The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1903-12-18
"eUslNEss AGENT" NOW.
How the Walking Delegate Has Com
TO and Judonent.

How the Walking Delegate Has Com.
to Apotheosis and Judgment.
From Franklin Clarkin's THE Daily
Walk Of the Walking Delegate in the
December Century: After twenty years
the walking delegate has come to his
apotheosis-and to judgment. He was
lifted to one by the desire Of the unionists
to get money. no matter by what means;
and. pressed to the other by his folly and
his fault-his pleasure in authority, his
impatient vanity, his Uneasy contempla-
ton Of the grating" of the time. Pure
devotion to labor as a cause he rarely
had, and he betrayed his union at last for
a few extra pieces of silver. His name be-
came a byword and reproach, and now
unions everywhere are hurriedly SUBSTITUTE
ing the term business agent"
That this is more than a change In name
alone there is little to show. The bust
ness agent, like the walking delegate,
quiets complaint by saying, We'll, /
raised your wages" and keeps his place
by the method of machine politics. The
ordinary workmen seldom attend union
elections, as the general run OF voters do
not go to primaries. The keys of the
safety vaults are in the business agents.
pocket; strikes are on or off at his bidding.
To lay hand upon him is an otfense so
high that only the union-not the estab-
lished courts-can fix the penalty. 10
stand in with him, as the saying goes, is
to insure that your business shall proceed
without forfeiture of engagements. There
is. Of course, added expense in brides, and.
miserable sacrifices Of self-respect and
right standards.
Employers have not yet gone SO far as
to insist on eliminating him; they have
only here and there restricted his func-
tons.
mn J1-+z- l,J1l;,,r {rnIaa rIou,ai
what could be done along that line by.
negotiating an agreement determining
that the business agent and walking dele
gate should not be privileged to visit any
works in business hours except to inter-
view the steward; that he must not issue
orders controlling the operations of work.
men, nor attempt to prosclyte on the en-
I Movers premises. Failure on the part
of any business agent to observe this rule
/ shall make him liable to discipline, after
investigation by the employers and
unions) joint committee
Whether he and his labor machine will
abide by such an agreement, or the de-
cisions of the joint committee, remains to
be shown. twenty-five similar bargains
were broken in Chicago alone last sum-
mer. Discipline from the executives Of
parent bodies, like a federation or an in
ternational association, would be more eff
fective than discipline by a joint commit
tee, but it is not to be counted on except
when, in some notorious instance, an
alienated public withdraws sympathy and
leaves unionism to search it's heart alone.
Even then the parent federation, after
the manner Of the structural iron workers
at Kansas City, may disavow the action
of its w president in resembling a char
ter, and by seating the representatives,
of the local" SO punished, re-erect 1t In
honorable standing. In that event, the
I rnrpili1It,r of ItSrin1tnn TGVprtG to the To-
calls members. But, like the citizen
electorate, these are too disposed to stay
at home and let the machine .un Itself
and them.