The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1903-11-14
PARKS PARTING ADVICE
Fallen Labor Leader Warns
Unions Against Graft.
ACCEPTS FATE WITHOUT PROTEST

/ "Remember Me-" Says the Former
waking Delegate of the House.
smiths Union OF New York City In
CounseIing His Fellows Against
Temptatiou-sends a Love Token
to His Vito.
Samuel J. Parks, the former walking
delegate of the Housesmiths and
Bridgemcn's union OF New York city.
who has twice been convicted Of eX-
torting money from employers in the
building trades. before being taken to
Sing Sing prison the other day TO serve
| his sentence of two years and SIX
months made the following statement:
Every tailoring man in this country
should remember me for years to come.
should he warning TO them. I'm
the victim OF a custOm that Is older
| than | am, and that is the habit or hav-
| ing money transactions with eIuploy-
ers. That's put me here.
II tell you, and | want the boys to
know 1t, that the salvation of the IN
ions lies in stopping that practice at
once. They must give up fines. wait
ing time back pay for strikes and ev-
erything like that. That's the lOophole
| through which this grating as they
call 1t, creeps i'm. If they don't, in the
years to come many another good fell
low'n be where | am going tomorrow.
Don't for minute think l mean
that the labor leaders are 'grafters' at
| heart. If they are they are made so.
And thar brings me to say that right
here in New York city Is the crooked
est set OF men i'm the world. the en-
ployers i'm the building trades. You'll
never see any of them awaiting SEN
tence; they are too slick. They never
leave any tracks. But take how they
work. Why. | know and could name
for you 100 employers of New York
city-by that | mean the big companies
as well-whO have made Il practice of
using labor unions against competitors,
Maybe that isn't crime! Maybe
! there is no sentence coming TO IL man.
! for instance. who Will 90 TO Il young
! fellow who haS been put in authority
! 10y his union. This young fellow has
never made more than Il couple Of dol
lars day in his life before. He's on
| the level and wants to help the cause.
! THE employer holds out Il roll Of
bills bigger than anything the young
! fellow has ever seen before.
See here he says. i want you TO
! l., f,;a 10,
trouble. You can look out for me a lit
tie Bling" the things OIL.
1T isn't long before that easy money
J gets easier. and then comes the propo-
| sitiOn TO pull the men on rivals job
SO that men enough from the friend can
be had. 1t isn't far from that to having
rival employer blacklisted, troubled,
/ struck, and after that where's a foolish
young fellow to stop: His heads gone.
| know plenty of employers who have
made fortunes by working that way.
Some of them know | know it too.
They'll never be up here. Well. l don /
kick I'm forgetting all the past now.
The newspapers have been pretty
busy with me for the last six months.
l guess the world has a pretty bad
opinion of me. That's another thing
don't kick about. especially If it's be-
cause I'm an advocate of force in labor
unions. | believe in that. That makes
me out bad man. but | tell you that
it's the only way organized labor has
ever gained anything in New York city.
! Figure it out for yourself. Did arbitra-
ton raise wages? Not once. but strikes
did. Does arbitration keep nonunion
men off buildings: Not much. | re-
member how that is done.
"Many's the time l have gone to the
boys and called for volunteers and
with them gone down town to build
ing where the boys had been struck and
nOnuniOn men had taken their places.
1t was only a case of waiting around
the corner until the whistle blew. In
most cases that was enough. The non
union men didn't come back the next
day.
Il was a young fellow in Chicago six
teen years ago and tried bridge build
ing. OF course Joined the union. and
being pretty husky. ii wasn't long be
fore the big men noticed me- and l be
came member of what you people
have been calling the entertainment
committee There was lots OF work
for me 10 do.
II spent most of my time outside the
city. | was on the bridge in Louisville
when it fell. taking sixty of the boys
with It. | got out somehow. and then
in 1896 came on here. The union was
in a bad way then. and when | was
elected walking delegate soon after.
ward | didn't do anything for six
months but work TO get them together
The last time ! was at meeting near
IL 1000 men were on the rolls.
Now I'm out of the labor movement
forever. / hope 10 come out of prison
all right I'm going to do all can tC
| hack my baaltb +oIIinu rnJr