Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-02-17 | Page 26 | Hutcheson

HUTCHESON. Sooner or later the government will be compelled to deal relentlessly with agitators such as the president of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. We agree -with Chairman Hurley of the shipping board that the majority of the men in the brotherhood are patriotic pa-triotic and that although they have hampered the work of shipbuilding and perhaps sentenced American boys to death at the battle front, they know not what they do because they have been misled. Hutcheson was the only president of the crafts working in the shipbuilding industry who refused to become a party to the government 's adjustment and arbitration plan. That in itself showed that there was something wrong in his makeup. It revealed him as one among many patriotic labor leaders wjio refused re-fused to trust his government. And today it is not surprising to find him giving aid and comfort to the kaiser. Hutcheson set himself up as a dictator. dicta-tor. He demanded favors for his organization or-ganization which none of the- other shipbuilding organizations received or even desired. How long will patriotic American workingmen follow a leader of that type! At the very time when Hutcheson was trying to paralyze the shipbuilding industry in-dustry on the Atlantic coast, officers of the local unions of his brotherhood were availing themselves of the government 's adjustment board. They were anxious to settle disputes without obstructing the government or causing their own men trouble. But Hutcheson seemed eager to throw a bomb into the governmental govern-mental machinery of arbitration. He was looking for trouble. The fact that a wage dispute has arisen does not reflect upon the men. There may be justice in their contentions, conten-tions, but Hutcheson showed no desire for justice. He wanted a strike, not a settlement. And he did not confine his agitation to the question of wages, but urged his men to demand a closed shop. All of his moves handicapped the government just as much as if he had mapped out his plans with an agent of the kaiser at his elbow. Xo doubt the strike will be settled "ithout much difficulty. A just agreement agree-ment can be reached if the workers do not ailow themselves to be influenced by the passions and hatreds which false leaders have tried to instill into them.