Your Opinion: Prop. A would lower standard of living

Dear Editor:

On Aug. 7, Missouri voters will decide the fate of working men and women across the state by either voting "yes" or "no" on Proposition A. If passed the falsely labeled "Right to Work" law would effectively lower their standard of living and their right to join together to bargain for wages, working conditions and benefits. I invite all interested parties to consider the following speech delivered by Sen. Daniel J. Morrell, Republican, representing Pennsylvania in 1866.

His first speech before Congress addressed the dignity of labor and its worth that must be recognized and protected.

"The American workingman must live in a house, not a hut; he must wear decent clothes and eat wholesome and nourishing food. He is an integral part of the municipality, the State, and the Nation; subject to no fetters of class or caste; neither pauper, nor peasant, nor serf, but a free American citizen. He has the ballot, and if it were possible it would be dangerous to degrade him.

The country stands pledged to give him education, political power, and a higher form of life than foreign nations accord their laborers, and he must be sustained by higher rates of wages than those of Europe. Our industries operated by American citizens must be freed from foreign interference and organized into a distinct American system, which will exact some temporary sacrifices but result in general prosperity and true national independence. In maintaining diversified industries we utilize every talent, provide a field for every capacity, and bind together the whole people in mutual dependence and support, assuring the strength and security of our Republic."