| Show b PUSHING IT TOO FAR The notion that one who lays the cornerstone of a building officiating merely as a part of the ceremony of the occasion must Join a stonemasons or bricklayers union before he will he allowed al-lowed to do so is pushing the union requirements re-quirements to absurdity Often the Masonic fraternity officiate at such functions as a body but must they join some labor union fIrst It Is usual in church ccrcmonlals of the kind for the high church dignitaries to officiate as Bishop Scanlan did on Sunday at the laying I of the cornerstone of the Judge Miners Home ami as he has done on other occasions as at the layIng lay-Ing of the cornerstone of the Kearns St Anns Orphans Home and at the laying of the cornerstone of the Cathedral on Brigham ntrecL On officiating offi-ciating nt such cornerstone layings he docs not In any sense act as a laborer but performs a priestly office a religious re-ligious ceremonial the formulas and ritual of which arc all explicitly laid down Perhaps the union might have other formula for tho proceeding but could the Bishop be expected to use It or to Interpolate It In the ritual pro vided The whole idea and claim of the labor unions In this respect Is grotesque and unfit Of course we recall re-call that President McKinley was said to have been made a member of a union In Chicago when he officiated at the laying of the cornerstone of the postofilco there but though he good naturcdly yielded to such suggestion that could hardly bo expected to be binding on others who could not give way to the requirement As to Mr Ilanna he declares that he hasnt been asked to lay the cornerstone of tho Salvation Army building in Cleveland and he may already be a member of a labor union for all we know but the Idea that none but a member of such ti union must lay a cornerstone will have to be abandoned before it becomes established es-tablished The full rights of labor to organize to make all Its reasonable regulations respecting re-specting Its employment and regarding everything that la I in fact labor Is of course universally admitted It has that field all to itself and it Is proper that It should control In that Jield The ceremonial of laying a cornerstone however Is not labor and It Is not proper for labor to undertake Its exclusive ex-clusive control |
