The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1900-11-10
the TRADE UNIONS ! I
A PAPER BY HERMAN LIEDJANS BE.
FORE THE ECONOMIC LEAGUE.
The Trade Union Movement Is Fully
Discussed I'm All It's Phases-Traile
Unions Have Secured Shorter
Hours Of Labor, better Factory
Its Members.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Eco
| nomic League: Some historians of
trade-unionism divide the subject into
three parts-the ancient, the medi-
aeval and the modern. The relation
ship between the associations of men
of these several periods of time is
not clearly defined, and we may only
be certain that they are akin in this
that the common interest of a trade
division tended to bring its units in
to association for the purpose of con-
| serving and promoting the common
welfare. 1t is prof1table and inter-
esting to study what is supposed to
have been the forerunner of the trade
| union as it existed in time when
| workingmen were held to have no
| souls: or to read Of the times of the
| trade guilds, when kings issued de-
/ crees which restricted the movements
from one locality to another of work.
men, and when parliament assumed
the duty of regulating not only their
wages, but also their diet: or to peruse
| the statutes and the circumstances
of their enactment, which sought to
restrict the organization Of workmen
statutes which have been repealed
or rendered dead letters only within
| the last fifty years; or to refer to the
records of history which speak Of wo-
men and children harnessed as oxen
and used as draft animals in the
mines; or to turn over the pages
which record the innumerable instan-
ces lawlessness, taking the form
of bloody conflicts, that were born,
not of the wickedness, but of the ig-
norance of men-the ignorance which,
on the one hand depends on force,
and the ignorance on the other hand
which is solidly blind to every ini-
quity and every injustice. But it is
the purpose of this paper to treat of
the ideals and motives of trades un-
/ ions and to do the advantageOusly,
the discussion must be confined to
modern, present day trade-unionisn1.
| Never was a man so poor and de-
graded, living in the humblest of huts,
but that in the meditations of his SIM
eple mind he speculated, upon q better
j home never, was stSgested AsSto
Issss 5s
'lbett ter "a his father 5. Sf7s 6iil
Fthat the dicontent that was III
him continued still to-, abide with
him. That which we have is just q
little less than what we want. It is
the nature of every unite in the hu-
man family to seek, in one direction
or another, to improve his condition
And were it not 50, there could be nc
progress in this world.
The trade unions are associations o1
persons working in p given trade, or
division of trade, or a group of kind
red trades, for mutual benefit and pro
lection. The association of number
of such persons in trade union is thu
result, primarily of the diffusion o
ideas of a mutuality of interests will
respect to remuneration for their labor
? the hours of their employment ant
their hygienic surroundings; second
arily, the diffusion of ideas of mutua
assistance in times Of misfortune, sick
ness and death.
The ideals and aims of trades union
. may be set out in this wise:
/. OF remuneration for their labo
they want just as much as they cal
, get.
+ g OF hours of employment in da.
they want as few as may be necessar.
| to have the work of the world per
formed by adults, which with the un
employed given chance to do thei
share of it.
g. OF hygienic conditions they wan
those which most nearly approach per
fection.
These aims and ideals of trade un
ionism are defended upon the following
grounds:
/. In seeking to obtain all the remun
Grafton they can, they are guided b.
purely business principle that is in
voked in every business transaction.
the principle is correct as to articles o
merchandise and realty, it should b
held to be correct os to the labor Q
human hands, which is to be counte
something more than mere property.
2. AS to fewer hours Of daily toll,
is the contention that every man AM
woman is of right eentitled to opportu
nifty to earn a living, and as to grea
a share of leisure as necessity will per
NIT or character development may re
lquire; that children and youths are o
right entitled to all the years of thei
minority to develop their bodies by ex
ercise of healthful play and their mind
by study in the schools; and that tn
duty of industry ends with all tn
wants of fe1loWman supplied.
g. In the matter of hygienic condi
tions, the contention is that health |
prerequisite to life, and that the rfgh
to sanitary. conditions in a workshop
are beyond dispute.
Every material interest Of the EN-
p1oyer is attached in these foundamen
tai aims of trade unionism. For indi
vfduals to attempt to achieve them
would be conceded on all sides as fol
Fly, and so the workn1en In order t
bring himself on footing sonewha
nearer equal to that of his enpolyel
combines with his fellows. Now,
must be conceded that the ideals afte
which, trades unionism strive hav
some of the elements Of justice an
common sense III them, and In -stfivin
for his ideals of the trade unionist find
kS..