Nappanee High School - Napanet Yearbook (Nappanee, IN)

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possible to argue that the doctrines of the Louisiana Purchase were farther reaching in their effect upon the Constitution than the measures of Alexander Hamilton or the decisions of John Marshall. The international effects were even more significant than the political effects. It closed the struggle for the possession of the Mississippi River. The Monroe Doctrine would have been impossible had it not been for the Louisiana Purchase Having gained a foot hold west of the Mississippi River the United States has lieen marching steadily forward to the possession of the Pacific Ocean, and from this event dates the rise of the United States in to the position of a world power. It nearly doubled the area of the United States. It added territory equal to the combined areas of Great Britian. Germany, France, Spain. Portugal and Italy. Great numbers of immigrants have poured Into this country until its present population now numbers fifteen millions. Perhaps the most important of all its effects is the emphasis which the Louisiana Purchase gave to the conception of space in American Ideals. The immensity of the area has continually stirred the American imagination, tired their energy and determination, strengthened their ability to handle vast designs and made them measure achievements by the scale of the prairies and the Rocky Mountains. . vW TRAI3K UNIONS By EDWARD WILSON i|N one form or another combination has existed since the employed class v) and the employing class have been distinguishable from each other. These combinations were in the beginning strictly forbidden by law. Probably the first combination, which bears any likeness to the unions of to-day, was organized in the year 1543 in England: many of the laborers were working from fourteen to eighteen hours a day, and this combination was made to regulate the number of hours they should work and the amount of work they should do in the said hours. On becoming a member of this combination or union one had to swear that lie would do but a certain kind and a certain amount of work In a day: add to these features regulation of wages and tlie closed shop, and we have the trade union of to-day. In Kngland Parliament had passed acts through which it endeavored to prevent combinations among laborers and also among employers, but in 1824 these acts were rejiealed and others passed by which unions of laliorers and of employers could be formed on condition, that they would in no way interfere with those who did not in come members of the unions. One year later, in 1825, an act was passed which made legal all unions of laborers formed to settle the rates of wages and number of hours for work, but prohibited other methods being used to control the employers in the use of their capital. Since then legislation has gone farther and declared unions legal when acting in restraint of trade. Our modern trades union is a very complex organization. Some one has defined a trades union, as a combination of workmen, to enable each to secure the condition ino6t favorable to labor. The funds of a union are supposed to give the union an equal advantage with the capitalist and his money. The union of to day publishes a paper in which is stated the conditions of labor in different parts of the country, it keeps a register of men unemployed, and one of employers wanting men, it assists men from town to town in search of employment. It regulates the number of apprentices in the trade, it regulates the wages, it regulates the number of hours its memtiers shall work, it organizes strikes and boycotts, it maintains men in resistance to employers. The union insists that this is the only way In which lalwr can meet capital equally, they claim that where business is poor, wages are cut, and as it grows lietter the employer puts off as long as possible the restoration of former wages. In this way, they say, the workman is the first to feel the effects of poor business and the last to receive any benefits of ••better-times.” The attempt of any one man to better these conditions would meet with failure. for the employer can get along without the services of one man until his place can be filled by another, and one can easily see that when it comes to negotiating in matters pertaining to wages and other terms of labor, that the union is at once on an equality with the employer. The union points to many regulations which it has introduced in the interest of the laborer: they think that although they have lost in many strikes, they have in the long run gained the points contended for. They believe, also, that as the labor organizations become more perfect, the necessity of strikes will become less and that the just limits will lie more carefully comprehended, and that the sufferings and 21

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This Signific ance of tiii By BELLE ’ jjfT Is just one hundred and three years ago since Livingston. Monroe ami Marbots signed the treaty by which France ceded ILouisiana to the Flilted States. The actual signing took place on May 2, but the document was dated April .'to. This event In the history of the Fritted States which is worthy to rank with the Declaration of Independence and the formation of the Constitution was the resultant of three long continued forces in American History, the advance of pioneers toward the ffest, the struggle between France, Spain, Kngland and the 1’niled States for the possession of the Mississippi Valley and the rivalry of these powers over the Empire which Spain had established in the New World. Although other nations might temporarily get possession of the Mississippi River it would be easy to believe that in the long run the vast interior would be under the control of the American government. The vast American population alone insured this idea. At several times the Mississippi Valley narrowly escaped being the seat of conflict between the I’nited States and the powers of Europe. If such had been the case the F. S. would have been involved as an ally to one or anotner of these powers and European interests would have dominated the fortunes of the New World. At the beginning of the Fnion the West was more Interested in opening the Mississippi River than in the newly made federal government, and this fact would make it easier for an European power to gain possession of the River and hold it If they treated the settlers with liberality. At the close of tlie Revolution the Fulted States had established settlements along the Ohio and its tributaries between two great Indian confederacies which wen anxious to check the advance of the Fulled States. The great stream of settlers which poured into Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio in the closing year of the confederation found their industrial life blockaded by the Spanish closure of the Mississippi. Then in the face of many difficulties the I’nited States attempted to hold her own. At tlie close of the year 1792 France determined to enrich herself at the expense of the Spanish Empire In America and win hack her lost American provinces. Rut fortunately the Reign of Terror in their own country com. pel led them to look for their own safety. Had they regained their possessions, affairs might have taken place which would have changed the whole History of the Fnlted States. After various conflicts Napoleon appeared on the scene. On the last day of September he made a treaty with the Fnlted States and the next day Spain retroceded Louisiana to France. Napoleon gave Spain the promise nev- : liOl ISIANA PUU’HASK WILT cr to alienate tin- province. Peace was acquired with England by the treaty of 1801. Rumors of the transfer of Louisiana readied the I'nited States in the summer of 1 sol. President Jefferson, in the spring of 1802 wrote to Livingston, our minister to France that “the day France takes possession of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever, within her low water mark. It seals the Fnion of two nations, who in conjunction can maintain exclusive possession of the ocean. From that moment we must marry our selves to the British tleet and nation.” The closure of the Mississippi River gave the the Federalists an opportunity to demand war with France and Spain. Jefferson made earnest efforts to check their military spirit, but in this way he could do nothing. So he sent Monroe to France. March 2,1803 to purchase New Orleans and the Floridas. and if necessary to grant France her territory beyond the Mississippi River. Jefferson, it seems, was willing to take merely the right of navigation rather than have this territory cause war. “Peace is our passion.” was his maxluin. While Jefferson was preparing to send Monroe to France Napoleon had informed his ministers that he had decided to relinquish the Louisiana territory. While Livingston was bargaining for a little strip of territory at the mouth of the River one of the ministers asked him what lie would give for all of loulsiana. A week passed in decision of t lie price to be paid. Few people then realized the importance of the vast wheat and corn lands, cattletiekls and mines which Napoleon was ready to give over to us. Even Livingston himself did not realize this fact, and this was the cause of the delay insetting the price on the territory. At last for a consideration of $15,000,000 Louisiana was secured to the United States. The effects of the Louisiana purchase upon America were profound. Politically it resulted in strengthening the loose interpretation of the Constitution. It laid the foundation for a readjustment of sectional power within the Union. The purchase not only worked a revolution in the constitutional doctrines of the strict constructionist but it also made certain a change in the conception of state-hood. Tile old idea of state-hood could no longer exist when the fruit of tlie Louisiana Purchase was made manifest. Tile area of the purchase furnished the issues which resulted in tlie Civil War. The Missouri Compromise, the Kansas Nebraska Act, and the Civil War in Kansas were the prelude to the Civil War. When the details of American History arc taken into consideration it is

