Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-04-30
THE UNION LABEL
One of the Chief Weapons Of
Organized Labor.
USED BY THE MILLION
JOHN MITCHELL AND HIS VIEWS
ON THE BOYCOTT.
Leader Of Ten Thousand Hatters-
Head Of the Men Who Build
New York Docks.

Copyright. 1904 by Frank G. Carpenter)
Written for The Evening Star.
Take off your hat and look inside the
| band!
| If it has union label pasted there 1t was
| made by union labor. Pull off your shoes,
and you may find the union stamp on them;
! and If you go over your clothing, bought in
| a ready-to-wear shop, you will, In all prob
ability find the union label of the Garment
| Workers sewed inside the pocket or under
| the collar. David NJ Parry, the anti-union
| organizer, was surprised the other day
| when he was told that his clothes were
| union-made, and he would not believe 1t
| until the label was shown him.
If you are a horseman look we'll at the
shoes on your steed before you go to the
| blacksmith's. for If they are not union
made your horses feet may go bare l
talked the other night with a Philadelphia
millionaire who has a five-thousand-dolla
team. He was driving last week on the
outskirts Of the City of Brotherly Love,
when one of his horses dropped a shoe. The
coachman picked it up, and the team was
slowly walked to the nearest blacksmith
shop and the man asked to nail on the shoe.
He looked at the horses and examined
their feet and blankly refused the Job. He
said the shoes were non-union, and that
the horses had been shod by nom union la
Dor. and that he would not touch them for
love nor money. Iney Ihen walked the
horses to the next blacksmith shop where
they met with similar treatment, and then
to third, where the smith replaced the
shoe, but only on condition that he be paid
four times the ordinary rate, because the
work in the first place had not been done
by union men. The first two men were told
that II the shoes were not put on the horse
might go lame. One man said he couldn't
help that, and the other did not care.
Labels for Everything.
I am surprised at the growth of the union
label in all sorts of business. 1t makes
its appearance on the loaf of bread that
comes to me with my breakfast There
is union card in the shop where 1 get
shaved, and if little baby friend of mine
could read it might see it in the bottle from
which it sucks its condensed milk 1 was
told the other day at the American Fedora
ton of Labor here that that body sends
out twenty-five million labels every year,
and that each of these finds place on a
union-made article. The United Garment
Workers, who make. a large part of the
clothing of the country, spend $4,000 year
advertising their label and warning people
not to buy goods upon which it is not used.
There are fifty different labels Endorsed by
the American Federation of Labor, and
those trades which cannot use labels have
union cards hung up in their shops The
statesmen, barkeepers and walters all have
cards of their own, and labels are used by
coopers, hatters, shoemakers, laundrymen
leather workers. cigar makers and every
union manufacturer under the sun. The
first label was used by the cigar makers
in 1880, the first hatters labels were put
out in 1885, the first printers labels in 1887
and the first garment wor' ers in 1891 I
am not arguing for or against these labels,
but merely stating facts.
Mitchell and the Union Label.
There is question in the minds of many
as to whether the union label is not kind
of boycott, and some believe both the label
and the boycott an outrage upon the public
In recent talk with John Mitchell asked
him what he thought about it. Said he:
"The union label is perfectly legitimate,
and it is one of the chief weapons of or
ganized labor in it's warfare against the
unjust employer. 1t was started by the
California cigar makers to protect their
work against Chinese cheap labor, and 1t
has now spread to every branch of the cigar
trade. The Cigar Makers Union put its
labels on twenty-five million boxes Of cigars
hist year. The label shows that those
cigars were made by union men who work.
ed for union wages under sanitary condi-
tiops.
1.-THE union label is now used by all sorts
of industries" Mr.. Mitchell continued. 1.-THE
Hatters' Union alone issues something like
million new labels every month, and
every one goes into a union-made hat. The
merchant tailors have a union label and
so have the bricklayers. The number of
men who will use nothing but union goods
Ii constantly increasing. and 1t now en-