The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-06
AIN EMPLOYERS UNION
SUCCESS OF CHICAGO ASSOCIATION
IN FIGHTING UNJUST STRIKES.
Eject Being Felt with Benefit to All
Parties-SecretaryJ Job Describes
Methods.
New York Evening Sun.

Chicago to fight unjust strikes systemat-
cally by an organization of employers.
Unlike the Employers Association started
few months ago in this city, the associa-
ton of Chicago employers includes all
branches of business. from the banker to
the boss blacksmith. Ii Is for this reason
that so much attention is being given 10
the movement in that city, and the sue
cess it has met with in the past year is
beginning to encourage employers else
where as they have not been encouraged
in some time.
The Chicago association was about the
first of the kind to be organized since
strikes became so numerous. Its members
have bound themselves to fight unjust
strikes, and 1t has been doing this to the
dismay, lately, of some labor organizations
i'll Chicago who have heretofore been in the
habit of Selling the f1imsiest pretext
to call a strike.
Some of the details Of the Chicago organ
ization were told at the convention of fur
niture makers in this city the other night
by Frederick w. Job, its secretary, and
the interest his remarks excited indicated
that the furniture makers will become
willing patrons of the scheme If it is ex
tended. Mr.. Job is staying at the Waldorf
Astoria, and what he didn't have time to
tell the furniture makers he told Sun
reporter the other night.
The title of secretary does not convey a
correct idea of Mr.. Jobs full duties in con-
nection with the employers movement in
Chicago. In union parlance he would be
termed organizer" The organizer in
all the big unions is the man who starts
branches. Mr.. Job is an organizer in just
the sense the unions use the term, but he
is an organizer of employers instead of
employees. At the invitation of employers
in several of the smaller cities of illinois,
Mr.. Job has helped to organize similar
associations, and the same success in
breaking up Ubiquitous boycotts and reject
ing unjust demands made by the unions
have followed the efforts of these smaller
associations as has attended the work of
the one in Chicago.
Mr.. Job is young lawyer with the build
Of fighter, and that is what some of the
unions have found him to be. Mr.. Job didn' t
get interested in the labor situation until
few years ago when a union asked him
to be one of three arbtrators to pass on a
labor dispute. Mr.. Job accepted and the
strike was amicably settled. There was a
vacancy on the State board of arbitration
out In Illinois then, and the Governor asked
Mr.. Job If he would take it. He did and
served a year and half. In that time
the board settled ninety-eight strikes.
where previously it had only succeeded in
scettling forty-fve Among employers it
was pretty generally conceded that Mr..
Jobs untiring efforts and knowledge of the
general labor situation were responsible for
| this.
EMPLOYERS AT DISADVANTAGES.
Mr.. Job got tired of his work on the
arbitration board because, as he said the
fph ha 70 20, I,o
too unevenly arrayed. In every dispute
that came before the board Mr.. Job said,
laboring men presented solid front, the
| result Of perfect organization. The employ
ers didn't have any front at ALL To Mr..
Job it seemed too much like a well-trained
| fighter going in the ring against a man not
| trained at all. Mr.. Job said there was no
| fun in watching such a fight, so he re-
| signed.
Chicago became strike-ridden soon after
| this. When the employers saw their city S
| gan for the first time to wonder if they
| couldn't learn a little from the unions as to
| organization. The movement was headed
| by John G. Shedd, of Marshall Field & Co.
| Mr.. Shedd got fifty well-known employers
| to stand with him and become the nucleus
of an organization.
Then they looked around for a man who
could Organize them. Mr.. Job took the
| job. That was last August. To-day the
| Chicago association represents a larger part
| of the manufacturing interests of Chicago,
| and it has settled strikes of machinists,
| blacksmiths, trunk makers. leather belt
| makers, brass founders. tanners. carriage
| and wagon makers, coffin makers, hotel
| workers, laundry workers, restaurant work.
ers, picture trainers and picture molders.
In speaking of the work of the association
Mr.. Job said the other night:
"In all Of these strikes unjust demands
| were made for increased wages and for the
| employment OF only union labor, and all
these disputes the Manufacturers Asso-
| citation fought with success and without
relinQuishing one OF the principles upon
| which 1t started out to do business. These
| principles are briefly stated: No sympa-
thetic strikes, freedom of employees, in
| other words, the open shop; no Limitation
| of output, arbitration and the enforcement
I'VE are organized just as the unions
are, to see that these principles are main
tanned. Every trade has its branch associa-
| ton, which itself Is member of the central
association. A few big concerns like the
IN Efmpany see engaged In several
| central organization. A demand made upon
a manufacturer In any branch of trade
| Of that trade. If the demand Is decided 10
be unjust the members of that branch as
| ISOLATION bring 1t to the central associa-
ton. There the question receives the most
careful investigation.
| IF it is demand for increased wages
on the plea that the cost of living has in
| creased that much, we look I'D the sta
| tistics. We have special department on
| the cost of living. 1t is at work all the time
| getting statistics and Ii has carefully fig
| ured out just how much the cost of living
| has increased. If the employer upon whom
| the demand was originally made has moi
| increased his wages in proportion TO the
| actual increase in the cost of living we adj
| wise nim to offer the union that increas 50
| because the demand is just But we dom,
| propose to concede to the union that livine
| has Increased In cost say 45 per cent
| where as an actual fact the increase has
| not been over 10 per cent, and we propose
| to reject all other demands which cannot
| be reconciled with the principles of our as
| sociation. Then IL the union making the
| demand proposes to fight We are ready Il
| fight too.
| LAUNDRIES ARE EXAMPLES
1.-The case of the laundries is a typical
one. The union planned to close two laun-
dries at a time. instead of all at once, sc
| that those where work went on could heir
support the strike. This is an old game In
strikes. We've got plan of defense agains,
that. and it's the sympathetic lockout
When the strike started and two laundries
were closed by the strikers, we immediate
ly closed every one of them. That cut them
off from their base of supplies, as IL were
The laundry owners all belong to our asso-
citation and the association stood behind
| them with money to help them out. IL was
not long before the strike was settled with
| out the employers giving up any of their
| prineiplps