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The Big Labor Day Celebration Has Passed

The Big Labor Day Celebration Has Passed image
Parent Issue
Day
11
Month
September
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

THE BIG LABOR DAY CELEBRATION HAS PASSED

The Rain Did Not Prevent Its Being a Mammoth Affair

Speeches by W. W. Wedemeyer and Joseph Labadie - Address of Welcome by the City Clerk Granger

Labor Day was a great success Monday. There were 1,500 or 2,000 union laborers ín the line of march, the majority of whom were from Ann Arbor city. Ypsilanti sent up about 200, Jackson 500 and Owosso nearly 200. The parade was successful notwithstandlng the rain in the early part of the morning. The floats of the business houses which entered the parade were the finest ever seen in Ann Arbor.

The councilmen and city officials in carriages, who headed the procession, left the corner of Main and William streets at 10:30. The flre department followed next. After these came 200 stalwart men of Owosso unlons. The boys of Company I, in flne form, marched next, followed by the Ypsilantl company. Jackson unions were the best represented, there being over 500 delegates in all, the palnters and decorators in their spotless white uniforms, making a flne display. Ann Arbor Typographlcal Union with the two printer devils in scarlet uniform, created quite a sensation as did also the bakers with their little clown. The tinners also made great hit, wearlng their tin hats with copper bands. The electrical workers both from Ypsllanti and Ann Arbor were well represented having two floats, one fitted out by the Bell Telephone Co. and one by the Washtenaw Light and Power Co., both of whlch were very handsome. The blue and white chariot of the Trades Council was one of the prettiest floats of the parade. Two girls in white sat on the high seat of the chariot under a canopy of blue and white bunting.

The floats of the varlous business houses entered the procession on Fourth Avenue. Martin's ambulance took a conspicuous place. Mack & Co. were well represented, having a wagon dressed with carpets and costly rugs and all their delivery wagons in line. The clothing men not only were in great evidence with thelr floats, but made themselves known by handing out suits of clothes and throwing hats among the crowd, This spirit of generosity was very conspicuous and deserves credit. Hoag passed out wooden buckets, Couslns & Hall threw bouquets and Dean & Co. delighted the small boys with peanuts.

The parade passed up Kingsley Street to Division, to Huron, to State, and then made a clrcuit of the campus passing down Liberty Street thence to Main Street, where they counter-marched and broke ranks about noon.

The first prize to unions was awarded to the Jackson Electrical Workers and the second prize to the Jackson Painters and Decorators. The Ann Arbor Trades Councll was awarded a special prize for the best labor float. Wadhams, Ryan & Reule were awarded the flrst prize for merchants display and Zachman  & Arnet the second. Special mention was made of the displays of Staebler & Wuerth, Cornell & Esslinger and Mack & Co.

THE SPEECHES.

After dlnner the music of the band assembled a large crowd around the speakers' stand at the corner of Huron and Main Streets and Converse G. Cook, who acted as chalrman with his usual ease, introduced City Clerk Ross Granger, who in the absence of Mayor Brown made the address of welcome. Maj. Granger bid the vlsitlng delegations of union labor welcome. We consider it, he said, a great honor to have you wlth us. We are proud of our city, of our University, of our homes and proud of our laboring men. We are sure that they will use every effort to make your visit both pleasant and profltable. He turned over the city to the organizations and hoped they would come again and often.

Hon. W. W. Wedemeyer was introduced by President Cook and told a neat little story illustratlng how difficult it was to follow Granger in political campaigning as well as in speaking.  This he continued, is the twenty-first birthday of annual labor celebrations. Now, in all but seven states Labor Day is recognized as a legal hollday. Very few of us reallze what united labor means to us in this republic. Today the American Federation of Labor represents over two million of men. Five years ago only 56 labor organizations were represented in it. Today there are over 500. The great army of united labor has been increasing wlth each passing year.

"Sometimes," he said, "I have felt that the labor of hands has not been recognized as it should be. We are too apt to talk about captains of industry and to forget the privates who have made the captains possible. We are proud of men of the brains and conscience of John Motchell. We are proud of Gompers and the other leaders, but we are prouder still of the two mlllion privates who make the wheels of this great republic go round.''

We want to see the laborlng men so well pald that their chlldren may all be well educated. We have no place in this great republlc for classes or for aristocracy. Men should stand on a spirit of equality. It should be a nation of individuals, each man having rights no one else can invade and duties no one else can perform. He trusted and hoped that from all the great labor organizations would go out an influence for good and spoke strongly against child labor. Mr. Wedemeyer spoke against two brass bands, but held his audience well.

Joseph Labadie, of Detroit, the speaker of the day, said that he came as a private and hls words came to him from years of experience in labor. When President Angell saw the first carriage in the procession he called out, "There go the real workingmen."  In that carriage was a lawyer, a dancing master, an editor and hlmself.  Perhaps President Angell spoke truer than he meant. Every person who does any real, useful service to society is a worklng man. President Angell, himself, in so far as he renders service to society, is in so far a worklngman. The labor problem consists in eliminating that which is not productlve.  Lawyers wlll go out of existence as soon as there Is no demand for lawyers, no disputes to be settled. The labor problem consists in determinlng how society can best utilize its forcee to get the best results.

