The Saint Paul globe., 1901-06-14
LAnoR AND IT'S LABELS.

LABOR AND ITS LABELS
The character of most of the resolutions
adopted by the recent convention of the
Minnesota branch of the National Fed
Grafton of Labor at Mankato shows that
the proceedings of that body were most
ly of a nature which affected Immediately
those who participated in it's delibera-
tions. The detailed work of organiza-
tion was transacted and the usual provi-
sion made for the administration of the
affairs of the body during the ensuing
year.
There is one respect in which the work
of the Mankato convention is entitled
to the general consideration. The great
activity which is revealed among the sew
eraI labor organizations in the promotion
Of their label interests suggests some
questions of larger Industrial interest
than those which merely have reference
to the members of the labor organiza-
tions in this state or elsewhere.
Properly managed the principle of the
union label is one which possesses great
commercial possibilities. In the stress Of
commercial competition men are every
day resorting to expedfents to secure
cheapness of production which touch in
juriously the most vital interests of So
ciety. The greed of the individual manu-
facturer or merchant ought not to be
allowed to jeopardize the public health or
impose conditions on the individual which
are inconsistent with the safety of So
eiety.
The evil of the sweat shop and of the
shoddy product, in the danger which the
former imposes of the spread of disease
and in the fraud which the latter i'm
poses on the ignorant or thougntless
purchaser, must be guarded against for
the general well being Both of these
evils are met by the existence OF q label
which in itself certi1es to certain facts
relating to the conditions attending the
production of the articles which bear it.
The American trade mark law is based
in it's philosophy on the principle which
underlics the union label That which is
superior in itself will of course, force
itself on the commendation OF the
thoughtful; but from among the thought
less ignorant or Indifferent mass of pur-
chasers there is absent the ability to
judge, and the element of cneapness is
the one and the only one which makes
enduring appeal to them in the making
of their purchases.
The commercial success which has at
tended the blue label of the union cigar
makers offers u good illustration of what
is possible to the trade label. Union
labor stands for fair Fay and sanitary
conditions attending the work and the
labor of the operative A union label af-
fixed to any article of manufacture may
today even be regarded as representing
the realization of primary conditions OF
hcalthfulness in it's production. If there
is sound thought accompanied by con-
servative action there is no reason why
in the process of time the union label
might not be made. furthermore, to be-
speak for the product to which it is at
tached certain other necessary qualities,
as fer instance. that it represents a fair
commercial equivalent for the market
price at which it is offered for sale, and
that it is of given standard of quality
in it's constituent elements and in its
workmanship
If union labor organization is ever to
secure the position which it aims at OF
controlling the supply of skilled labor in
the interest at once of the public the
employer and tho employe. there is no
means st it's disposal at the present
lIour which will so further in bringing
about this end, at some time in the
discernible future, than the proper culti-
walton by the workmen of the several
crafts of the union label as, beyond the
possibility of dispute, representing hon
estIy and truthfuIlY what it is held out
to represent.