THE LABOR QUESTION 



AT THE CHICAGO LABOR DAY PICNIC, SEPT. 3, 1900 



BY far the greatest problem, the most far-reaching 

 in its stupendous importance, is that problem, 

 or rather that group of problems, which we have 

 grown to speak of as the labor question. It must be 

 always a peculiar privilege for any thoughtful pub 

 lic man to address a body of men predominantly 

 composed of wage-workers, for the foundation of 

 our whole social structure rests upon the material 

 and moral well-being, the intelligence, the foresight, 

 the sanity, the sense of duty, and the wholesome 

 patriotism of the wage-worker. This is doubly the 

 case now; for, in addition to each man's individual 

 action, you have learned the great lesson of acting 

 in combination. It would be impossible to overesti 

 mate the far-reaching influences of, and, on the 

 whole, the amount of good done through your as 

 sociations. 



In addressing you, the one thing that I wish to 

 avoid is any mere glittering generality, any mere 

 high-sounding phraseology, and, above all, any ap 

 peal whatsoever made in a demagogic spirit, or in 



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