The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1866-07-07
WILLIAM HARDING,
JOIN Reid,
JOHN III. FAY


We notice that it Is q very fAvorite prac-
tice for the leading daily newspapers in
their condemnation Of strikes, to dwell at
length and severely upon those cases where
strikers lay down an ultimatum with regard
to apprentice LABOR as established in the
Union to which they chance to belong II
is hello by these papers that while mechan-
les and laborers have an undoubted right to
say they will work for so much money and
no less, or so many hours and not more,
they have no right to insist upon the mum
Der Of apprentices that should be employed
at the same time in a shop, or to dictate as
to the leWIh Of time OF an apprenticeship.
In other words, they have no right to insist
upon rules calculated to protect their trade
against an apprentice system that shall
turn out incompetent and unskilled mechan-
les, alike injurious to the employer and his
finished workmen.
This point has beer repeatedly raised and
discussed by papers in the interest Of CAPT
tai, and it has been so presented by them as
to create . prejudice in the public mind
against Trades Unions upon this ground
1t was the case in the recent strike Of the
Iron Moulders OF Troy. The mas
ters of shops there insisted that
the regulations Of the Iron Moulders' Union
in regard to apprentices were aggressive,
arbitrary, and without the pale Of their
rightful Jurisdiction. They held that 1t
was just and proper for them to employ as
many or as few apprentices, upon as long
or as short an apprenticeship as they
pleased. The newspapers IN their interest
took it up and iilated upon it as fragrant
usurpation Of the rights Of the masters on
the part OF the moulders. The odions
rules, however, they never Published. To
have done so, would have dissipated the
erroneous opinions they had been instill-
ing into the minds Of the people Those
rules were alike beneficial and protective
to employer and employee, and not one
word had been lisped against them by the
former, until the occurrence of the lock-
out, when they became a convenient pre-
text in justification Of their course. Among
other things, the rules make il imperative
that every apprentice before he can become
q member Of the Union, shall have served
the full time Of his apprenticeship, thus
rendering an important service TO the mas
ter in retaining, through the most valuable
time Of apprenticeship, his apprentices.
Ali know the almost universal tendency,
we might have said perhaps practice
for apprentices to break their contracts
with the master just rs soon az they imag-
inc themselves capable Of performing
passably the work of = journeyman. IL IL
an evil confined 10 no trade, but il a gene
raj cause Of complaint among an trades,
and one for which there is no better or
more effective remedy than the certainty
that to do so Ia to raise o perpetual bar
against receiving the privileges and benefits
Of the Union
But what we wish to say more particu-
larry ut this time is as TO the fact that the
charge Of aggression can be better sustained
against the employers than the working
men. The ,s(like Of the ship carpenters
and caulkers OF New York affords good
evidence Of this. The Herald says:
We cannot understand the policy of
the master shipwrights. Only few DAYS
ago they were declaring that they desired
the strike Of the caulkers to end, not from
any sel6shi motive, but because they were
afraid that New York city would be de-
prived CT this branch Of business. Wen.
the caulkers' strike did end on Weines-
day, the men returning to their work at
the old hours and wages But it had hardly
ended before il was again resumed, because
The employers demanded that She men
should sign paper pledging themselves
belong to the association which headed the
comply with this demand, which the en-
ployers had no right to make and power to |
snforce. II the csuikers decline TO work in