The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-12-11
The Union Label VS.. the Golden
Rule.


ed at the nrcsen, session OF
tn" American Federation of
Labor was one making II OBJ
liealory upon All union men to demand
union label goods. This significant ar-
tiou calls for some consideration.
The word obligatory" is defined by
the Standard dictionary to mean
binding in law or conscience. 1t
hardly needs tn be said that law can
not bind an American citizen to buy Il
certain kind of goods to the exclusion
OF other kinds. \ law attempting to do
this would be smashed to pieces against
the Constitution of the United States
which guarantees to every citizen lib
erty without trespass. The moment
that legislation should undertake to
dictate what brands of goods citizens
Should buy a tyranny would appear
that American manhood would not toll
crate.
Is there that in the union label which
imposes an obligation on the conscience
of union men to buy none but goods
that bear il" We think not. 1t fire.
uuently happens that the non- union
made article is as good as the union
made article. representing as high n
wage and as wholesome conditions of
employment for the producers, and
therefore under the American theory
Of equality us fully entitled To fair play
in the open market. Naturally when the
union label article represents Il better
it does not need artificial houmine to
cause it tn sell in the face of inferior
competition.
The objection To This resolution is
that the whole spirit back of it is
WRONG. 1t is narrow and prosrriplivc.
1t fears TO let unonIsm stand
nr fall on its merits: it seeks to bolster
il mp by the creation of a class pre-
iudire. Instead of the union being 70,
tho workman we are seeing the doc
trinc applied in many ways that the
Of the union and its officers; and it fol-
lows naturally that wher. the workman
and the union disagree. il is the work
man who gets the worst of it. He IS
rcvilcd. beaten and hoycotted He is
denied the right to seek and accept
work. His family are spurned ana
stunned and in many cases both he and
they are finally driven to the verge OF
starvation and sometimes murdered
not by employers not by corpora tons
not by the great uctopuscs and trusts
but by fellow workingmen operating
through the union label. No employer
was ever So cruel to his employees as
workinGmen who incur The i'll win oI
their ring leaders
More and more the fact is being
forced upon the comprehension OF the
people that trades unionism in this
country is being abused. When II
comes TO pass that unionism as prac-
tsed means not the peaceful drawing
In of the non.union man BIZ virtue oI
the unions manifest benefits ana ad-
yantaees but the brutal denial OF his
right to live and work NJ peace, free
from rompuision dictation or abuse
there can be no other conclusion than
that mionlsm and liberty have tempo,
necessity for the American people tc
choose which they will have.
They can have both If the common
sense of the workingmen in the unions
will assert itself ana general public
opinion come determinedly TO its res
cue The mischief today is that pro
fessional agitators have rum away viii
many of the unions, pervertins then
into Instruments of tyranny ana tor
ture when they should be peaceful
means for labor's self-improvement
Since the agtators come to Scranton
we have had nothing but strikes, boy
colts, and scenes of lawlessness an,
anarchy The community has beel
vexed mulcted and terrorized and /
We except the 10 per cent. increasei i'm tn
mines. "a result due to good leadership
through IL all labor has not made a sin
sle substantial gain, but ON the con