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Show t THE CITIZEN 6 Industrial Peace And Justice in Colorado who would lead a mob to (Rev. I)r. George S. Lackland, before the Denver Civic and Commercial Association.) Americas greatest need today is the open mind. As the colored brother remarked, Folks dont think; they mereMen ly rearrange their prejudices. are dying and destroying society today for these prejudices. Employers feel that their very liberty is about to be removed by the menace of organized labor. One emIm ex ployer testily exclaimed: pecting every day theyll ask me for the keys to my office and let me in a systematic of the wealthy class. There will be no revolution in America. There is no radical or destructive labor group in America whose numbers are even worth considering. We are profoundly thankful that this It has hysteria is passing away. warped mens minds and made them fanatics who were utterly unable in an unbiased way to see facts as they are. The trade union movement has made mistakes. No true friend of labor will try to defend or condone them. There are shop rules that are petty and stand as a hindrance to the true aims of organized labor. There have been leaders that have been stubborn, crooked and There is no gentleman present who desires to see these removed more than the speaker. Why the mistakes, and why the poor leaders? Simply because unions are composed of human beings. Every organization, from a corporation to a church, is open to the same charge of mistakes and unworthy leadership. Josh Billings was right when he said, You will never have an honest horse race until you have an honest human race. We freely admit that unions need housecleaning and antiseptic treatment; but so do politics, business, education in fact, all organizations that are not ready for cremation. On the only when they want me. other hand, Mr. Dooley says of the open shop: Tis like this, Hennessey; suppose citizens is wan uv these free-borwurkin fur an open shop fur the princely wage uv wan iron dollar a day uv tin hours. Along comes anson uv a gun an sez to other free-bor- n the boss, 'Oi think Oi can handle the Sure, sez the job fur ninety cents. boss, an the wan dollar man gets the jingle can and goes out into the.wurld t exercise his inalienable rights as a free-borAmerican to take a job away from some other poor devil. Thrue it saves the boss money, but he dont care no more fur money than fur his right eye. Its all principle wid him; he hates to see men robbed of their independence, regardless of anything else. But, sez Hennessey, these open shop people ye menshun say theyre fur unions if properly conducted. if properSure, sez Mr. Dooley, ly conducted. And there ye are. An how would they have them conducted? No strikes, no rules, no conthracts, no scales, hardly any wages and dam few n short-sighte- d. n members. Two statements that represent the extreme views colored with bitterness that make it difficult to keep a mental balance in the discussion of industrial questions. Into this bitterness born of prejudice is strangely mingled fear. The wealthy are afraid of revolution. The poor are terrified that they will lose their jobs and starve. On the night of the Tramway riots the proprietor of one of the leading hotels in Colorado Springs stated that he turned down 500 applications for rooms from terrified Denver citizens. At the same time the wives of workers and the workmen themselves were terrified that starvation and ruin confronted them. An employer stated after a certain meeting, My God, if someone had led that mob they would have destroyed the entire business district! They are at least two agencies in Denver during the past two years that have collected fabulous sums from the employing group as insurance to keep down a red menace. Yet if there were such a possibility it certainly failed to reveal itself then when a mob controlled the city. Deplorable as were the Tramway riots, they at least' revealed that there were no I. V. W.s destruction REASONS FOR ORGANIZED LABOR MOVEMENT. There wnuld never have been a labor movement if all the conditions of the sincere advocate of the open shop movement had been in force in the eighties. The honest Christian gentlemen who state that the open shop movement stands for a living wage, , reasonable hours, sanitary conditicns, provisions for sickness, unemployment and old age, if they can gain sufficient converts, can make the labor movement unnecessary. An Irishman said, There is one way to beat the labor movement, and that is to beat them to it. Dr. J. R. Commons tells that thirty five years ago he worked as a printer. Fourteen hours a day was the rule, and the scale $15 per week. The pay was good, the hours were inhuman, yet look back and you will see no sanitation in shops, long hours, women and children working in indescribable places and heartless conditions. No student of history will deny that every law for betterment