of uplifting labor, he refused to be actively connected with any political party; but agreeing with the Republican party on the subject of reconstruction he voted that ticket from the time he could vote to 1876, when he voted for Peter Cooper for president in protest against the policy of both the Republican and Democratic parties, realizing that the labor movement was a more effective factor in uplifting the condition of the people and binding the North and South in closer bonds of union. He was affiliated with the society for Ethical Culture of New York city, established in 1867 by Felix Adler. His life-work has been to aid the working man by increasing wages, reducing hours of labor, bringing about better conditions of employment for the wage-earners in all occupations, and aiding in improving the standard of living of the wage-earners. The leavening influence of these efforts he believes have tended to improve the condition of all the people.
He is the author of: "The Eight-Hour Workday"; "No Compulsory Arbitration"; "What Does Labor Want?"; and "Organized Labor: Its Struggles, Its Enemies and Fool Friends." He edited "The American Federationist" from 1894, and contributed to newspapers and magazines. His works are all issued in cheap pamphlet form so as to place them in the hands of those most interested in the subjects treated — tracts rather than books. He was planning, however, in 1904 to write a book on the history of the labor movement and the philosophy upon which it is based. His first helpful reading was the tracts and pamphlets issued by the antislavery society — then he read Charles Dickens, Thackeray, Burns, Shelly, Hood and Shakespeare with profit, followed by history and books on economics. His choice of a profession was the result of the circumstances by which he was surrounded and the condition of labor by which he was confronted as a working boy and as a working man. He resolved to devote his life to doing away with some of the conditions of poverty and misery which surrounded those with whom he associated, and had hindered him in his youth.
To young Americans he would recommend that they should " hold truth as their principle of living, should live the truth and act upon the truth, be fair and just, ascertain what is right and stand for it regardless of consequences to self — in short should help serve others. The greatest gratification is the knowledge of being of some service to our fellows."
