HD 6961 H56a A ■VA^iqMun.mv ^<?Aav}jjiiiA^ ^<?AHV}|flnAv> ^j'juww^ "^/w^AiNn-auv* -<>?XUBRARYG<;^ AMEUNIVERy//) o ^(tfOJlTVD-JO^ ^TiUONVSOl^ "^/SaBAINfl-JWV^ ^lUBRARYQ^ %Qi\mi^'^ ^.SOJIIVDJO^^ ^OFCAIIFO% £7 aMEUNIVERJ//, ^jclOSANCElfj^ o <riu3NVS(n^ "^/^ajAiNii-jwv ^^OFCAlIFOff^ jJ^lOSMFl^;;. -^UIBRARYC ^miNlimV ^AOjnvDjo'^ IIVERS/A 5^ — n i vvlOSAKCFl^^ <rjuDNvsoi^ "^/sajAiNnawv v/^iUAINftlftV ^.OFCAtlFOff;^ ^OFCAllFOff^ ^\^MJNIVERS'/A %Aavaani'^ ^fiijowsoi^ v>;lOSANCEl^;> o "'^AHJAINnik^^ AlUBRARYCc, ^OFCAllFOi?^ £7 l\\!UNIVER% ^ T V o lWEUNIVER% "^XiUDNVSOl^ %a3AlN(l-3W^ ^lOSANCEl^^ 3> %a3AiN(imv^ 5;^tlIBRARY<9,r so ^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^^^lUBRARYQc ^.yOJIlVDJO'i^ ^OFCAllFOff^ ^6'Aavaan#^ Lj^lOSANCEl^^ //Sa3AINfl-3WV -^t-UBRARYQ^. -«^^l■lIBRARY^/; ,5MEUNIVERS//i ^lOSANCElfx^ o "^i^HDNVSoi^ '^/^aaAiNniWV' LvlOSANCEl^y- iV/CHUINniUV ^OFCAllFOfi*^ ,^,OFCAIIFO% ^« '^^ftka'vaair# .^«E■UNIVEI!J/A ^lOSANCElfj-^ o == ."< <riU3NVS01^ v/ja3AlNlHWV "vajvA^" AN ADDRESS SETTING FORTH THE OBJECTS OF THE CITIZENS' ALLIANCE ^ OF HELENA, MONTANA iV Address by the Citizens' Alliance Explaining the Purposes of the Organization HE Citizens' Alliance is pleased to make to the public an authentic confession of its faith. It is a Society without con- cealment of the principles which it professes, or the objects it has in view. In justification of its existence, it appeals to the sobriety, intelligence and patriotism of the American people. It is an or- ganization in defense of Labor, from which it would remove all -^ shackles, and of Libert}', which its members believe is a fact, and ">-• not a mere name. It is opposed to boycotts, to lockouts, to ~^ strikes, and to all conspiracies concocted with a view to mvade ~^ the rights and privileges of American Citizens. It would fain ^ augment the prosperity of the Commonwealth by enforcing a new >r Declaration of Independence whereby Enterprise should have g ample opportunity to develop the latent resources of the State, as: enlarging the scope of industry and the rewards of toil by all « normal and lawful means, and in securing to employees and all laborers a share in the increasing prosperity which elsewhere so bountifully prevails. To the end that there may be a demand for labor. Enterprise must be free to enter upon industries new and old, of uncertain profit, witli no obstructions which may not be foreseen, and without the power to throttle it at the whim of caprice or passion or ignorance. It will by all appropriate means endeavor to rescue Labor Organizations from the management and control of agitators, who are without deference to the rights of others and who do not comprehend the tangled skein of our industrial organization. It will assist so far as it may those independent citizens ^91087 — 4— who refuse to lock their labor in adamantine grooves with change- less compensation, and who value intelligence, efficiency, fidelity and integrity as qualities entitled to be considered in employment and reward. It resents and resists interference with the conduct of individual enterprise and business, and maintains the right of every American to conduct his own affairs as his experience, judgment and ambition may dictate. It denies the binding force of any rules designed and intended to curtail that independence which is the heritage of Freemen, and which has resulted in the development of a stalwart citizenship unparalleled in the history of laborers in any other country. It holds that rules which cannot be for- mulated in words and enacted into statutory law cannot and ought not to be enforced by conspiracies, simply because they are supposed to be helpful to a class, and that obedience to such rules with such a genesis and sanction would ultimate in a citizenship at once humiliated and pusillanimous. It agrees with Thomas Jefferson that class legislation is vicious, and that it can have no fruitage but that of mischief. It is organized to protect and de- fend in full vigor those rights of Life, Liberty and Property which are the heritage of American Freemen, the gift of our fathers, rights inalienable to us and formidable to tyrants only. Its mem- bers believe that the rewards of labor to a certain extent are regulated by inexorable laws, and that it is folly to chain all labor together by iron bands, disregarding the value of its product and the efficiency of employees, so that men shall be paid for the lapse of time rather than for the labor done. It cannot consent that the relations between employer and employee shall be regulated by tumults, or riot or conspirac}-, but it affirms the freedon of employer and employee, each — 5— according to his ability, to regulate between themselves the com- pensation to be paid and received. It will especially undertake, so far as it may without impertinent interference, to see that Laborers are not overreached by greed, or covetousness or oppres- sion, but that all Laborers, union and non-union, shall have a fair share in the opportunities and products of toil. By the common consent of all observers, Montana is not securing and has not secured its rightful share of that large migration which is peopling the West with citizens and homes and multiplying industries on every hand. There can be no question but that this failure on our part to obtain the increasing population invited by our wonderful resources is largly due to the fact that labor organizations formed to promote the welfare of their members have fallen into the hands of irresponsible and reckless agitators and advisers whose activity has misled these associations into courses which their membership does not sanction. It will