St. Tammany farmer., 1901-08-10
FOR A CLOSER UNION
Samuel Gompers Points Out op-
portunity for Organized Labor.
The Weak Point In Gigantic Indus.
trial COminations-Value of Fa-
vorable Public Opinion In
Strike Crises.


The industrial conditions requiring
the attention and consideration OF
organized labor have assumed new
aspect through the recent great com
binations of mills and factories, says
Samuel Gompers, president of the
American Federation of Labor, writ
ing for the New York Independent.
OF especial significance is the con-
troll of a group of these by one Or
ganization which plans to devote the
respective plants to special work, and
to that work only, so that this mill is
set to producing one small part! or
division of the general product, that
mill to another branch, and SO on.
Probably there is greater economy
in this process of specialization, and,
the end, therefore, justifies the
means. But with this division and
subdivision a huge and complicated
machine is produced, so interdepend-
ent in it's parts that the least disar-
rangement at any point may clog or
stop the whole mechanism.
If this be so, then, in machine
SO cumbrous and so complex, the Ia
Dor organizations, in my opinion,
have new strength. Labor tends to
specialize under the trusts, and thus
its productive power may be in
creased. 1t also acquires another
power. The withdrawal of any: spe-
cialists' mill would reduce the trust
to mass of silent and inert machin-
cry, one part being so dependent on
another. OF course, this new power
of labor in its own behalf is predi-
Gated upon one thing-namely, or
ganization. Unless the workmen in
the various departments of trust
get together, to act under discipline,
their specialization as productive
units will mean their weakening as
workingmen, for the man who works
in one branch of industry has far
less independence than the old-fash-
ioned workingman who could with
equal facility apply himself to num-
ber of different jobs.
I believe thoughtful workmen ap-
preciate this fact as well as their
leaders, and they will see the benefit
of organization more than ever be-
fore. Fortunately, the era of pros
perity. and the consequent demand
for labor in all fields of industry is
helping this. The workingmel indi-
vidually are doing well, and, as is
generally the case, prosperity breeds
aspirations. They desire to Go bet
ter. Their thoughts turn to the
trade unions. Those who have been
delinquent pay up, and those who
have been outside come into member
ship. For these and perhaps other
reasons the unions are now recruit
ing as never before.
In this era of trusts it may be said
that labor represents organized num-
bers opposed to concerted power.
Looking merely on the surface OF
things, it might appear to many that
the trusts are so strongly intrenched
in power as to be able to crush lit
orally the life out of organized labor,
but the interdependence of the diff
ferent parts of their organization al
ready alluded to shows really where
their great weakness lies. I fear no
blow that trusts might aim at labor
on account Of the changed conditions
As matter of fact the concentration
of productive and monopoly powers
has been accompanied by a move.
ment among the workers, who, real
izing that what were formerly separ'
ate plants and separate industries
had now come under one manage
ment, quickly saw the desirability
and necessity of uniting the. separate
unions into large federated bodies sc
as to make united movements for Of
tense and defense.
In any contest with capital we must
consider the value of a favorable pub
lie opinion, and to secure this labor
must be right in it's demands. II
must possess might to enforce the
right, but it must be right in order
to appeal successfully to public sen
timent. This can be done only or
ethical grounds; we must seek the
broad basis of justice. In a strike
crisis the masses Of the people, ap
parently passive at other times, are
stirred to thought and give judgment
on questions that are complacently
ignored in normal periods
Merchants See the Point.
Forth Worth merchants have begu1
to insist that clerks must be mem