The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-06-16
WHERE IF IS LEADING.

It Is an exceedingly difficult matter for some of the union men to keep their unionism on straight. Try as hard as they will, the label will get away, the badge will slip a cog and the brand will fade or hide. The most recent violation of union laws occurred in a saloon, and one of the culprits tried to explain his lapse from the true faith by saying: we were with the national officers of our union and when we proposed to so into the union sa- loon they insisted on going into the non union saloon, saying That 1t looked like a nicer place"
 Here were two distinct and shame full violations of the very corner stones of unionism. The officers and the men whom they seduced from duty were all guilty of drinking beer, or something just as good, in a non-union saloon. The mixer wore no badge, and there was no label or brand on any of the fixtures. The wonder is that the drinks didn't strangle them or scorch their guzzles as they went down their union throats It may be that the kind Prov ideSfce which watches over a certain class of people withheld It's vengeance that they might have a chance to re- pent and reform. If that isn't the ex- planation of their escape, we don't know what is.
 But the sum of their iniquity was rounded out when they entered the non-
 hax Gh Q Iessly admit. "it looked like nicer place." Here was violation of the very life of unionism. If it was nicer place, it was because it was owned by a capitalist. and all know that no capitalist can be honest, or anything else but the dire enemy of all who labor This nice saloon was evidently designed, set up and conducted with the especial object of seducing union men. It Is known that some of them have not been in the thralls of unionism long enough to lose all their good taste, or their desire for something nice and good. Hence this trap for unwary low CTS of decenoy and good taste.
 Isn't all this a serious reflection on American manhood? Not long ago John Mitchell, President of the United Mine Workers was at a banquet, and it was afterwards made the grounds of serious charges against him that while at the table he ate bread baked in a non-union bakery and smoked a non union cigar. This was the sum of his departure from the faith, yet he was severely criticised. Mitchell is man of intelligence. with fair knowl- edge of the courtesies of life, and felt 1t incumbent on him to follow the ex- ample of others at the table. If he had stopped to examine the slices Of bread and the cigar to find if they bore union labels, aud if he had re- fused to use them bstAase of the ab- sence of such labels. he would have created a scene which no guest with any of the instincts of a gentleman would be guilty of. In the estimation of his critics, however, he should have raised a racket. and perhaps broken up the banquet rather than eat, drink or smoke non-union articles.
 That is what unionism is fast lead ing to, as the intelligent among them ought to see. It has already placed | the check-rein on members right to work for living, and is fast reaching a point where he is expected to die of hunger or thirst in preference to eat ing or drinking anything not made or served by unicn labor. The next step will be to place the ban on the doctor and hls prescriptions, and on medicines of all kinds, as 1t has already been placed on the undertakers in some in- stances. Then we can neither eat nor drink, take medicine or be doctored, die or be buried except through the assist ance or forbearance of some union. The wonder is that union men are al- | lowed to go to church, unless the preacher wears label, or that they are allowed to be married under non- union license or by 8 non-union min ister What sort of outlook is this for free-born Americans?
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