The Savannah morning news., 1904-10-20
oNE CAUSE OF STRIKES.


Philip Weinseimer is the second Ia
Dor union offlcfal convicted Of the crime
of extortion in the city of New York.
His case attracted almost as much at
tention as that OF the notorious Sam
Parks.
Weinselmer was charged with hav-
ing extorted $4,000 from George Essig,
a boss plumber. who had contract
for doing the plumbing in an apart
ment house known as the Chatsworth.
Weinseimer, according to the charge,
refused to permit the plumbers of the
plumbers union to do any work on the
building until the foregoing amount
was paid TO him.
OF course Weinseimer denied the
charge. So did Sam Parks deny the.
charge of extortion on which he was
convicted. The evidence against
Weinseimer was direct and convincing.
In the course of the case 1t was shown
that he was the former president of
the Building Trades Alliance, and that.
he was in receipt of a salary of 81, 300
year. The intimation from questions
asked him by the prosecuting attorney
was that he had over $780, 900 in the
savings banks of New York city, and
yet he had been president of the Build
ers Trades Alliance only about eigh-
teen months. The inference from this
is of course that he had made the
building contractors of New York pay
dearly for freedom from strikes.
OF course the trades unions are not
tions of trust and responsibility in
their organizations AS far as known
the working members of the unions
do not profit from the extortions of
their officers. AS matter of fact
some endure more hardships from the
officers of their organizations than
they do from their employers.
But, it may be asked, how it is that
untrustworthy men get in responsible
positions in the unions? The ques-
tion is easily answered. There are
men in the unions just as there are
in politics who make it a business to
get office. They are, as rule, above
the average in intelligence and have
certain qualifications for gaining the
good will of their fellows. Hence
when they set out to get the offices
of the unions they generally meet with
success. The unions want bold and
aggressive men who will fight their
battles when there is necessity for
fighting. They don't inquire too close
ly into their moral characters. Con-
sequently some pretty bad men get
into control of them.
1t is probable that most of the
strikes which have occurred in New
York within the last year or two
were brought about by the.
refusal of builders and contractors to
pay the amounts which the bosses of
the various unions sought to extort
from them. 1t is only recently that
some of the contractors have had cour-
age to come forward and prosecute
union officials who attempted to ex-
tort money from them by threats of
strikes. They were afraid their lives
wouldn't be safe The man Essig,
who testified against Weinseirner, was
attacked and almost beaten to death
after he had lodged his complaint
with the district attorney.
If trades unions are to remain in
good standing they will have to see
to it that only men of good moral
character as wen as Of courage and
intelligence are given the places Of
honor and profit in their organizations.
If they put sGch men as Parks and
Weinseimer at the front their unions
will go to pieces or else the various
industries will be brought to a stand
still.