of laboring conditions is there, in the main, because organized labor fought for it. Let any lawyer with an unprejudiced mind view the labor decisions of thirty years ago, and he will realize the progress made in behalf of the working people through the efforts of organized labor. The Child Welfare Council admits that organized labor was mainly responsible for the child labor laws. They played their part in a minimum wage and eight hour law for women. These laws were not unop posed. Forces with money and brains fought long and hard to prevent these laws from becoming the rule of the land. Secretary of Labor Davis, the other day, told that there are still children in factories whose positions would give employment to an equal number of men out of work. This one fact alone is sufficient to justify the continued existence of an organized body of the working people to safeguard these Americans of tomorrow. Nothing would convince some of us of the honesty of the open shop advocate quicker than to see them at the legislatures lobbying for laws which would protect the women and children of industry, as organized labor has done. d A critic might say, Well admit conditions justified labor being organized thirty years ago, but not now. Prof. Paul H. Douglass, in the American Economic Review, September, 1921, points out that in 1918 the purchasing power of a weeks work was from 20 to 30 per cent less than in 1920, and from 10 to 20 per cent less than in 1915. He concludes: American labor, as a whole, cannot be kept pace with the 00 fair-minde- legitimately charged with having profiteered during the war. Rather, like Alice in Wonderland, it has been compelled to run faster to stay in the same place. Sometimes a speaker on industrial topics will be criticised for using statistics ten years old. Those statistics present a better case for employers than those of today. Very seldom, since 1890, has the increase of wages t living. Monthly report that in families of cent of the mothers ii0J of the families get lei, yj year and 79 per cent ofJj less than $700 per year.ra It is popular to on the workers. he was charging ' hlarj A e 11X1 goul ight tf w eggs, retorted: Yes, if11 stop to think, thats work for a hen? ani labor again. The minerr coal soaring from 3 i th when his wages durfc6 creased from 78 cents if e When the open lent started, I investigated ftd of 130 unions and focy six getting $2,250 Perj U. S. government, at was a living wage In speaking of wages t m day, men forget that ise( fori. but half-yea- occupat15 r ing trades and minen,r the There is no from safety independet: an Five large employers! a table that there was o it a working man, not vr. per hearted employer, ex& Jn It is not a question but rather of organizing ized labor. Every oped tion passed by the tl(jva Denver has called fae labor to organize aben bargaining. t re e: Open Letter To Emph WHAT WOULD MR. EMPLOYER: We are addressing these few lines to you in the hope that you will give serious consideration to the facts we here set forth. If you have been operating an open shop, or if you have been operating a closed shop under the more radical unions, you will each see here some things that would be of interest and profit to you. The open shop generally has an uncertain labor supply, particularly if it requires skilled help to operate the plant. In rush times, it must depend almost entirely on the extra exertions of those already employed who, because of their already long hours and small pay, are not in the best physical or mental condition to give maximum production under forced draft. The closed shop operating under the domination of the radical organization, finds many difficulties with which to contend: Sympathetic strikes; jurisdictional disputes; arbitrary rules; wages, hours and conditions established without the consideration of the . They even complain that incompetent workmen are forced upon them, whose services they must retain on pain of suspension of work, in case employer. of discharge. . To both classes of employers we in- vite the most careful examination and thoughtful consideration of what is here set forth. TBS, 1 AN ORGANIZATION etter Established no rulte t industry in which fcfer t employed without firsPloye i sideration to the right of the employer, metual ers around the confe discussing in detail industrial hazards a? ployer and employee.80 rights? ,e 00 , nded When an agroemei s am ed, signed and nndeIt you ment for a period offg years? d tbr Guaranteed that j carti bo would ployer uous production asbusin cave any dispute that Declined at all nditi erate or join in a trade or walkout? peten Never established Sgtabli to production, 1 ut diiQe by imum which i 'ust Vesenl workman before bein?ole Ju JCH petent? ii Guaranteed that there union or a section of The . in contempt o', rupt production its the f All the ( immediately o der tomnu work under pain ofeemei bership and vnluaN Union, case the men |