The Portland daily press., 1886-04-19
THE PRESS AND THE WORK
ENCMAN,

The Press wants to know how organized labor
which demands that only union men be employed
can consistently complain of organized capital for
making noE-unonship a condition of employment.
The Press has got the cart before the horse.
Establishing was an invention of capital and
first used by it. The workman caught the trick
from the capitalist and proceeded TO fight him
with his own weapons He was only retaliating
in kind. This is the history of the matter. If any
reproach attaches to black-listing it attaches to
the inventor, not to the imitator.-Argus.
The PRESS has not got the cart before
the horse" 1t condemned black-listing by
the employer some months ago when the
manager of the Winthrop oil cloth factory
discharged several of his men for joining the
Knights of Labor, in the following language
San employer is undoubtedly acting within his
strict legal right when he discharges an employee
because the latter belongs to trades uuion New
ertheless it is much to be doubted if a discharge
for that reason and thai alone can be justified in
the forum of conscience. Capitalists form all
sorts OF combinations for protecting and advanc-
ing their interests. We have associations of
groeers we have international unions of cigar
manufacturers, we have associations of iron mas
tiers, and mine proprletors, we have pooling ar
rangementS among railroad companies. And the
design of all these combinations is in some way
to benefit the individuals and corporations which
among professional men. The lawyers combine
and so do the doctors, in order to keep up their
fees. Has the laboring man any less right to do
so? Is it wrong for the spinner and weaver, and
miner, and cigar maker, and locomotive
engineer to combine to keep up their wages
and right for the doctor and lawyer to do the
same thing? Does man ever discharge his
legal adviser or his physician because he has
combined with other members of his profession to
Keep up the rate of compensation? Does a man
WITHDRAW his patronage from grocer when he
learns that the latter belongs to combination
that seeks to regulate the sale of groceries? We
never heard of such case. Then why should an
employer discharge an employee simply because
tile latter belongs to an association whose pur-
pose it is to keep up his wages and the wages of
Inv chn NOT f1ln
same right that is freely accorded to the capitalist
and professional man be as freely accorded to the
laboring man?
The position it took in the above para.
graph it has adhered to throughout these
labor troubles. 1t maintains that man has
perfect right to join a labor union if he
wants to or to refuse to join, and that his
decision in this matter, whichever way it
be, should not be used against him. 1t holds
that an employer who discharges a man for
belonging to labor union is guilty of an in
fringement upon that mans rights, and it
holds that an employer who discharges a
man for not belonging to labor union is
guilty of the same thing Furthermore, it
maintains that combination of manufac-
turers which should undertake to force
men out of labor union by refusing them
employment would be guilty of an indie
feasible act, and it maintains also that o
labor union which should undertake to force
men into their organization by preventing
them from obtaining employment would be
guilty of an act equally indefensible. If
this position is not sound, will the Argus
point out wherein its unsoundness consists.
The PRESS has no hesitation whatever in
ifo Ill,
First and foremost it believes that labor has
very much to complain Of in the treatment
it has frequently received from capital.
1t believes that a great many employers of
labor, though swift to put down wages when
bad times come, are very slow to put up
wages when good times arrive. Indeed
many probably never would put them up
if it were not for their fear of the labor
unions We believe the strike has been
the means frequently of compelling en-
ployers to do justice to their men who would
never have done it voluntarily. When the
oppressed horse car drivers and conductors
employed ON Mr.. Richardson's line in Brook
Ign demanded that their hours of work be
shortened and there wages increased, and
deserted their cars in body because their
request was refused they did exactly right.
When the men employed by certain corpora
lions in this State rebelled against the rule
which compelled them to make their pur-
chases at the corporation stores they assert
ed their manhood and are to be commended
tor 1t. Workingmen ought to be encouraged
toreslst IN all lawful ways oppression of any
sort. 1t viii be bad day for this country
when its workingmen become so pusilIani-
nous as to be ready to submit tamely to the
encroachments of capital, and no one who
loves his country wants to see that time
come. Our advice to the workingman is TO re-
sist oppression in every lawful way, and the
strike is,we believe, lawful way and some
times the only way. Public sentiment will
support him in so doing and help him win
the victory.
But the workingman should be sure of his
ground. He should be careful to see that
the cause he enlists in is a good cause, and
he should be equally careful that the
weapons he uses are legitimate weapons.
Every blunder he makes enures to the adj
vantage of his enemies. The employees of
the Third Avenue Railroad in New York are
now on strike to compel the managers of
that corporation to discharge five men be-