THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



VOL. XV. 



CHICAGO, MAY, 1900. 



NO. 8. 



THE PROGRESS OF WESTERN ftMERICS. 



Leaving the 

 Old Ship. 



The cartoons in the various 

 publications are making 

 merry over Admiral 

 Dewey's decision to become a presidential 

 candidate. It is hinted that there is a 

 " woman in it," and that the decision to 

 enter the political arena is Mrs. Dewey's, 

 not the Admiral's One of the best car- 

 toons, which is more pathetic than humor- 

 ous, is called " leaving the old ship" and 

 pictures Admiral Dewey descending the 

 ladder from the ship, carrying under his 

 arm his "honorable record," with the 

 purpose of landing in the jungle of 

 politics a briery, inhospitable coast. It 

 is lamentable that Dewey was persuaded 

 to reconsider his first decision to keep 

 out of politics Like the dog in the 

 fable, he is dropping the substance for 

 the shadow giving up the love and 

 admiration of tne American people for a 

 political strife in which he has but small 

 prospects for success. 



We are having what is 

 termed by the American 

 Rn-inr f,f Rfcitfvs, an 

 " epidemic of strikes," the storm center of 

 which seems to be in the city of Chicago, 

 where the machinists originated a strike 

 which spread to other cities, involving 

 thousands of laborers and threatening to 

 tie up business along this line of work. 

 The strike among the building trades in 

 this citv has assumed so serious an 



The 



Labor 



Troubles 



aspect as to practically tie up build 

 ing operations, whilethe body known 

 as the Building Trades Council, com- 

 posed of carpenters, masons, plumbers, 

 etc, has dictated to the contractors 

 in a manner heretofore unknown. The 

 editor of the Review regards the 

 numerous strikes throughout the country 

 as an evidence of better times, not of hard 

 times as would appear at first sight. He 

 says : " The first effect of industrial 

 revival is the general employment of the 

 unemployed; the next effect is a suc- 

 cession of strikes to secure an advance in 

 wages corresponding to the advance in 

 price. It is the second effect which the 

 country is now experiencing." Organized 

 labor, as embodied in labor unions, is a 

 good thing and productive of good results, 

 if the power gained by members is not 

 abused, but the trait in humanity which 

 claims "might makes right" is just as 

 prominent in the laborer as in the 

 capitalist, and the former is just as apt to 

 abuse power as the latter. This is proven 

 by the present state of affairs, many of 

 the demands of the unions being arbitrary 

 and unjust and the resort to violence and 

 intimidation is injuring the cause of the 

 union in the minds of unprejudiced people. 

 In any great reform its promoters are apt 

 to become extremists, but in time the 

 balance of power is restored and normal 

 conditions resumed and much good ac_ 



