The sun., 1899-09-17
A stand Against Tyranny.

The sub1otned resolution adopted at New
Haven on Friday by the United Typothete,
| as the employers Of printers style them
selves, concerns every citizen Of the United
| States, whether he labors as an employee or
| employer:
Resolved. That the members Of the United Typo
thets Of America in convention assembled, reserve
TO themselves the right to employ whomsoevsr they
| see At In the management OF their respective
ofnosa"
The fact that this resolution was offered
tells the cause Of 1t. The right Of tho
Typothstae. to select from men ready to
work for them those whom they desire,
has been abridged by the labor organiza-
tion in the printing trade until it has been
practically annulled To employ or dis
charge has become more the function OF the
Typographical Union than of the propri-
etors Of the printing shops; and there has
been attached to this unnatural authority
system Of taxation, extortionate and ever
increasing, by which the employers have
been constrained to pay. not in accordance
with the market value Of services rendered,
but In accordance with the Unions order.
Now with the power OF one man. or of
many men organised as one, to exact for tho
goods they have to sell any price they can
command THB SUN has traditionally no
quarrel. A great combination, or trust,
In capital or In labor, can name the price it
sets upon its wares and stick to 1t while 1t
desires, under the oommonest rule OF
human rights. But this principle is not
what the Typothet@ rebelled against in
declaring for the policy presented above.
The bottom OF this protest Is the fact
chat the union insists on being the master
when honest competition oonfers no such
right upon them. They maintain their
power, not through monopoly OF the labor
market, but by resorting to influences con-
demned by the law and substantially akin
to the custom Of the highwayman.
For example. when The SUN desired to use
machines instead Of hand labor In the set
ting Of type the union printers demanded
that that part OF the mechanical process
which required the attention Of machinists
only should also give employment to
printers, although there was nothing In it
for a printer 10 do. Printers could be
nothing more than spectators and as spec
tators The SUN was ordered to pay them
the full rate Of wages. Upon TEE Suns re-
fusal to submit to this outrage its employees
struck in a body at the most critical
moment Of the twenty-four hours, with the
purpose Of compelling 1t to submit, and
having failed In that, they have since de-
voted themselves to the attempt to destroy
THE Sun for not submitting They have
done all within their power to stop the
sale of 1t through q newsdealers' boy
oott. Every advertiser has been threat
ened with the vengeance OF their organized
power il he did not espouse their cause and
join In their campaign Of destruction by
withdrawing his advertisement from THE
Suns columns. There Is no limit to the
viciousness or the mendacity OF their
attacks upon THE SUN at every point where
they could approach it.
II after q wage-earner asserted his inal-
ienable right TO change his employment,
his abandoned employer should go into
the town and with every means avail
able to him, foul as we'll as fair, seek to
enlist everybody in preventing his former
servant from getting living, so that he
might be forced to return under conditions
prescribed BY the employer, the latter
would be worthy candidate for general
exeoration and for jail. But members of a
trade union hold that such course Is sanc-
titled II undertaken for their own benefit
and marked with the union label
It is against spirit Of this nature that
the United Typothet@ have rebelled. Their
resolve Is founded on the first principles Of
civilized justice.