When we have no crimes we won't have any courts or prisons.  Crime is a product of poverty. At least 75 percent of crimes are agalnst property.  When times are hard, crimes against property increase. In order to elimínate crime we must deal with poverty, with the few gettlng what the many produce.

Land is the source of all wealth. Labor employed on land produces everything you produce. I am one of those who question the policy of alIowing any individual to own more land than he can use. Every person who pays rent is paylng to support a useless class in society. The use of land is absolutely necesary for the production of the necessities of life.

If the Declaration of Independence means anything it means what it says that every man is endowed with certaln inalienable rights and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You can't live without the use of land. You can't breathe without land. You can't stand on the streets without a policeman telling you to move along. Such a man moves along and begs for something to eat, and another policeman runs him in. He gets to Jackson and there a contractor gets his labor cheaper than he can get that of a free man. This contractor with cheap labor comes into competition wlth your boss, who loses the job and then you are out of work. With so much land as there is in this country no one should be out of a home and you should not be under the necessity of buying it, for land will be here when man is gone and was here before he was born.

Labor organizations are beginning to think about these questions. The trades unions are preparatory schools towards solving these problems. The greatest political economists in the country originate in the trades council in the conflict of ideas between the employer and the employees. I hope the time will never come when violent means wlll be resorted to. I hope the time will come when no problem can be settled except by a resort to reason. You can't fight for anything you can't reason out. The right of passive resistance is often a great right.

This led the speaker to a discussion of the coal strike. He denied that there was turmoil in the mlnlng region durlng the great strike. They did not resort to arms, but to reason, and reason had a pretty good show. The great world saw that trades unions were not asking unreasonable things and the strike was settled for the time being. But it will not be fully settled so long as half a dozen men can sit in thelr office in New York and tell us what we shall pay for coal. Miners only get 35 cents a ton for mining coal. The best statistics show that it costs only about $1.76 a ton to mine and put coal on the cars ready to ship. Your local dealer only gets about 50 cents a ton for hauling it. A ton of coal ought to be carried to any point in the United States for 25 cents. Where does the dlfference between this and the cost to you go to? Into the pookets of the Baers and the railroad companies. The coal cars are rude affairs. They don't cost much and last a long time. A locomotive draws Iong trains of them. You never can get coal for any less while you admit the right of Mr. Baer and his associates to own all the coal mines in Pennsylvania. The productíon of any artlcle gives the sole right to that artlcle. Society harbors a man who holds anything he has done nothlng for. Those who permit robbery are just as big robbers as those who commit robbery. The coal mines must belong to those who need the coal before the coal question is settled.

Mr. Labadle advocated open unlon meetings, to whlch lawyers. ministers and merchants should be invited to take part in the discussions if they desired. He advised extending invitations to employers to consult with employees.

The productlon of your labor is divided into (1) interest, (2) proflt, (3) rent, and (4) wages. In order to increase wages you must reduce the three other elements, interest, proflt and rent. He advlsed the reading of Henry George's "Progress and Poverty," in order to see the necessity of dealing wlth the rent question. The question of interest is one that affects everybody. It comes for the use of money. Money is a tool of exchange, a much better tool than barter. It is a scientific way of bookkeeplng. We will have interest just so long as we look to Washington to produce our medium of exchange. Gold is too small a base on whlch to found our circulating medium. It should be based on all kinds of property. Money is not only a means of exchange, but also of extortion. Why is it that government all over the world claims the right to a monopoly of the means of exchange? Because the usurers all over the world have governments by the throat.

Where you have elimlnated or reduced rent and interest the balance goes to wages and proflt. Then proflt must be ellminated, for proflt is that which you get for a thing over and above the labor put in it. Competition is a good thlng to reduce profit. Very few if any of the enormous fortunes come through competition. They come through privilege.  He instanced the Remington typewrlter which costs $9 to produce and can't be bought for less than $100.  Enormous profits come through the patent right system.  You must deal with the patent right system.

But, you say, if we abolish the patent right system, how about the inventors?  The inventors don't get rich. It is the men who buy the product of thelr bralns. Men have patent rights in their pockets who couldn't invent a pig sty. McCormick didn't invent the reaper, but a poor, sick brother-in-law, to whom he paid $300 for his invention.

In closíng, Mr. Labadie repeated the maxim: "Be gentle and keep your voice low."  Be friendly. What is really and permanently good for one person in society is good for all. In these days of newspapers and rights to free speech there is no need for men and women to be ignorant on things by which they are most affected.

The games proved more than ordlnarily Interesting and were witnessed by a large crowd. Among the impromptu affairs was a foot race between Francis Stofflet, Dan Ross and C. Shoeman, won by Mr. Stofflet in quick time.

BASE BALL.

The Detroit Bankers were beaten by the Ann Arbor city team by a score of 1 to 8. The game was exciting up to the sixth inning when Ann Arbor fell on the Detroit pitcher and batted out 4 runs. The only man Detroit scored got in on a wild throw. Grover Gillen. who pitched for Ann Arbor, struck out 12 men and issued no passes. Bumpus, he Detroit pitcher, struck out 4 and issued 2 passes. He played a strong game untill the last four innings. Carston caught for Ann Arbor and Brown for Detroit. The score:

                  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Ann Arbor 1 0 0 1 1 4 1 0 0-8

Detroit . . . 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0-1

Hits- Ann Arbor 7, Detroit 5.

Errors- Ann Arbor 2, Detroit 2.