The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1902-09-06

| continued from rage L.
ard of skill and workmanship in nearly
every line. The best illustration of
| the efforts in this direction is afford
ed by the Electrical Workers of New
York. This union maintains a regu-
| lar examining board consisting of two
| members of it's own union and two
| members of the employers association
! before whom applicants appear and
| answer carefully prepared set of
| questions Membership in such un-
ion becomes a certificate of skill and
| employers SO regard it. The Steam
Filters and a number of other unions
in the large cities require rigid exam
ination for admission.
Another great achievement of La
Dor Unions during recent years has
been the publication of over $50 trade
journals. These journals are devoted
to the interests Of the various trades
which they represent and inspire their
readers to keep abreast with all pro-
gressive movements.
Trade unions are fast coming to be
recognized as the most efficient en-
plOyment agencies. Their value as
social centers is hard to overestimate.
Their headquarters are reading rooms
for thousands of members. The sick
benefits and Insurance features alone
ate sufficient to justify the existence
of Trade Unions. A single illustration
will show what is being done in this
direction. During the past Fl years
the Cigar Makers International I'm
ion, which now includes 465 local un-
ions with $4,000 members has paid in
benefits 100000 to it's members.
These benefits are not limited to finan-
c1al aid alone. The Typographical I'M
ion maintains a home at Colorado
Springs which accommodates 100
members at a yearly cost of $4,000.
One Of the large unions of New York
supports a farm where worn out men,
bers may rest and recuperate These
few illustrations show that unionism
was born of spirit of brotherly love
and unselfishness. Its efforts have not
been limited to it's own members. 1t
is the champion of delicate, helpless
womanhood now being wrecked in
thousands of factories and shops, and
Of tender childhood which is daily torn
from the cradle and the school and
hurled into the jaws of the ravenous
monster of profit.
What Labor Unions have accomp-
lished in the past is a promise of the
victories they are destined to win in
the future. Their cause is just and
must prevail. They ask today that
the 13 billions of wealth produced every
year be more fairly distributed among
those who create it. That just distri-
button is not now being made is ap-
parent when we realize that the aver
age wage Garner in our factories pro-
duces each year wealth to the value
Of $2,451 and receives as his share of
it only $4.37. The remainder goes to
swell the enormous profits of the Steel
Trust, the Coal Trust, the Beef Trust
and scores of other inhuman COM
bines which are striving to enslave the
people of this nation.
The American people must look to
organized labor to protect it from the
monsters of greed which seek to DOM
mate it.
Labor now needs but to be guided by
intelligent leaders and employ civil
lied methods to secure the entire con-
fdence and sympathy of the public.
The history of the past II years shows
that employers have been unwilling to
allow to labor it's just share in the
prosperity of the country. Increase
in production and advance in prices
in 1890 and 1891 and again in 1901 and
1902 have been met by refusals of en-
ployers to advance wages. It now re-
mains tor labor to demand it's due and
to make good it's demand by the most
approved weapons of industrial war.
The most powerful of these weapons
is public sympathy and confidence.
This can never be secured If labor
insists on i'll advised strikes or the use
of violence in any form. It can be en-
ployed where union labor has come to
be a symbol of skill and excellence.
1t will always follow when it is led
by educated, broad minded men who
strive for the general good rather than
the advantage of a particular class.
Public sentiment is already on the
side of labor It remains for the lead
ers of labor to retain 1T and cultivate
it by wise leadership. This can best
he done by gaining a stronghold where
the public sentiment Of the future is
now being formed. Organized labor
has too long neglected the Importance
of the Public School. Although the
Federation of Labor already demands
compulsory education, it overlooks the
IL