The bee., 1902-08-14
100000.
p. w. RAYMOND g
OF THE ENGINEERING AND MINING JOURNAL y
On RECOGNITION. y
Looking Word Means Great Deal More Than Appn the
Suhaoe.-Aa Article Well Worth Reading 4
Observation-Disclosures

the Mine w OrKerS' Union is now
the aim pursued. Recognition"
sounds innocent enough; it is. the
least that courtesy requires in
common life, and many good
people seem to think that en-
ployers are highly churlish and
selfish if they will not even "rec-
ognize" the union.
But our modern labor unions
have dictionary of their own;
that book, like all dictionaries,
reflects current usage; and, re-
calling what the last few years
have given us of this usage, we
see that recognition" means,
first of all, that the union shall
dictate who shall be employed
and who discharged; that it shall
fix not only the days length and
the days pay, but also the DAVIS
performance; that "non-union"
labor shall not be permitted /;
that discipline shall be subject
to the approval of the union;
that boycotts declared by it shall
be obeyed by the employer. In
one case, l remember, he was re-
quired to reserve from the wages
of the men their dues and fines,
and pay these to the union.
When he refused to do this I'M
lawful thing he was commanded
to discharge a man who, had re-
fused to pay a fine; and when he
refused to obey, strike was or
dered which lasted for months
and involved some 10000 work.
men. All this because he had
committed the very simple and
innocent mistake of ''recogniz-
ing'' a union.
Recognition" involves the
free admission of the walking
delegate" or his equivalent into
all works, shops or mines, for the
purpose Of detecting 's'scabs, ;" or
union members in bad standing
i. e., in arrears for dues. In
some places and trades it means
that neither owner nor foreman
can give orders to his individual
employees. All communication
with them must be had through
an official of their own choosing.
And, finally Though there is
no reason for closing the list
here, except the lack of space
for further ltems), recognition"
means that every contract or
agreement made with a given
union or branch may be broken
at the will of some larger body
when it is believed that the in
forests of laborin general require
such a violation of promise.
/ know that Mr.. Mitchell made
an excellent speech at Indianap-
oils, in which he urged the ma
tional convention not to order a
general strikes, which would vi
olate contracts. But his skirts
are not cleared completely by
that late disclaimer. After all,
| l cannot find in his address any
thing higher than arguments of
policy. There are earnestrepre-
sensations of the unwisdom'of
the step; of the bad effect it
would have on the public; of the
general failure of sympathetic
strikes; but no manly declara-
ton that the thing itself would
be wicked; that, if it were or
dered, he would resign rather
than be the agent to carry out
such bad faith. On the contra
ry, the impression cannot be es-
capped that Mr.. Mitchell was pre-
pared to go on and do his best,
accepting the vote of the conven.
ton as his sufficient. moral war
rant, In the Hazleton conven-
tion he had opposed the strike,
and when it was voted over his
head made haste to organize it