Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1903-12-20

shop" would gradually destroy the I'M
ions and eventually lower the common
plane of living.
Trade unionistS admit that the atti-
tude Of the so called independent work
man is legally right Bat are not
other worklnen legally right i'll COM
bining for mutual protection: They
have had this right since 1874. Before
that time lord lcffrets tells us. III eiH-
pluyer WAS At liberty Ia discharge foo
men or l,uOu on a mere Whin but If
his men should quit Jointly, however
great the oFPression tie law punished
them with AeartL,Ss severity. .A}td |
would remind YOU that in tho union
shop thp clnploA Atr'~ ~tIr3ti"u of men Is
practically unlimited he may choose
from the hundreds or thousands of
men in the particular trade union. And,
| moreover, lie Mas always the right to
hire or discharge. Any attempt TO in
terfcre with this right of the employer
is contrary TO the policy of trade un-
ionism.
The union shop is not a monopoly.
1t is a social necessity.
The open shop" is impra cticable. II
Will not help to solve the labor prob
lem And il renders practical arhitra-
ton almost impossible. The employer
who has had the open shop and i'm
proved its opportunities 10 the full may
laugh at the suggestion of arbitration.
And should the men risk the hazard
of the die and go ON strike the non
union men may remain at work. and.
if necessary, nonunion men may be
sent in from other "open Shops and
the strikers are cowed into submission.
Nor has the employer amy rea sonable
guarantee that his men may not violate
the agreement if there be one. The
average national or international trade
union is powerless i'll such case 10 COM
pei its local members TO toe the mark.
But how different in tie union shop.
Only year or two ago we saw an in
ternational body, the Longshorcmen'
punish a local union for violating an
| agreement by sending nonunion men
to take their places. This organiza-
ton, needless to say, makes agree
ments only where the union shop OBJ
tains. The Typographical union guar
,, anteeS its agreements with employers
only in the case of the union shop.
And who does not remember the splen-
did stand taken hy the Mine Workers
during the anthracite strike, and III the
very crisis of that struggle, at their In
dianapOliS convention, when they
unanimously declared that the agree
ment with the bituminous operators
should not be broken? Secretary Viii
son of this organization wrote me re-
Gently as follows:
"In the bitulninous coal regions
where we have contracts with the en-
ployers the contract provides for the
| union shop. Without the union shop,
as provided for in these agreements,
we could not have controlled the btu
minous situation last year. The enor
nous price at which coal was being
sold was a great temptation to our
members to secure a portion of the
profits that We're being obtained as
result of the high prices, and but fol
the contracts with the operators and
the discipline we were able to main.
tain as result of the union shop ar
| rangement We would have been un-
able to prevent a general tieup of all
the bituminous coal fields of the coun-
try"
Our own organization has no "oper
shop" and this explains our success
with arbitration. We have had no Sc
rious strike in the last twelve years.
In the city Of New York we have CO.
tanning an arbitration board and with
such success that we have had but one
dispute, and that a very slight one, in
twenty years.
In the "open shop the efficiency
must be of a lower order than that
found in the union shop. This must be
so SO long as a proportion of the EN-
ployees have reason to look upon the
others as those who enjoy more or less
the improved conditions of employ
mcnt that they had not helped to bring
about and who constitute IA menace to
the maintenance Of these conditions.
So long as this is true there can be lit
tie of the spirit Of co-operat: on. so nee
essary in our complex establishments
of today, where workmen are SO divid-
ed. And is it not to be supposed that
the "open shop" which is neither one
thing nor the other, after all must be-
come either a union shop or non
union shop sooner or later?