Morning journal and courier., 1882-05-23
Tuesday Morning, May B, 1882.
TRADES UNIONS.

Trades unions are active in these days and | some of their performances are well worth | the attention of those who believe in them 1 and those who do not. The Bricklayers' Union of New York city found it necessary a few days ago to interfere between a builder l and his workmen. The builder, who en- 1 ploys one hundred men, had among his force 1 two boys who were working as apprentices. A ''walking delegate visited the premises where the boys were working and finding that they had not been regularly ipdentured instructed them to secure those documents, copies of which should be filed with the BricklayerS' Union. The boys applied to their employer for advice as to the inden lures required by the ''walking delegate" They were told to go on with their work and pay no attention to the matter. On the fol- lowing day the ''walking delegate" again ap- peared and quietly ordered the workmen em ployed where the boys were to quit work. This they did, in the middle of the day, ap- parently with some regret. The builder de- cided that he would not be beaten by the walking delegate" and those for whom he
 
 workmen with others who were not members of the Bricklayers' Union. Then all the men employed by the bold builder in different parts of the city were ordered to stop work, and he was left without help enough to carry on his work. The men were receiving $4 day, and probably most of them needed the money, but rather than go back on the union and it's walking delegate" they were willing to leave their work What became of the two boys we do not know. It is to be hoped, however, that the union has not had them assassinated for trying to learn useful trade.
 This is one of a number of recent cases which might be cited to show the tyranny of trades unions, and the situation bids fair to grow worse instead of better. The New York Times in searching for the causes of such work finds one of them 1n the increase of foreign immigration. It says: ''There is very little of the old fashioned, sturdy American manhood of our fathers now to be found among the mechanical trades. The foreigners have brought with them strange and alien notions to create dissension and an- tagonism. With them property IS robbery; capital is tyrant. Reproducing on Ameri- can soil the hereditary feuds of Europe, they trick themselves into the delusion that the employer is their old enemy, the mon archical despot, only in disguise, and that they, as men obliged to work for living, are the victims of certain form of slavery" This is plausible, though it would be hard matter to prove, but what the 1fnaes says about the ''walking delegate" and the organization for which he walks will be recognized as true by those who have looked into the matter: "The walking delegate or whatever he may be called, does not rep resent, even remotely, the working man. He represents an organization formed for the control of working men. This organization, with great effect, plays upon the natural dis position of all ignorant men to band them selves together to resist real or imaginary dangers They foster mems prejudices, distorting the figure of the employing cepit- alist into species of gilded bandit, and the ambitious young apprentice into crafty competitor working for small wages. This is the real and grinding tyranny, beside which the tyranny of capital is benefcence itself.'