Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1904-07-03
THE TRADE UNION
John Mitchell Tells What II Is and
what 1t Has Done For Labor.

What 1t Has zone FOR AUUPE.
The trade union has given the work
:ngman 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 Cd
velope. and the mill or factory in which
he tolls is better lighted, better heated.
better safeguardcd and in every way
| better 10 work in.
All these things lie on the surface.
| There are other things, however, deep
or and more important. Man does not
| live by bread alone, and the trade IN
ion has helped the workman spiritually
AS we'll as physically.
| 1t has taught workingmen to act to-
gether. to unite for common end, to
make Joint sacrifices. to abide by the
| will of the ajority, to struggle against
| great odds for the sake of an idea. 1t
| has taught workingmen that they are
related to one another. and it has
preached and pracdced 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 workmen in
shop or in an industry will sacrifice
their positions to maintain the wages
Of any one of them.
Ten thousand men will strike for one
man not only because the one is de
| h,,%
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 IL not thing
which has sprung out OF nothing and
will end in nothing. 1t is not thing
which belongs only to this generation,
1t is a part Of the evolution Of the race
There was a time when workingmen
had nothing to say about wages, hours
or conditions of work. They were
slaves, subjects Of the lash. and they
worked when and where and bow their
masters decreed. At another time they
were serfs. attached to the soil and
disposed Of with the 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 to the real freedom Of the
NO 10 \
Of the eighteenth century and tho
beginning of The nineteenth century
there occurred one Of the greatest rev
buttons in the history of the world. It
was q 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 joufneymen
and apprentice at the same bench, into
huge factories. where one man holds
dominion over thousands of employees
In the olden time the employer and
his journeyman Were on fairly equal
terms 1t was case of man against
man, and master and man knew each
other, for the master had been a jour
neyman, and the journeyman hoped to
become master.
All this is now changed The employ
er can no longer know All the men ia
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
II 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 ut
all they can be SO only by joining to-
Rether in union aud by making
contract for all
Trade unionsm stands for the right
OF all workmen in an industry to de
fend the interests Of all.
Those who oppose trade unions do 40
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
conditions of work, moral elevation Of
the workingmen and amicab BILE rela-
lions between employers and employ
ed.-John Mitchell in New York Jour
nal