Trade Unionism cannot be knocked out by any
blow, whether the blow be in the face, the ribs, the paunch or the solar
plexus. The enemies fist isn’t big enough, nor his arm strong enough to knock
it out. He isn’t long winded enough to knock it out. Sampson couldn’t knock it
out, though he was able to pull down the pillars and Hercules couldn’t, though
he was able to strangle a lion. If J.P. Morgan joined with John L. Sullivan and
Carnegie with Corbett, and Schwab with Fitzsimmons, and Gary with Sharkey, they
couldn’t knock it out. It is stronger in the long run, for a longer time, than
capitalism. The enemy may sometimes scratch its skin or break a few of it small
bones, or close one of its peepers, or think he has got its arm out of joint,
but that isn’t the test of it. He may even floor it, or send it to its
“corner”; but he had better look out, for it will soon be up again. Trade
Unionism has been in countless struggles, but it lives yet, more stalwart than
ever. It has been wounded, but never fatally. It has been hungry, but never
died of starvation. If driven from one spot, it has turned up in another. It
has buried thousands of it enemies at the crossroads, as they fall, one after
another, and it haunts their graveyard by moonlight. The trade union is an
institution, an established fact, while any individual assailant is soon in the
hands an undertaker. Within the past 20 years, hundreds of the bitterest
adversaries of trade unions have passed out and left trade unionism
flourishing. The enemy often chuckles while he boasts that he has delivered a
death blow or a knock-out. Let him chuckle, the young giant is on the watch for
him.
-John Swinton, Seattle Union Record, November
6, 1901