New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-10-31
Beneficial Tendencies Of Trades Unions.

among the employing class, to recognize
the same necessity on the part of labor.
It is urged against trades unions that
they destroy the freedom of laborers to
make individual contracts, and hence are
despotic. If combination is injurious to
the freedom of contract, why do capital
lists combine2 Why is loss of liberty
that is so injurious to laborers, especial
" beneficial to capitalists2 During the
periods and in those localities where
labor organizations have been most gem
eral and benefcient, the laboring class,
as Il whole, has certainly grown in power
and freedom. It is clearly for the inter
est of laborers that this condition should
be governed by the more intelligent of
their class, and this organization alone
can make possible. Moreover, trades
unions are educational institutions. They
tend to develop the intelligence and
character OF the laborers in many ways.
In the first place they stimulate the study
of Industrial questions, which involves
considerable amount of reading and gen.
eral information, and also an intelligent
acquaintance with the industrial condi-
tons of their craft. Intelligent trades
unionists are frequently better informed
upon industrial and political questions,
and are less liable to lose their heads in
sentimental whirl, than are the more
educated and less experienced middle
and college class.
Trades unions are also important soci-
al centers. In addition to furnishing la
oorers with the means Of better know
ledge Of their economic conditions aud
more intelligent methods of improving
them, they afford an opportunity for so:
cia1 intercourse, otherwise practically
impossible. They are to the wage-work-
ers what clubs and social institutions
are to the wealthy. The social inter-
course and activity thus created, tends
to awaken new interests, wants and as
pirations which are not limited to the
character of the individual members, but
gradually extend to their home life, thus
gradually improving the social condition
and the standard of living of the whole
class. The pressure of the increased So
eial needs thus silently developed, makes
demand for higher wages necessary.
We always find the most intelligent, So
cially advanced, and best paid laborers
in every industry to be the most promi-
nent trades unicnisrs, and usually the
most active social agitators.
It will not be disputed that strikes are
often unwise and badly managed, that
dishonest men. Or men otherwise unfit
for leadership. sometimes get at the head
of labor organizations. But is this not
true of every other form of social and
industrial organization? Do they not
frequently act rashly, often involving the
disaster of innocent investors? Cannot
the same impeachment be urged with
quite as much truth against political Or
carnations? These mistakes are not
necessary part Of labor organization any
more than dishonest ministers of the gos-
pei are a necessary part of Christianity.
They arise from ignorance and mistaken
notions among the laborers, which trades
unions tend to counteract. In those in
dustries where trades unions are best or-
ganized and exercise the greatest influ-
ence. strikes are fewest, wages are high
est, hours of labor are shortest, and the
relation between workers and employers
most confidential and Harmonious Trades
unions, therefore, are not only legitimate.
economic and social institutions, but
they are an integral part of the industri-
al organization of modern society, With
all taeir defects, they have ever been
benefactors, not merely to their own
members and the wage class, but to So
ciety.
As society advances and industrial
problems become more complex, the
sphere of trades unions becomes wider
and its functions necessarily more edu-
cat1onal. In the past it has been large
ly fighting force because its right to
exist was denied and a semi militancy
was necessary to maintain Its position.
This militancy is sure to continue so
long as capitaistic warfare is made up
on trades unions as an organization. The
chief opportunity and Importance of
trades unions in the future, however. is
in the direction of economic and social
education. To this end specific part
of the work Of trades unions should be
the systematic study of economic ques-
x "