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Show Prof. Eliot and Trades Unions. THE VALUE which so many people put upon the opinions of univer-- univer-- sity professors passes wonder. Just as if university training fitted them for all the avocations of life, so their analyses and conclusions UDcn everything under the sun should have the effect of infallibility. Professor Eliot El-iot of Harvard is the most persistent talker of the whole bunch of college oracles, and he talks upon anything, always al-ways contriving to display bad features about everything. He talks too much and too often, and the time will come, and come soon, when people will weary of his talk and tell him he is talking through his hat. The other day Professor Eliot talked about trades unions. It did not matter whether he had or had not gone to the bottom in analyzfng this subject. People would think he had given trades unionism deep thought and study, as becoming the head of a great university; univer-sity; so people, he flattered himself, would accept his conclusions as they had done before. The person who guesses that Professor Eliot takes the side of the producers of capital, the patrons of the little red schoolhouse, is wrong in his guess. The producers of wealth, those . who have through their toil and muscle, made possible the gigantic combinations of capital and trusts, do not leave fortunes to endow universities and pay men like Eliot princely salaries. They die content, con-tent, if, through years of labor, they hung on to a life insurance to keep the widow from want and the children at school. . Hence, nobody should go astray as to Professor Eliot's stand upon the question of capital and labor. Professor Eliot's last address was before be-fore the Economic club of Boston. The subject was "Industrial Battles and the Public" very timely, indeed, in view of the interest which everybody now takes in the labor problem, the foremost ' question of - the day. The principal objection to the labor unions, from the educators' point of view, he said, was their objection to young men becoming competent mechanics, and that they do prevent this is evident from the fact that all unions endeavor to limit the number of apprentices employed em-ployed in any industry. "The right to labor," he said, "is considered the most sacred right of the American citizen." Although Professor Eliot uses a platitude plati-tude to clinch kis argument, the "right to labor" is good in the abstract, from which point alone it is viewed by the educator. X.et us apply. It practically H' mmmmmi M a wwww t . m.,. , , to everything, and see how it works. Supposing, in a community of 100 persons, per-sons, the means of gaining a livelihood is offered to but twenty-five; that these twenty-five have depending upon them for support fifty ethers, making in all seventy-five beneficiaries of opportunity. opportu-nity. How are the other twenty-five to live? They have the "right to labor." They clamor for it. Now one of two things follow. The employer accepts the help of the idle twenty-five because a market has been created for his products in excess of the capacity of the first twenty-five. Either that or the last twenty-five are hired at a wage below the sum received re-ceived by the first. The condition of the first workmen then becomes the . condition of the last before they demanded de-manded the "right to labor" in the sense that Professor Eliot interprets that right. Nothing, has been accomplished accom-plished in the way of advance and something has been done degrading to manhood. It was to escape such conditions con-ditions that trades unions were organized. or-ganized. Now, taking up the chief objection objec-tion which Professor Eliot urges against the trades union, i. e., that ber of apprentices employed in any industry." in-dustry." We believe this is the custom cus-tom of trades unions, and one of their reasons for doing so is to avoid the evil pointed out in the example of the twenty-five employed and the twenty-five idle workers. This inhibition to youthful labor, while stabbing the sacred right to toil, so vehemently declared de-clared by the Harvard professor, has resulted in establishing a class of American workmen unequalled by those of Europe, enabling their employers em-ployers to underbid and undersell in all the markets of the world. Instinctively In-stinctively the workman feels the necessity of making himself indispensable indis-pensable to the employer and his conscience con-science is at war with the union should the organization uphold the unskilled alongside the skilled workman. To correct this abuse and at the same time maintain an pnnitahip wa.ro a limit to the number of apprentices was introduced in-troduced and obtains generally in trades unions. If the sacred right to labor was given the scope which Professor Pro-fessor Eliot comprehends, American mechanics would be a race of botches and serfs. If the sacred right to labor is comprehended in its Eliot fullness, the law prohibiting child labor in factories fac-tories would be declared un-American, unconstitutional and revolutionary. When Professor Eliot steps aboard a train he has but few or no misgivings about reaching the end of his journey safely. What causes this comDlacencv? Because he knows that the man at the throttle, and the man feeding the furnace, fur-nace, and the man at the switch, are members of trades unions. If accident happens, it rarely is charged up to neglect, or ignorance, or lack of skill of these three human .elements in the j scheme of transportation. Would Professor Pro-fessor Eliot feel as safe aboard a train managed by non-union men? There is a growing respect for trades unions since the coal strike brought them almost home to the people and enabled everybody to compare the manly man-ly behavior of the miners with the offensive of-fensive 'obstinacy of- their employers. The objects of trades unionism should be considered dispassionately and opinions opin-ions uttered temperately. The workers are reaching out for the comforts that their toil deserves, for the knowledge that shorter hours of labor would help to promote, for means to educate their children to become useful citizens and members of society. Instead of assailing assail-ing trades unions. Professor Eliot ought to be foremost among their promoters, As it is, he is the single exception among men r as learned as he is. In popular educational circles he is repudiated, re-pudiated, . as proved by the entrance into the Chicago federated trades of the public school teachers of that city. |