The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-08-08
.SETMu .CIll!SHlSl I
.... GOVERNMENT B 81 / |.

~ 1eAses4sA 0AN0oA j.
DURING PAST FEW YEARs-M,L.
LER CASE NOT so SERIOUS, Il
.---------- - 49, > ::
Senators, Of United States Once Made
Concerted Movement to Make Open
Shop Of Government Printery. ::
The recent threatened trouble at the
Government Printing Office over the
case of the dismissed binder foreman
Miller, is but one of several clashes
that have taken place in the history
Of theoff1ce between somebody in au-
thority and the unions into which the
different trades employed in the office
are divided, and some Of them have
presented very serious aspects before
they were settled. It was long ago
realized that the unions must have ah-
solute control of that which ,.affects
their members, within the purview of
the union, or that they would have no
control whatever. Abraham Lincoln
said: "The country. cannot exist half
slave and half Free" and the unions
early recognized that the Government
Printing Office must be wholly union
or wholly non-union. With the bars
down and the powerful enemies which
the unions have, every unfair man in
the country would make application for
employment there, backed by irresist-
able influences interested in the de-
struction Of all unions connected with
the printing business, until the unions
here would be entirely destroyed. It
is unfortunately true that there are
some already employed there who
would take immediate advantage Of the
fact that they were no longer COM
PEELED to belong to the union and at
once sever their relations with it from
no more noble motive than to save the
miserable pittance which they paw to
the unions as dues; but these are hap
PLY as few in lumber as they are con-
temptible in motive in motive.
All the facts in the Miller case have
been given to the public by the daily
newspapers as they have developed
and there is little more to be said than
has already been printed concerning it.
But there have perhaps never been
sufficient pains taken to explain to the
public why union men will not work
with non-union men, which is a motive
based entirely on self-preservation
Given the right to introduce non-union
men among the union workmen and
the power Of the union is gone, and if
the union has no power 1t is farce as
a union; for II one non-union man is
permitted to work, many may be, until,
it the union could hold it's own men
in line in the face of temptation to de-
sert, it might soon be out numbered
by bringing in non-unfonists, who could
be thus used to nullify demands in one
establishment and then passed on to
others, wherever their nefarious SER
vices might be in demand.
On one or two occasions in the per-
iod during or Immediately succeeding
the civil war, there was strike In
the Government Printing Office. The
rates Of wages and practically every
thing else were in the, sole control of
the SRub 9 very strike of,
which ever hear was nine iately
successful. But, ia sFebruar:!y,< 1871,
Congress arbitrarily reduced wages 20
per cent, adjourning within a few days,
leaving no power on earth that could
undo what they had done. though
strike was discussed, it's futility was
conceded. The most that any esisting
authority could have done would have
been to shut the office up for want of
men to do the work, and probably not
that if sufficient numbers Of unfair
men had applied for work-supposing
that all union men would have re-
NAMED true to their colors.
In 1883 concerted attempt was made
by certain Senators of the United
States, probably provoked by individ-
ual grievances Of their own to legislate
provision into an appropriation bill
throwing open the office to non-union
men; but the prompt and intelligent
action of the then president of the
union, q. C. Grumley, in telegraphing
to all the noted unions Of the country
for help on his own motion and at his
own expense, brought to our aid Sen
ators Conger, Voorhees,, and others who
succeeded in killing the obnoxioos
measure, for which they were thanked
and presented with gold headed canes
by the union.
Whatever the outcome of the affair,
there are undoubtedly those who will
make all the political capital possible
out of the incident, which is one of the
unfortunate features of such misunder-
standings. While it is we'll to remem-
Der at the polls those who have shown
enmity to organized labor, the great
est care should be taken that unscrup-
ulous men who have no real sympathy
with workingmen are not permitted to
use for their own interests the capital
that none may legitimately make out of
unpleasant Incidents but trades union
lists themselves.
NEGRO BRICKlAYERS,