Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-08-17
HuRrFvL THEORIES POINTED OUT.

The steel strike is not making the
progress it's leaders hoped for when they
inaugurated 1t. The chief losers are the
iers. Those members of the union who
refused to join the movement and have
been repudiated by the leaders We're
shrewd enough to see that they would
be paying the fiddler while others
danced. If the strike organizers fail, as
they are likely to, it may set members
of unions to thinking along other lines.
The Commercial West kindly but forci-
bly, discusses some OF the mistakes of
ance of which would result from clear
er understanding of the various factors
and principles involved 1t says:
The honest.working man of this coun-
try is to be respected always. There is
dignity in labor whether it be at the
anvil or the managers desk. whether it
be in coal mine or IN the Office of the
railway president. We live by our in
y
our place in the world. unhampered by
organizations that destroys Individual
ism and stops individual development.
There is a contest in this country at
the moment that is said to threaten the
permanency of labor organization. The
honest working man is told that his in
terests stand or fall as the principle of
Dor union organization stands on falls
1t is not so. The working men OF this
country have lost more money than they
have gained thru the trust form of
labor unions. The most they have
asked for in the way of wage increase
would not, if granted, equal the amount
of money they have lost as a result of
ill-timed demands that have grown out
of wrong theory of organization and
ended in expensive strikes.
1T is a common defense for unionism
that capital organizes. therefore labor
must organize. There is no parallel here.
Capital never organizes at the expense
of the individual; labor always does: 1t
is most striking fact that the rich men
and the statesmen of this country near
~ every one began life as a poor boy.
Had these men belonged to unions that
draw hard and fast lines as to what
shall and what shall not be done, it is
not too much to say that none of them
would ever have been heard Of in their
present fields of employment.
The theory of the labor union is wrong
because it ties the ability of the ambi-
tious workingmen to the level of a
worthless fellow who does not care for
work and who has no desire to rise. The
man who stops work because it is six
o'clock will never be president of rail-
road company. And labor union says
we shall work by the clock. 1t is a
wrong theory. Every man has right to
limit the hours of his work. but he has
no right to limit the hours of another
person. II this is done labor loses its
dignity and men become machines
This Is kindly criticism, not denuncia-
ton. The best workingmen of this
country are in the unions, and for this
reason union labor Is to be preferred;
but from the standpoint of the working
man the labor union, as conducted, Is a
drag upon his earning capacity. Hence
II the contest between the United States
Steel Corporation and the Amalgamated
Association brings loss to the latter II
will not mean that labor has suffered
a defeat
1t is right for labor to have an organ
ization that will accomplish right end
It is right that hours OF labor should bt
limited so that workingmen will not sui.
] fer ct the hands Of an unreasonable en-