Excerpt from Striking for Life: Labor's Side of the Labor Question; The Right of the Workingman to a Fair Living The times are revolutionary. The energies of mankind in our day are immense. There is an extraordinary activity of the powers of life in our age. The world seems to be whirling more rapidly than ever before. Vast changes have been brought about in our generation; others are in progress; yet others are impending. There is a new spirit abroad, and its manifestations are everywhere. "Things are in the saddle." Questions from which there can be no escape are before us. The Labor Question is in the front. It is of supreme importance to all men, and to all women. It is related directly to the life of the whole people, to their natural and essential rights, to the welfare of the community, to popular freedom, and to the public peace. The "War for the Union," during the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln, grew out of the Labor Question, and was waged over it: Shall the working population of our country, or any part of it, be held in slavery? Stupendous sacrifices were then made to secure the emancipation of the black laborer, and the old chattel system was overthrown at a price that has not yet been paid. We had to abolish this system before we could grapple with any of the other wrongs which must be done away with. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.