The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1902-11-22

to everything, and see how it works
Supposing, in community of 100 per.
sons, the means of gaining a LIVELIHOOD
is offered to but twenty-fve; that these
twenty-five have depending upon then
for support fifty others, making in al
seVenty-five beneficiaries of opportu-
nifty. How are the other twenty-five tc
live? They have the right to labor
They clamor for it. Now one of two
things follow.
The employer accepts the help of the
idle twenty-five because a market has
been created for his products in excess
of the capacity of the first twenty-five.
Either that or the last twenty-five are
hired at wage below the sum re-
ceived by the first. The condition of
the first workmen then becomes the
| condition of the last before they de-
manded the right to labor in the
sense that Professor Eliot fnterprets
that right. Nothing. has been accom-
plished in the way of advance and
something has been done degrading
to manhood. 1t was to escape such con-
ditions that trades unions were or
gained
Now, taking up the chief objec-
ton which Professor Eliot urges
against the trades union, i. e., that
''all unions endeavop to limit the num-
Der of apprentices employed in any in
dustry." We believe this is the Gus
tom of trades unions, and one of their
reasons for doing so is to avoid the
evil pointed out in the example of
the twenty-five employed and the TWEEN
ty-five idle workers. This inhibition
to youthful labor, while stabbing the
sacred right to toll, so vehemently de-
clared by the Harvard professor, has
resulted in establishing a class of
American workmen unequalled by
those of Europe, enabling their en-
ployers to underbid and undersell in
all the markets of the world In
stinctively the workman feels the
necessity of making himself indis-
pensable to the employer, and his con-
science is at war with the union should
the organization uphold the unskilled
correct this abuse and at the same time
maintain an equitable wage, a limit
to the number of apprentices was in
troduced and obtains generally in
trades unions. If the sacred right to
labor was given the scope which Pro-
fessor Eliot comprehends, American
mechanics would be a race of botches
and serfs. If the sacred right to labor
is comprehended in its Eliot fullness,
the law prohibiting child labor in fac
tories would be declared un-American,
unconstitutional and revolutionary.
When Professor Eliot steps aboard
train he has but few or no misgivings
about reaching the end of his journey
safely. What causes this complacency?
Because he knows that the man at the
throttle, and the man feeding the fur
mace, and the man at the switch. are
members of trades unions. If accident
happens, it rarely is charged I'D to
neglect, or ignorance, or lack of skill
of these three human elements in the
scheme of transportation Would Pro-
lessor Eliot feel as safe aboard train
managed by non-union men?
There is a growing respect for trades
unions since the coal strike brought
them almost home to the people and
everybody 70 compare the man
ly behavior of the miners with the Of
fensive obstinacy of, their employers.
The objects of trades unionism should
be considered dispassionately and opin-
ions uttered temperately. The workers
are reaching out for the comforts that
their toll deserves, for the knowledge
that shorter hours of labor would help
to promote, for means to educate their
children to become useful citizens and
of society. Instead of assail- !
ing trades unions, Professor Eliot ought |
to be foremost among their promoters,
AS it is, he is the single exception |
among men as learned as he is. In
popular educational circles he is re-
pudiated, as proved by the entrance
into the Chicago federated trades of !
the public school teachers of that city.