examine into the merits of boycotts, of strikes, of lockouts, and all other efforts to coerce men to action which their free will does not approve, and will en- deavor to reconcile these conflicting interests according to those principles of Liberty which are the common heritage of us all. It will not consent that experimental industries shall be throttled in their inception by exorbitant or extortionate demands, but will insist that they have free opportunity, in perfect liberty, to test the event of their success or failure. It believes that by this interference, idleness is ordained to many persons in Montana, who are eager to share the risks and accept the rewards which newly developed industries may proffer. — 6— There is no definition of Liberty which does not affirm the right of every man to control and manage his own property and labor without let or hindrance from any other person, so long as he does not invade the rights of another. It has been sup- posed that Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness were the unquestioned possession of every American since our fathers adopted the Declaration of Independence, and that the Constitu- tions of the United States, and of the State of Montana, had made our title to that possession immutable. In the good year 1776, the year of our Declaration of Independence, Adam Smith, in his "Wealth of Nations," defined the laborers' Liberty in the following words: "The property which every man has in his own labor as it is the original foundation of all other property, so it is the most sacred and inviolable. The patrimony of the poor man lies in the strength and dexterity of his own hands, and to hinder his employing this strength and dexterity in what manner he thinks proper, without injury to his neighbor, is a plain violation of this most sacred property. It is a manifest encroachment upon the just liberty, both of the workman and those who might be dis- posed to employ him. As it hinders the one from working at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the others from employing whom they think proper." The Supreme Court of the United States, and every other judical tribunal before whom the question has arisen, have affirmed this definition of Liberty, and hold that the privilege of contract is both a Liberty and a Property, the right to which no one can be deprived of without due process of law. The own- ership of property implies and signifies dominion over it, and this right is secured to Citizens of the United States by guaranties as perspicuous and words as solemn as man can invent. Any attempt to invade this right by other than statutory enactments recalls the tyranny of the Middle Ages, and the espionage which is one of the processes whereby these rights are here invaded is as wicked and un-American as any that obtained in Southern Europe in the Dark Ages. We cannot consent that in free America there shall be a recurrence to the barbaric practices and imper- tinences which then and there prevailed. The abuse of authority which walking delegates, griev- ance committees and the more active and irresponsible agitators in some of the labor unions manifest, and their action in inter- fering with the independence of the Citizen, too often rise in atrocity to a crime, and is made the subject of frequent com- plaint by intelligent and independent members of these unions who comprehend their real uses and know the limitations which pa- triotism and interest and duty aHke dictate. The Citizens' Alliance is not opposed to Labor Organi- zations; it only resists and resents the abuse of their authority, and will do all that lies in its power to direct the actions of these Labor Societies into right and useful paths. Believing that Labor seeks only its just reward, and that employers should accord this in full measure, it will be the aim of the Alliance by appeals to reason and peaceful methods to bring about harmonious action between Capital and Labor, which are but two halves of a golden whole. In this spirit and for this purpose it has been organized, and has met so wide-spread and universal an approval as to ren- der it certain that the turmoil and strife which have characterized labor troubles in recent years will approach a swift and happy ^91087 conclusion. Every Citizen approving of this high purpose and de- siring to maintain his independence, and wishing to aid in so happy a consummation, may propose his name and become a member of this Organization. The Citizens' Alliance covets no antagonism, and professes no principles not guaranteed to every American, and essential to his self-respect, and if in assertion and defense of these principles the thoughtless or selfish shall visit upon it their condemnation, we confidently appeal to that ultimate tribunal which finally determines all contentions — the sober judgment of our Countrymen. — The Citizens' Alliance of Helena. WM. MUTH, SHERWOOD WHEATON, Secretary. Leader. Helena, Montana., August i8, i^oj. , IVERSITY OF CAUFORNU AT tOS AHGKLES IJBBAEY so -< ^NNtUBRARYQ^ ^, , ^^MEUNIVER% <(?U3NVSm=^ -^WEUNIVERJ/A ^TTunww)!^ %a3AiNn-iwv^ mmmti;-. ^•mrn"^^ ^aaAiNrtivw^ ^lOSMEl^^ -^cmoNvsm^ %JBAINn?WV^ ^l-UBRARY^^ ^l-UBRARYOr, ^il/OJIWDJO'^ ^.^OJIIVJJO^ ^OFCAllFORfe, A.OFCAllF0Rfe. >&;avaanAwl ^ •< -^^lUBRARY<?/v 5 i ^r-" ^ -^IUBRARY(3<. .^WEUNIVER% ^OF-CAUFOff^ ^OFCALIFOff^ ^^MEUNIVER% ^. ^TiUDKVSOl^ ^lOSANCfl^y o "^/saaAiNrtMV^ ^5ji\EUNIVERS/4 ^lOSANCE^r^ -^tUBRARY^^, -#IIBRARY(9^ ^J^UDNVSOl^ ''^^SlHAINflaVW^ \^i\mi^ ^^0JI1V3J0^ .I^EUKIVERSZ/y >. ^lOSANCElfj^, .^0FCAIIF0% ^OFCAllFO/PiA, t^i . (53c| fs©! IV©- UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY AA 000 960 946 2