Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1903-09-30
LABOR UNION VS. GOVERNMENT.

True friends are those who stand by us in time of need, when dispas- sionate advice and wholesome counsel may save us from the effects of our own folly or ignorance.
 If ever there was time of need for organized labor that time is the pres ent. No friend of union labor should hesitate now to raise his voice in protest against the fatuous policy of the Washington Central Labor Union, said to be endorsed by President Gompers.
 The resolutions adopted by this union censure President Roosevelt for re-installing ". A. Miller in his posi- tion as foreman of the government printing office, from which be had been removed by the public printer, on account of having been expelled from the bookbinders' union.
 They also charge that President Roosevelt's order forbidding discrim- ination against non union labor is un- friendly and urge organized labor throughout the country to petition for revocation of this order
 Let us stop for moment to con- sider what this labor union really asks the president to do. It asks tha; he shall refuse to give employment to all citizens of the United States who are not members of labor unions. To deny citizens the right of earning their livelihood because they do not affiliate with organizations. whose ritual or form of obligation may not coincide with their religious or civil convictions. In other words, that all trade workers for the government must pledge their allegiance first 10 their unions, making that take prec.- dence over their obligations to the state.
 Is not this contrary to the letter and spirit of our constitution? Does this not engender the spirit of favor itism of a certain class, destroying the very essence of independence. and of our boasted theory of equality? Let us follow this demand to its logi- cal conclusion. If it were concurred in could not the capitalists at the head of trusts with equal justice de msnd that only trust made goods should be used by the government? What would organized labor say to series of resolutions embodying such a request? Yet it is no more arbitrary than the demands of the Washington Central Labor Union. We believe in the value of labor unions. They are to large extent responsible for the high plane on which the trade worker in the United States finds himself to- day. They are responsible for the humane treatment accorded the work CT in every branch of industry and consequently for the more efficient work done and indirectly for the prosperity of the country. Other in 1, calculable benefits have arisen from association of Iaborers into unions. !. but we shall not stop here to discuss them. However, they should stop short of overweening confidence and ! arbitrary methods. These are the . precursors of defeat and humiliation. l
 It is earnestly to be hoped that the American Federation of Labor does not concur in these resoluations and 1 will have the courage to say so.
 Fortunately, we have at the head of | our government a man upon whose justice and sense of honor we can rely, and we feel confident that if | anybody can. Theodore Roosevelt will bring the labor funion to reaIiza- tion of the futility of its demands and save it from the consequencesJ of its own folly.