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Show UTAH LABOR Saturday , April 7 , 1917 against, a. calculated, shrewd bust Investment llie bulletin quoted one of the bonus-payin- g employers as follows: "It (the bonus plan) works precisely like an Increase In wages, but Is more valuable because the employee, in order to receive his share, has to wait until the end of the distribution period, a fact that makes him hesitate before quitting, which would naturally Involve the forfeiting of his share in the profits." What that employer meant was that the plan was precisely unlike and opposite to an Increase in wages which had been secured by the collective action of the men themselves. For he goes on to say that his plan is more valuable to the employers because It makes Ills worker his dependent tool, afraid even to quit his job because of the little money that may be coming to him as the result of his employers miscalled "benevolence." And that Is in line with all the experience cf that kind of overlordship In the bonus systems. Other employers have openly boasted that when a worker is worked into a "benevolent" bonus plan or pension plan directed and controlled by the master, the workers whole family is enlisted to keep him from feeling free to demand s, more wages along with his and from feeling free to quit his Job for other employment, even though it is to his direct benefit to do so. A banker for one of the great corporations that has fought all efforts at the unionization of its men and that has a bonus and pension system, told the writer of this article that tho corporation depended on the old lady at home" to see to it that the Worker did not leave his Job or make ugly demands" and deprive her of the benefits of pension and alleged Bess fellow-worker- bonuses. No worker should overlook the fact that the same powerful industrial interests that stand for bonuses and for efficiency and for speeding up" are unanimous also in fighting the efforts of railroad workers to get an eight-hou- r day, and were unanimous in fighting the seamens act, which made sailers free men and enabled them to get for themselves better wages. It is shown in all industrial history of the United States in recent times that a bonus system which on rare occasions gives to a favored number of employees a certain temporary increase in remuneration, nevertheless enables the emplyer to keep the great mass of his workers in poverty and helplessness for most of the time. For instance, when the steel corporation rnn imi0 m ueroac - TH E BIO BTORt and allied corporations in the Pittsburgh district, at the beginning of their boom in war profits were paying big wages to some skilled men in their chellmaklng plants, nearly 70 per cent of the workers were working twelve-hou- r day shifts at wages from $2.40 to $2.76. And even then those underpaid workers had received two or three Increases in wages over what they had been cpald (when they worked at all) before the war profits began. It was pointed out in a report made to the committee on industrial relations that from January 1, 1916, to September 15, 1915, the average rate of wages paid to 155 men Who in Pittshad lived in a half-bloc- k steel-truwas mill near a burgh $10.40 a week. Yet small as that rate of pay was, the average pay actually received by each of the 155 men was only $4.66 a week, as the men were given employment for only four-nintof the time. Commenting on that condition, the report to the committee on industrial relations said: remember the The many millions of wages they did not get when the masters of the plants and their tools kept them from work and forced them to the most miserable wages and to the terror of unemployment. You hear on all sides from among the workers of Pittsburgh the expressed determination no longer to permit their lives and their earning power to be at the mercy of those whose caprice or selfishness or incapacity had subjected them to such degradation and misery. That illustrates (and it is only one of the numberless illustrations) the inherent evil of the bonus system as it is generally applied, and as it is so, extravagantly praised by the enemies of collective bargaining and by the enemies of liberty among the working people. Even where the bonus system does give a temporary advantage, it is designed to enable the powerful employers to keep their seats on the backs of the workers. It is a device, as it is generally applied, to keep the workers unorganized and dependent upon the caprice and selfishness of other men. No proof of this is needed, but if proof were needed it is shown in the fact that those who boast most of the good that the bonus plan and similar plans do for the workers are those who are most ferocious in keeping power out of the hands of the workers. All the bonuses of employers who openly fight trades unions and the whole forward labor movement are the great advocates of the systems designed to keep men servile and helpless against the time of need. Through the great organization of labor the workers have managed to acquire such power that they cannot now be beaten into submission, and so those who oppose them are trying to accomplish by a sort of bribery and by of an occasional the sugar-coatin- g temporary advantage what they cannot accomplish by direct attack. Z. 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Carlson of local 231, International Moulders' Union of North America, takes exceptions to the opinions expressed by S. L. Wormdahl of local 184, United Brotherhood of Carpenters, as pvbllshed in last week's Labor News. Mr. Carlsons letter follows: Kindly permit me a few lines in our repaper in answer to the article inresothe to alleged gard lution In behalf of Thomas Mooney, which I have just read in the issue of March 31. resoluWhether it is an tion or not is left to each individual to decide. What Mr. Wormdahl conthousands of other siders conscious workers may consider as well considered and to my opinion it is. ed SERVICE DeWOAniUTv A TTIUN J PIMTIMC K. Office Supplies, Office Furniture. West Second South. Phones Main 380. We appreciate your patronage. Union We have tho facilities. en! TRADES IrmI COUNCIL READ The Herald-Republic- an Produced by Well Paid Union Employees. Fair and Square and First With the News. Phone Main 767. Delivered Daily and Sunday, 15c a Week. MR. LABORER IIow Is Your Credit When Out of Work! If it s not what you want now is your chance to improve upon it. have an opportunity to invest with a well established business stock tliat operated by union men. There is a few shares can be had by calling Was. 8384. You Continental Brokerage Company It certainly seems to have had Another Opinion of Federa- 25c OFF 404-40- 5 Specials cake, Today and & cakes for Table Damask, Linen Bleached Table Damask, Mercerized Damask. Linen Damask Napkins and Linen Table sets, at hs Houscliirnisliing High-grad- i Z. C. M. I. Linens, Domestics Mercerized Spring Size 1000 Page Nine a? st wage-earne- NE!S Boston Building. some- thing well considered in it as the corporation-controlled papers of San Francisco, the daily press, were afraid to publish the original resolution as adopted, but published all but the mentioning of placing their products on the unfair list and recommending a general strike. Any time you see them omit an article like that, you can put it under your hat that they don't like it, as it will be harmful if put into force, which the laboring class should do. The workers today must use the same means and tools as much as possible as the capitalistic class does, fair or foul Jt makes no difference to them sd long as they gain their point, and the workers must retaliate. As to whether it was constitutional or not I do not know nor care, but if it is unconstitutional to help a brother when a miscarriage of Justice seems to have taken place, as it surely seems in this case, I say it is time to amend the constitution or else have Mr. Wormdahl or some other more enlightened brother than the brothers who drafted the resolution, come forward and suggest a constitutional way of helping the brothers and sisters in distress and not wait until other brothers ed have done the thing they thought best and then start criticizing and finding fault If he knew It was unconstltu- tional, why didnt he object to its adoption at the time and save all argument now? I do not think the delegates who voted in favor of the resolu- tion wanted to make a goat out of the I say federation, or have done so. hurrah for the Salt Lake Federation for starting a good move, which if put into force will no doubt get a new trial for the defendants. The only ridicule and contempt that will be thrown at the federation will be by those whom it hurts or of the working people. A classconscious wage earner will throw noth- ing but his good work and will for its everlasting success. It Is all well and true that the resolution Will not save Thomas Mooney by Salt Lakes action alone, but if labor organizations over the United States take the same course, which many are doing, it will have a great effect in gaining a new trial. As to the statement that even if all are-enemie- union men have pledged themselves to refrain from buying California products 90 per cent would still continue to buy them, if they found it to their advantage, I do not believe that they ; ' s ' |