to and return from work. Furthermore, in those sections where the workers have no union strong enough to protect them, as in the coal mining districts, the Colorado eight hour law is a dead letter.
The limitations of this lecture forbid me to go into further details of this question of "labor legislation," although the material on the subject from all capitalist countries is rich and suggestive. That material and the facts already brought out point to the conclusion:
First, that "labor legislation," in the last analysis, is but an echo of the economic movement of the workers, exerting pressure through their unions upon the capitalists and the capitalists' government.
Second, that such "labor legislation" is a hollow mockery where the workers are unorganized or insufficiently organized to protect themselves directly in the industries, and
Finally, that all so-called "immediate demands" of the workers, such as the eight hour work day, employers' liability, limitation of child labor, protection of machinery, etc., can be obtained and made effective only through the action of a united and powerful movement of the working class on the industrial field.
The law-making, law-interpreting, and law-enforcing departments of government are but committees to safeguard the economic interests of the ruling capitalist class. To expect such committees to make and enforce laws in the interests of labor, so long as the working class remains unorganized or divided in the shop, is to expect the impossible. In that case, the "pressure from without," as Marx puts it, is wanting; and history shows conclusively that the ruling class will not relinquish one iota of its power until forced to. In the words of the historian, Ridpath, "The iron jaws of privilege never relax until they are broken."
MINOR "REFORMS."
Passing over such "steps toward socialism" as
