Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-04-16
TRACES UNION MOVEMENT.
1t Is Ably Defined by One of It's Fore
most Champions.

1t Is Ably Dehned by one OF Its Fore
most Champions.
Frank X. Foster, the labor leader, ad-
dressed the Twentieth Century club
the other afternoon on strikes and the
trades union movement.
The trades unions, said he, had their
birth in the conditions and necessities
of the wage earner's life. 1t has passed
through its period of persecution and
has won its way to recognition by the
captains of industry. The trades union
is a militant organization, not play or
mutual admiration society organized
for ornamental purposes. TVS organiz-
ed to make some people let go of oppor-
tunities who would not let go unless
pressure was brought to bear upon
them.
AS Il rule the trades union recognizes
the strike as a legitimate weapon not
to be apologized for, but as legitimate
as any other attempt of dealers in any
community to control by lawful meth
ods the price of that commodity. We
accept John Stuart Mills view that
strike is wrong when it is foolish.
The mistake is often made of con-
founding trades union with a strik-
ing machine. The trades union is not
machine primarily for the purpose of
carrying out strikes. 1t practices the
graces of fraternity and extends the
helping hand of benevolence, of char
ity, and the larger portion of this ac-
tivity is directed into other channels
than those of active coercion.
Out of S4,500,000 spent by the Cigar
Makers International union during the
past twenty years less than 10 per cent
Of that amount was devoted to strike
purposes, and that is an organization
which has the reputation of being
fighting organization. In this common
wealth only ~ per cent of the activi-
ties of the labor people is along the
line of strikes. The papers, we must re-
member, pay much more attention to
strikes than their relative frequency
warrants.
The trades unions give men the hope
of better things They educate men in
the sense of human solidarity and
teach them they have duties as well as
rights. The trades union objects to
standing as a sponsor for all strikes
that take place. 1t stands for the vital
principal that the community of labor
should have the power to determine in
degree the conditions under which that
commodity shall be disposed Of. This
is the ethical justification of many
things in the labor movement which to
the outside world may seem illogical
and unwarranted in the accepted polit-
ical aXioms.
In niuety-nine out of hundred cases
the officials of trades unions are men
who set themselves most strongly and
firmly against rash and unconsidered
action. There does come time when
we need strike, for if unfair employ
ers persist in their refusals the strike
is the only resource.
Mr.. Foster referred to the sympathet-
ic strike, urging that the motives which
prompted men thus TO take the part Of
men whom they had never seen were
chivalrous and praiseworthy in the
highest degree and showed feelings of
sympathy and a capacity for self sacri-
fee of which all might be proud. The
speaker also urged that the men who
thus temporarily threw up their jobs
had an ethical claim to those jobs and
should be taken back by the employers.
In closing Mr.. Foster said: "Our So
cial struggles are to be settled by the
touch of man with man, by the human
relationship between employer and en-
ployeG, each showing consideration for
the other. Until that time comes the
strike is the last resort of organized la
Dor" Boston Herald.