IS THE UNION A POLITICAL ORGANIZATION? 263 



An organization that makes the success of any particular 

 party a paramount object, would sow the seeds of conten- 

 tion among its members and disintegration would be sure 

 to follow. Its members should be willing and ready to lay 

 aside all partisan prejudice, to abstain from all sectional 

 strife, and to labor to secure the objects of the Order. It 

 should be so strictly non-partisan that its members would 

 sever their allegiance with all parties, and be able to cast 

 their vote as a unit for the party (no matter which one), 

 that would be first to indorse its demands and carry out its 

 measures. This should be done without friction or con- 

 tention, an easier matter than many are willing to admit 

 We do not wish to be understood that any constitutional 

 provisions, by-laws or previous obligations, shall bind its 

 members to vote for measures and candidates which they 

 can not conscientiously endorse. To do this would be to 

 adopt a system of which we now have just grounds of 

 complaint. But we should arrive at the point of unity of 

 action by thorough education. We should teach our mem- 

 bers that we are all striving for the same object, that our 

 interests are identical, and that "the general condition of 

 the country imperatively demands unity of action on the 

 part of the laboring classes," and to bear u in mind when 

 exercising the right of suffrage that many of the objects 

 herein set forth (in our constitution) can only be obtained 

 through legislation. ' ' That there should be uniform and 

 concerted action on the part of the members of the Order 

 in buying and selling, in the establishment of co-operative 

 enterprises and the advancement of our social and financial 

 condition, no one has ever for a moment doubted. Why, 

 then, the same unity of action is not as desirable and as 

 imperative in the overthrow of the vast monopolies that 

 are fattening on the profits of our industry, is a question 

 that remains yet to be satisfactorily answered. If it is 

 necessary to unite in order to eradicate a system of vicious 