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losses of past strikes will act as a warning in tlie future tobotli employed and employer, and that in Uie end the results of union will Ih secured without the necessity of having recourse to arbitrament of force either in strikes or in lockouts. Yet, there are many and serious evils that can beset against the uses which have just lieen mentioned. Some unions do not like the use of special or su-|H-rior ability by some of their members, claiming that it is an injustice to some other members of the union, that one should get more pay or win a higher position: in many instances they set themselves against any elevation of standard lalx r and in this way act as an effective Iwr to progress in their class. In some cases, strikes are determined upon by a union when the conditions of the market make success an impossibility. In some limited and skilled trades, far higher wages are demanded for a time than the value of the lal or justifies, and tills in the end will check the production along that line anti probably force the industry to seek a new location, the same thing has resulted from the obnoxious demands for fewer hours, and their restrictions on the manner of working. Hut this is not all. There is still another and more serious class of objections to these unions, there can be no doubt but that they create and foster a spirit of antagonism between employer and employed. The union believes itself to In constantly on the defensive and at last comes to suspect every move which the employer makes, and to put some sinister Interpretation upon every action which he may make. The special interest of the trade involved is too often the only object cared for and for its supposed benefit narrow, selfish and unjust measures are enacted against the employer. The trades become Isolated from each other, one fences in against incursion upon its own peculiar territory, and tries, by limiting the numlierof apprentices, by enforcing terms of service which art? objectionahie and other coercive methods, to remain a close monopolist corporation. It is not necessary to point out the general effect on the laboring class, of such an injurious jKtlicy and what a complete subordination it implies of the general well-being to the desired prosperity of a small and selfish number. In some places the practice of compulsion lias become a terrorism and crime. One example will lie sufficient to si tow the unjustness of their methods of procedure. For this we will take Instances from a strike in our own country, that of 1N77, of the employes of the principal railroads, the Baltimore Ohio, the Pennsylvania, the Erie, the New York Central and their western branches. The principal cause was a cut in wages which affected hut a few of the workmen, and then many miners went on a strike out of sympathy for tlie railroad employes. At a set time the junctions and principal |K»ints of the roads were seized. Freight t rattle was wholly suspended and passenger and mail service was greatly impeded. When new employes went to work the militia hud to ! e called out to protect them. In Pittsburg there wasa bloody riot. in this city a great part of the militia sympathized with the strikers and refused to tire upon them. The Philadelphia militia was besieged by a large and furious mob, in a roundhouse: the mob finally drove them out, by setting tire to oil cars and pushing them against the roundhouse. In making their escape four members were killed. Then I’nited States troo| s were sent into Pennsylvania. Maryland and West Virginia. When faced by I'nlted States troops, the mob gave, way without bloodshed. At Chicago nineteen were killed, at Baltimore nine were killed, and at Beading while endeavoring to recapture a train, the soldiers were assailed with bricks and stones and finally pistol shots, then the soldiers replied with volley from their muskets: only fifty of the two hundred fifty-three soldiers escaped Ixdng injured, w hile eleven strikers were killed and sixty were more or less seriously injured. Machine shops, warehouses and two thousand freight cars were pillaged or burned. The firemen were threatened with death if they endeavored to put out the fires: within twenty-four hours sixteen hundred cars and one hundred twenty-six locomotives were destroyed. The loss of property alone exceeded ten millions of dollars, one hundred thousand men took part in the movement and and had in their power between six and seven thousand miles of railway. This strike lasted for fourteen days after which tin men all returned to work. We can now see that although some features of the unions tend toward the !x‘tterment of the employed class and although the object Is legitimate their methods of attaining their objects are very often wrong and selfish, and instead of narrowing the breach between employer and employed, widen it.