The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-12
RAILROAD news.
President Mellen Makes Speech
on Labor Unions.
Says They Are Not an Unmixed
Blessing to Werkmen.
ADVISES MEN TO JOIN.
Says Wants Unions Controlled
By Conservative Influences.
Regrets the Passing of Small
Business Enterprises.

President Charles S. Mellen of the
New York, New Haven & Hartford
railroad made notable address to a
large gathering of employees. of that
company at Hartford, Conn, Few
days ago, on the eve of the strike OF
the shopmen. Speaking before the
Workingmen's Free Reading Room as
sociation, Mr.. NIellen reached the heart
of his audience at the outset by recall
ing his own early experiences. lie salu
in part:
1T is my desire to merit and enjoy
the confidence and goodwill of the
WOrkingmen. I am nothing more nor
less than a WOrkingman myself. Born
of parents who had to work for llV-
ing, 1 have personal knowledge of the
trials and privations of living on
small income. From childhood 1 haze
a remem brance of the denials and the
economies necessary in a New England
family to preserve its existence. There
fore speak to you from the platform
of equality, from the standpoint of ex-
perience, from the position of a we'll
Wisher, from the desire to be of as
sistance, for I have only contempt for
the man who believes himself better
clay than his neighbors, who ignores
and seeks to cOnsign to Oblivion his day
of small beginnings, who tries to draw
up the ladder by which he climbed, or,
who, conscious of his own inefficiency,
seeks to obstruct others for fear he
may be passed in his struggle for the
goal.
ITO those of you who belong to I'M
ions 1 will say believe they have ac-
cOmplished much good, but they never
theless are not an unmixed blessing to
the labOring man. They tend to dis
enlargement of the individual effort, TO
reduce man to the part of machine.
They are d good thing for the drOne,
the inefficient man, for the walking
delegate, and officers, but unnecessary
for the man who has the stuff and cOur-
age within himself to carve his own
way in the world. When I say unions
do much good I mean they help the
lame, halt and weary at the expense of
the really competent. Divested of all
Claptrap, the union simply means aver
aging the wages, and the employer
views it as such. It is a device for
making those who are willing to work
care for those who want to soldier.
NOW having hurt the feelings of
some of you by the foregoing, am go
ing to surprise you by saying regard
unions as a condition that has come
to stay and that I have no prejudice
whatever against properly conducted
ones I express my wish that our men
generally would join them, not that 1
would run a union plant as such, for
would not coerce my men nor consent
to discrimination as between those
who We're and who were not mem
berS, but I would wish to have in the
unions the conservative influence of
many BOOQ men VINO are not TO cOuQ-
teract the fioater, the anarchist, the
man who has nothing at stake in the
world and who works with his mouth
more than with his hands.
THE trouble with unionism is it's in
tolerance. To succeed in this world
one must bear and forbear. The same
spirit of Intolerance THAI fills the union
man toward the nOn-union man is
what history shows us to have prevail
ed ages ago in religion in race preju-
NJ ngsy
of THE union or the hospital" has its
counterpart in that of the older one of
The church or the stake
IF 1 have criticized unions, let me
now say I have seen as much to de-
plore in the course of those in author
ity who have dealt with them. There
has been too much arbitrary and I'M
reasonable conduct on that side as
we'll. The mana gement of all bust
ness is comparative. Mans effort, posi-
ton and authority must necessarily be
compared with that of other men in
similar positions elsewhere. No man
in authority can long maintain himself
If his expense account is greater than
his neighbors in the same line of bust
ness. You cannot get for a thing more
than it is worth, except temporarily,
and the cost of maintaining an artih-
Cial market is greater than the profit
in it. Some men interested in high
finance are only just beginning to re-
alize this, and it is no wonder this
fallacy has taken root elsewhere.
mo man is more worried over the
tendency of modern business develop
ment than myself. / regret the pass
ing of the small proprietor, banker,
merchant, small manufacturer, and
the man who worked in his shop with
his own hands, and whose employees
were as welcome at his own table as
the best in the world. I believe the
progress of our country and it's prom
inence in world affairs has been large
~ due to him. 1t is with apprehen-
sion that I see him disappearing and
becoming a part of the modern indus
trial machinery, but shall I struggle
against the inevitable or adjust my
self to new conditions and perhaps
the better?
Il would not strike for money, but