The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1905-07-27

ence for unions, believing that they
alone can obtain for them anything
like fair price for their work. No
association, federation union or any
other collective body can ever secure a
just compensation for the individual
as long as it's chief aim is to destroy
competition and establish a uniform
scale of wages, its members, totally iig-
noring special ability, competency and
other meritorious qualities. While
unions may, and do in many cases, OBJ
tain advantages for their members as
a whole, they do not secure for the in
divldual the equity that every man has
reasonable right to expect. While
this is undeniably true it is in no wise
a just cause for censure, for outside
the realm of the most optimistic So
cialism no one has seriously enter
tanned an idea of perfect social
condition, guaranteeing to each indi-
vidual equal rights, privileges and
emoluments regardless of ability, merit
is an absence of justice, when those
who are thoroughly competent and
first-class in every respect must work
for the same amount of pay that is re-
ceived by those who are less skilled
and their interiors in every point of
workmanship.
If we except the few places where
demands for labor are uncommOnly
urgent, and few individuals who by
their superior fitness-regardless of
unions-command good wages, we
must admit that labor is very cheap,
and it is reasonable to believe that it
will remain so, as long as people are will
ing to relinquish their individual
rights and be entirely governed by Or
ganizations that demand uniform pay
for all.
1t is important to know whether the
unions, by their present methods, are
materially aiding the cause of labor;
whether they have succeeded in gain
ing for it price that will meet the
every day requirements of life and
leave surplus sufficient to procure
recreation, amusement, and some of
the things which are essential to make
life worth living. The almost univer-
sal discomfort and unrest plainly Wis
ible among the toilers of the country
proclaim the fact that they have not.
| No very exacting standard of COM
potency is required in order to become
a member of any of the various unions.
They preserve some show in this direc-
tion, inasmuch as applicants for
membership are supposed to have had
q certain length of experience in their
particular line.
However, skill and efficiency are not
always secured by the mere length of
, time devoted to, or more properly
speaking, by the length of time en-
gagged in an occupation. Yet accord
ing to the ethics of labor unions all
: members are made equal and are &C.
corded the same privileges and pay
: regardless of exceptional ability. EN-.
, ployers conforming themselves to
, agreements with unions realize that
they are contracting for job lot
good, bad, and Indifferent; and being
{ fully aware of this condition, they
, consent to schedules which never ex.
, ceed, and but rarely, if ever, reach 9
: figure anything like approximating the
true value of the services they have
? secured. While in no wise antagonis
, tic to unions, but on the contrary, de-
. cidedly in their favor, I cannot helI
4 believing that few wise alterations
or substitutions of their present meth
! ods would greatly assist the cause o1
r labor.
An organization equipped with sufi
i cient safeguards to insure protection
: from acts of injustice and unfair dis
j. ordinations; q practical system fol
|. supplying useful information to it,
; members, and due regard for and .
Q just consideration of employers, would
+ in my opinion, 60 very far towart
1: making strikes obsolete, and especial.
: sympathetic strikes which are rapid.
j, falling into disfavor, and other mor'
Is or less Objectionable features Of tn
l. present labor unions. But it shoul,
II be remembered that much depends OF
the individual; and no matter hoy
% perfect labor conditions may be the