The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1903-05-09
TRADE AGREEMENTS n
ARE. C00D@F0R BOTH
Daniel J. keefe, President of the Longshoremen's
Union Gives Some Good Words on
Getting Together, 49,:
1t Would be Well for All Labor Organizations to Fol-
low the Advice of This Gread Leader
of the DockWorkers.

ly of the Pacific Coast. We have
agreements with the important inter-
ests there along the same line. We
have been able to reduce the number Of
hours Of labor, and in some instances
have advanced the wages. Yet, while
the employers were very determined
against both of these conditions, the
one thing that seemed to appease them
was, that after they had entered into
an agreement with US, they we're salts
fed that it would be carried out in both
letter and spirit.
my conviction has been for years
that II the great mass of the public
had an opportunity of thoroughly UNI
derstandinE the origin, cause and ma
ture OF most OF the differences that
arise between capital and labor, it
would certainly rebound to the benefit
Of the workers. The wage-worker is
frequently represented as an unru1y,
arbitrary and unreasonable being,
whereas If the light Of public opinion
were thrown upon the controversy, it
would demonstrate the reverse, and
show the other fellow was unjust.
Those of us who have been in the
movement prior to the formation of
the NJ. e T. A., say twenty years,
can distinctly remember, that if the
press or public at that time had any
notice Of a labor dispute or difficulty,
there was but one side, and that of the
employer and all differences, no mat
ter how honest the difference, all be-
lieved should be settled by the police
mans club.
Public sentiment is unquestionably
stronger than any law, and has
awakened the public to higher sense
of duty, that will to-day hearken to
the voice Of the toiler, who cries out
not for charity, but insists on justice
as the natural reward of industry and
intelligence. The great progress we
have made up to date is demonstrated
in the belief Of the public, to wit: The
public to-day recognize, first, there are
two sides to every question; second,
the creation and cultivation Of social
anelioration and laws for the regula-
tom of the hours Of labor child labor,
etc.; third, the fact that the intelli-
gence of the wage-worker appreciates
the full meaning Of cooperation of
capital and labor, as essential to his
own prosperity, and that his reward
Of a life of toll ensures him the desired
comforts he neds in his old age and
the education of his children.
-" THE I.&sIs.s NJ. & ia. has made
gigantis strides since it's organization
ten years ago; and our tenth annual
anniversary cannot be better celebrated
than by looking backward over the
past ten years, and in calm and re-
Elective mood studying the causes that
have been instrumental in promoting
our great progress, from a few feeble
isolated local unions, into the mag
nif1cent International organization of
over seventy thousand members, repre-
sented by you as delegates to this con-
vention. And to-day we can point with
pride to the fact that we never made
an agreement and then broken it, not
withstanding that at times unwise or
Improbable contracts have been made.
We challenge any person to prove any
case wherein We violated the, same.
We took. our medicine and charged it
up to profit and loss. In the present
condition of society it is absurd to
expect wage-workers to work without
organization, and a great reflection on
our system or public education to say
that intelligence will not rule in the
deliberations and meetings of organ
ICED labor, and the wholesale indict-
ment that there is an entire lack of
honor among the rank and file, who
will repudiate any agreement or con-
tract not to their liking. There are
but the utterances of those who de-
clare they have nothing to arbitrate,
and who have a divine right to the
earnings of their fellow-man. Were
employers to treat with labor organi-
cations as a collection of rational hui
man beings, who recognize their labor
as their capital, and who desire to sell
the same to the best possible advantage
in a word, if common sense were ap-
piled, with a proper spirit of comprom-
Use, it would effect q lasting and per-
manent solution Of the relations of
capital and labor"