The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-10-19

L tBESC Two VIC COACcac t4lc IlSut Vi If1S Gil
ployer to engage more in the ratio of one
apprentice to ten journeymen."
Isn't that satisfactory to most employ
ersr"
| Not at all There are employers who
would like ten apprentices to every jour
neyman."
| Who teaches apprentices"
| Nobody. In tins country, where boys
are seldom regularly indentured for five or
| seven years as in Europe, they have to
pick up the trade as best they can"
That seems very uncertain way for a
| boy to learn trade. .
''Of course it is; but who is to blame?
Employers care nothing for the boys flu
| ture. All they require from an apprentice
| is constant application at one branch of
trade. When the lad reaches manhood he
discovers that he can only work al part
of his calling, and in many cases when he
asks for journeymen's wages on coming of
age he is dismissed and another apprentice
| takes his place. l know of a young fellow
who spent three years with horseshoer,
and at the end of that time had advanced
no further than brushing flies off horses
| while they were being shod. As con
sequence of this apprentice system, or
| rather lack of system, our country is flood
ed with botches, fellows who know only
piece of trade"
s'Then these half made journeymen are
forced to work for whatever wages are of
fered?"
Certainly. They always come to the
front in time of trouble between skilled
labor and capital Botches invariably take
the places of the striking mechanics.
but employers only take incompetent
mechanics when they can get no better?"
That is true, as a rule; but there are ex-
ceptions. A competent mechanic is gener
ally an independent man. and wants every
thing done fair and square. A botch is a
lickspittle, and is always crooking and
eating dirt to keep his place. This cring-
ing on the part of incompetents has devel-
oped class of petty domineering tyrants
who manage IN some way to secure
the position of foreman or superintendent
These foremen or superintendent stand
between employer and employee. and gen.
orally have the hiring or discharing of the
workmen. 1t Is supposed that superin-
tendent will act fairly with the men under
an employer. But the reverse of this IS often
true. These fellows, pulled up with a little
au thority, would much prefer hiring an
incompetent sycophant to a skilled and
manly workman, for the reason that the
man who understands his business will
not submit to being bulldozed or imposed
upon"
'.As nearly all employers must of necessi-
ty have foremeR or superintendent how
can this trouble be remedied?'
1.-The remedy is simple. Let every en-
ployer reserve to himself the right of hir-
ing and discharging every man in his en-
ploy. If this was the universal rule CAPT
tai aud labor would not be pulled against
each other half as much as under the
tyrannical system of middle-men. Wipe
out all power now in the hands of foremen
and superinJendents, bring the employer
and everyone in his employ directly in con
tact every payday, at least, for the pur-
pose of knowing little something about
each other personally, and see what a
marked change will take place in the
feelings of tine workmen and the quantity
and the quality of the work that will there
after be turned out"
Then you think mlddlemen are the cause
of much of the trouble between employees
and their workmen?"
II am sure of it. When / am aware |
that there are many just and conscientious |
men occupying the positions of superin |
tendent and foremen, yet large majority |
of the men who are hired to employ and |
discharge their fellow workmen are |
curse to our land. If they could, they
would introduce the servility of Europe |
into this free republic, and force American |
mechanics to stand with hat in hand and |
salute these snobs as masters"
Surprising that employers would take |
sufficient interest in their workmen to pay |
them off personally, make their acquaInt |
ance, cheer them in their work, ana do |
their own hiring and discharging, what |
would be the result?"
''Gloriousl And let me tell you that the |
struggle between capital and labor win |
never end until employers attend to their |
own business in this respect. Leaving out /
of the question the eternal responsibility |
of employers this duty ought to be relig
iously observed for the perpetuation of the |
principles on which this government was
founded. Let the bone and sinew of free
America be dragged down to the level of |
pauperized Europe, and it is only ques
ton of few years when capital will have
to be guarded by bayonets here in New
York"
Have the Knights of Labor any SYM
patty or affinity with communism or So
cialistic dcctrines2'
Not particlei We claim only what |
is fair-protection from European cheap /
labor and the right to organize tor mutual
sympathy and moral and material aid. Not
that we object to legitimate and natural
emigration from Europe, or any other
country, but we most emphatically protest
against combined capital secretly sending
to Italy and other pauper lands for cheap |
labor with the sole view of reducing Amer