San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-11-06
LABOR NOT MONOPOLY.


whole Mississippi cotton district. This
difficulty, which was supposed to have
been quietly settled some six weeks
since, has broken out again and threat
ems the operations of some Of the
presses. The Cotton Press association
early in September placed itself square
ly on record as opposed to the employ
ment OF any but union laborers, and en-
Geavored to secure such cooperation
from the labor organizations rs would
commit them TO work only for such cot
ton press associations or companies as
employed union labor exclusively. This
the labor organizations refused to do
and unanimously agreed to work for
such cotton presses as would give union
wages to union men. This action was
not satisfactory to the cotton press asso-
citation, which desired to secure a mon
opoly OF union labor by excluding all
such labor from every press that
did not itself belong to the cotton
press association. This question is now
severely agitating the council OF the
cotton laborers, and it looks to man up
a tree that the intelligent laborer II he
consults bis own interests will be very
chary of creating monopoly In his own
interests which in time may turn its
strength against him. What labor de-
sires and works for in organization Is To
free itself from monopoly, not to create
for itself monopoly. Protection is not
monopoly; it is merely regulation. This
protection Els secured when labor is ac-
corded its demands to recognition as an
organization and it's requirements met,
as it appears ia the case with the presses
not connected with the Cotton Press as
ISOLATION. TO comply with the demand
OF this association and crowd out every
other press save those working under
the association, would certainly create a
monopoly in the hands of that associa-
ton. And as this association is not an
association of cooperative labor 1t Is
only too certain that when the other
presses went to the wall the labOrers
under this monopolistic concern would
be at Its mercy and compelled to accept
its terms. We believe it for the best
interests OF labor to hold itself
aloof from the complications into
which 1t Is liable to be led as the instru-
ment Of oppression to Industries that do
not antagOnize organized labor. but on
the contrary are willing to acCede to
the demands Of labor, giving the same
terms to union men as union men get in
union establishments. The Cotton
council has certainly done much to ad-
vance the interests Of laboring men in
the cotton districts and in this they have
earned and deser we'd the thanks OF the
laborers in the whole Mississippi valley.
The council has grown too strong
to allow itself to be used to crush out in
dustries from which large number Of
union men derive their livelihOOd,at the
same rates of wages paid by the most
exclusively union presses in the country.
The raising Of wages and the improve
ment Of the condition OF the labor is the
end sought and this seems to have been
attained in the case under Considera-
ton. NOn-uniOn men will not long
work side by side with union men at re-
duced rates, and the union wages thus
become general As to what particular
association the company or association
of companies employing labor belongs,
matters not to the laborer, so long as
they are not hostile to union labor