the convention bearing the legend "Tom L. Johnson in 1904." Johnson is a great deal more than a band wagon, in fact, in spite of his peculiar ideas on some questions, he is a very able man. He has shown his ability to work all around Mark Hanna in Cleveland matters. He is a man of the people in spite of his great wealth and the masses have confidence in him. He proposes to make a campaign of the state and will hold meetings under a big tent which he carries with. him. He is likely to become a formidable candidate in 1904 with his nearness to the people, his broad grasp of public questions and the means at his command. There is no question but that he is strictly honest and sincere and a genuine friend of the people.