The Minneapolis journal., 1902-11-24
Amount of Advertising
carried by the Mime
apolis Papers for October
A Pressing Problem.

President Eliot Of Harvard University,
who was so mercilessly abused last week
at the convention of the American Fedora
ton Of Labor. delivered an address last
evening at Cambridge on labor unions, in
which he seems to have modified his for
mer uttcrances upon such organizatio tions.
He considers the work of labor unions
bencficent so far as it. seeks the better
ment of labor conditions bringing wages
based on efficiency and experience, steady
employment, loyalty to employers and per-
manent homes for Workingmen with dis
ability pension system. He regards the
unions as a wholesome check on the en-
ploying olgarchy and useful because Of
their command Of labor needed by capital.
These are humane conditions Of employ
ment which are more and more command
ing attention. The history Of labor unions
in England and in this country contains
many pages which show the outcropping of
tyranny on their part, opposed to the ex-
orbtant demands of capital upon labor.
The tyranny of the English unions played
an important part in the decline Of British
manufactures through their intense hos
tility to the introduction of labor saving
machinery and the consequent delay en-
tailed upon the filling Of orders. This
phase Of trades-unionism Is passing away
in England. however but the unions re-
main and viii doubtless have more intelli-
gent guidance hereafter.
In our own country the unions have
che6 fha ~ ~
unions, as recorded in the government re-
ports fifty and sixty years ago. They are
organized chiefly to oppose the depression
of wages, the exaction of untimely hours
of work and other abuses impairing the
welfare Of labor, and their successes have
bred the adoption Of such encroachments
on the rights of cthers as the denial of
nom n-union labor rights and the Limitation
OF apprentices and resorts to boycotts and
occasional destruction of property, for
which, not being legally Incorporated they
cannct, as unions be held responsible. It
is this latter feature of frresponsibility
which has chiefly caused opposition to the
unions Men like Baer, however, oppose
unions because they do not want to be
checked and called 20 account by their men
in organized force fer their greed and neg
Il ct to right wrongs ami be exposed to
rrbic criticism as they have been during
the anthracite coal strike. The interfer-
ence of the unions in ma tiers clearly detri-
mental to worl:ingmen, such as insanitary
conditions, unjustifiab!e reduction of
wages, excessive hours of labor, child
labor and the like, is clearly justifable, and
it is evident that organized labor is here
to stay. just as certainly as capitalistic
organzatio is here to stay. The thing
to do is to accept the situation and bring
to an end the abuses Of organized force, so
that neither organized capital nor organ
lied labor will attempt to do that which
is intrinsically beyond their right to do.
Tho most persistent demand of John
Mitchell, in behalf of his labor organiza-
tion and the demand which overshadows
all others before the arbitration Commits
sion, or which will come before the pro-
posed conference of the contending inter-
sests outside. the arbitration tribunal,-the
crucial demand is for the recognition Of the
miners union by the operators. And
doubtless, most of the operators would ac-
cord such recognition freely, If the miners
union were a legally incorporated body
q condition assuredly advantageous to the
workmer.
The interdcpendence Of employer and
labor is a stubborn fact demonstrated
anew during the coal strike when the an
& W. \ ~. . 4 :