Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1904-03-03
THE TRADE UNION.
John Mitchell Tells What II IL and
What 1t Has Done For Labor.

The trade union has given the work.
ingman more money, more leisure,
greater safety and better conditions of
work and life. The average working
man now leaves his work an hour or
two earlier than formerly
There is more money in his pay en-
velOpe, and the mill or factory in which
he tolls is better lighted, better heated,
better safeguardcd and in every way
better to work in.
All these things lie ON the surface.
There are other things, however, deep
er and more important. Man does not
live by bread alone, and the trade un-
lon has helped the workman spiritually
as well as physically.
1t has taught workingmen to act to-
gether, to unite for n common end, to
make joint sacrifices, to abide by the
will of the majority, to struggle against
great odds for the sake of an idea. 1t
has taught workngmcn that they are
related to one another, and it has
preached and practiced solidarity.
WOrkingmen are now united where
they were once diSunlted. 1t is no lon
ger leach for himself and the devil
take the hindmost," but each for all
and all for each. All the worllmen in
a shop or in an industry viii sacrifice
their positions to maintains the wages
of any one of them.
Ten thousand men Will strike for one
man not only because the one is de-
pendent upon the 10000, but because
if the rights of one are invaded the
rights of all are invaded.
. One may know all this and still not
know all that the trade union stands
for. Trade unionism is not a thing
which has sprung out of nothing and
will end in nothing. 1t is not a thing
which belongs only to this generation.
1t is part of the evolution of the race
There was Il time when Workingmen
had nothing to say about wages, hours
or conditions of work. They We're
slaves, subjects of the lash. and they
worked when and where and how their
masters decreed. At another time they
We're serfs, attached to the soil and
disposed of with tie land, like an old
farm building.
1t WAS only later that they worked
for whom they wished and at what
wages they could obtain, though even
then it sometimes happened that the
law forbade them to ask more than so
many farthings for their days work.
At the present time the trade union
Is necessary 10 the real freedom Of the
workingman. During the latter part
of the eighteenth century and the
beginning of the nineteenth century
there occurred one of the greatest rev.
olutions in the history of the world 1t
was a silent movement. The newspa
pers did not speak of it, and the wise
men of the time did not even know
that it was happening,
The revolution changed manufacture
ing, introduced the steam engine and
turned little workshops, where the
master worked with his journeymen
and apprentice at the sa The bench, into
huge factories, where one man holds
dominion over thousands of employees
In the olden time the employer and
his journeyman We're on fairly equal
terms. 1t was a case of man against
man, and master and man knew each
other. for the master had been Il jour
neyman, and the journeyman hoped to
become master
All this is now changed The employ
er can no longer know all the men in
his employ, and few, if any of these
men can hope or expect to become en-
ployers. Each workingman is depend
ent on his employer for his job, but the
employer can dispense with any one of
the thousand men in his establishment.
If there is no union the condition of
all workingmen tends to become that
of the poorest in the establishment II
the workingmen are to be protected at
all they can be 50 only by joining to-
gether in a union and by making a
contract for all.
Trade unionism stands for the right
of all workmen in an industry to de
fend the interests of all
Those who oppose trade unions do so
on the ground that they are defending
the freedom of contract The freedom
which they defend is that of a billion
dollar trust contracting with a single
Polish or Italian laborer. The free
dom for which the union stands is
that of all the employers in an indus
try contracting on equal terms With
all the wOrkingmen.
The first freedom means sweating,
poverty and the destruction of the
poor. The second freedom means in
creased wages, shorter hours, better
1,,;,
the workingmcn and amicable rela
tions between employers and employ
cd.-John Mitchell in New York Jour
nal.