New Orleans daily crescent., 1857-11-16
A Card to the Public.

A Card to the Public.
IS THRsn CoNsPIRACYp OF THE PRiNTERs.'
n IA few days since We published an extract iron
the Mobile Daily Tribune, accompanied with com
ments of our own, ona difficulty that appeers to exs
between the publishers Of that paper and the printer
OF Mobile. As we are disposed to give fair hearing
on All occasions, we append the response Of the Mob
Typographical Union to the article in the Tribune
In WedneHday's Tribune appeared an article rea
tive to the arrest OF fifteen printers members of ths
Mobile Typographical Union, on charge of . con
spincy TO injure the business Of that Office, of which
respect for ourselves and for the public requires
notice at our hands. 5$s 5s8s " i8
Two misstatements appear in this article, one o.
whichthat the headquarters Of the Union is in New
Orleans no other notice than that it is ap
parently introduced for the purpose of detracting
fom the respectabity Of our organization By stamp
ing it with "a provincial character, where's it i
national composed Of affiliated Unions in the princ
pal cities Of the United States and holding its annual
another The other msstatement- that the objection
to the Tribune Office was in relation to the fact that
the proprietors had three apprentices which was one
more than the rules of our organization permit
needs more attention. -
BY the rules of our organization, only one appren-
tice is allowed to six journeymen in morning news
paper Offices, SO that the Tribune Office had really
Two more than the regular number. Yet, as two Of
those apprentices were taken after the adoption Of our
Constitution, It is true, but before it had become
binding members by receiving their signatures
we never objected to their employment The actual
ground Of complaint was, that one Of these appren.
tces, having left the Office, was afterwards taken
back, q journeyman being discharged to make room
for him.
Some statements in the Tribune article--not erro.
neous in themselves-from the mode in which they
are addnced, have tendency to give the affair to
which they relate an unfavorable complexion with
regard to Thus IL is said that the objection to
the Tribune office was not in relation to wages or
the non-payment OF them" This remark is entirely
gratntous unless it is designed to convey the impress
sion that we have made no charges against that
office in relation to wages or their nonpayment.
This we have not done and yet it is true that q
week or two before the more recent difficulties, note
was addressed TO the proprietors Of the Tribune,
signed by all the compostors in the office, stating
that they must have the money due them. The pro-
prietors took offence at the word must and ordered
the foreman to discharge the who at the request
Of his fellow, workmen had written the note this
was done. The other compositors Immediately 'laid
down their sticks" In the course of the day the
offending compositor was taken back, and they re-
sumed work. II might seem unnecessary to refer to
this occurrence, but the ausion to the nonpayment
of wages must serve as our apology for introducing it,
We are charged with sending circulars to distant
cities in order to prevent the propretors of the T-
bune from getting compositors. The simple fact is
that we have as our regulations require notified our
affiliated Unions of the state of things in the Tribune
office, course Of procedure common TO US with all
affiliated associations, as the Sons of Temperance
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows the Masonic
Fraternity, etc. E
For the acts Of individuals, Of which the proprie
tors Of the Tribune complain, we not responsible
If any impr0priety has been committed, it has not
been at the instigation, or in consequence of any
regulation Of the Union. We do not wish to be un-
derstood admitting denying the correctness Of
the statements the rnthfuness of the coloring of
this portion of the Tribune article but simply that
it would be out of place for us to discuss it.
We make this brief disposition of the facts Of the
case the most essential points of the controversy
are, right to form associations and the proprety
of the rules which we have adopted.
The proprietors of the Tribune will hardly pretend
that all the rights pertaining to the printing business
or any other, belong to the employers, and all the
duties to the employed Yet, after careful and re- re.
peated scrutiny OF their article have failed to dis
cover the least recognition Of any other idea The
nearest approach to it is in the expression 'We
were willing to concede to the compositors the privi
lege of stopping work instantly, although putting
to great Inconvenience" We ask no privileges !; we
require no concessions. We claim the right to pro-
tect ourselves from imposition and our noble art from
deterioration, and we will not argue SO selfevdent
proposition as that these objects be best attained
by association. These objects, with the additional
one of mutual relief from those msfortunes which
are incidental to common humanity, are all which
our association contemplates
plain particularly Of one that which prescrbes the
number Of apprentices which may be employed in
an Office. That rule is, that no more than one ap-
prentice shall be allowed to six journeymen in a
morning newspaper office. No limitation is made of
the number which may be employed in a job office.
There is reason for this distinction in the fact of
the work of newspaper office being so almost ex-
clusively confined to branch of the business that
1t ls impossible in such Office for boy to learn
the whole art and to become (what it is the duty Of
the propretors to make him. SO far as his capacity
permits) an accomplished printer. So sensible are
printers of this fact that in of the Unions with
excluded from morning Offices Other reasons, de-
rived from the practical workings of the contrary
system, might be adduced in support of this limita-
ton, but we believe that they will naturally suggest
themselves on mature reflection. This is very diff
ferent question from that on the level Of which the
proprietors of the Tribune would place it-th of
what number of clerks they may employ, etc. Our
Union processes no right to interfere with the trans
actions of the business office.
As persons unacquainted with the nature of the
printing business may, for want of reflection misun-
derstand the relations Of proprietor, foreman and
Journeymen, it may not be amiss to remind them that
the foreman is responsible to the proprietor for all
the transactions of the composition room, and, in
view Of that responsibility in no weregulated office
does he permit any interference by the proprietors
between him and the jonrneymen, whom be alone
employs and discharges; but this is not much a
regulation of our Union as a custom of all mechanic
arts where a considerable number Of workmen are
employed under superintendent.
The point, however. respecting which the most
serious charges are made against US, is alleged
system of coercion and dictaton In this respect we
have no secrets, but are more than willing that our
practice be submitted to the most rigid scrutiny.
candid consideration is all we ask.
The sanction of the rules of every voluntary asso-
citation consists in the penalty of non-felowship for
the violation of those rules and who shall complain
OF its severity? Certainly not the man who has in
Cured the penalty by foreiting his honor. And
what have proprietors to complain of? We wish it
distinctly understood that we do not say you shall
not employ this or that man, or set of men or boys,
in your office" but that reserve the right to Judge
when imposed on as well as to quit any office
when we please. The employers reserve to them
selves the right to discharge their employees at any
moment and it is but justice that we should have the
right quit when we choose become dissatisfied
and such dissatisfaction we may be confidently relied
upon to manifest, whenever it is required of us to
work side by side on equal terms with men combined
with those who seek to deprive of our just rights
We have endeavored, in dispassionate manner, to
correct the errors in the account which the Tribune
propretors have given of the difficulty between them
selves and u.s. to the false ceorng which they
our own honest opinions of the lawfuness of our
organization and the propriety of our regulations.
This, our defense, would have appeared earlier but
for the peculiar nature of daily and nightly en-
ployments, which leave but little leisure to devote
to our vindication. Even now, what we present is
but hastily and crudey put together in the hope that
it may engage the attention of the community before
the subject to which it refers has altogether lost its
int ftnv,, M -