The wageworker., 1906-09-21
A Few Words With
The Commercial Club

There is a well defined suspicion
among the craftsmen of this city, and
especially among the carpenters, that
your organization, or members there
OF, are advertising in various sections
of the country for carpenters and
other building tradesmen 1t is also
believed that your organization, or
members thereof, are holding out the
promise of good wages and the "open
shop" as an inducement to non-unioxa
carpenters to come to Lincoln What
ever the truth may be in this connec-
ton, it is a fact that the city is being
oveTrun with non-union carpenters,
and that many of them find employ
ment on jobs being conducted by lead
ing members of the Commercial Club.
These men receive, as rule, the union
scale of wages, thus benefting by the
sacrifices and the energy of men who
have created these conditions, but
without paying one penny for those
benefits.
1t is not our intention at this time
to lay especial stress upon the union
feature of this situation, but rather
to call your attention to a purely
financial matter. We long since
learned that the quickest way to arouse
the interest of the average merchant
was to appeal to his pocketbook.
A very large majority of the union
carpenters of Lincoln are men of FAM
lily, and a goodly proportion of them
own their own homes. Every dollar
they make in Lincoln is spent in Lin
coln-spent. with Lincoln merchants.
They pay taxes which go to support
our public schools and our city, county
and state government. They contrib
ute to the support of the churches.
In short, they belong to that element
OF society which builds up and main
tains Lincoln.
On the other hand, the non-union
carpenters imported into Lincoln by
representation, by cunning con-
tractors and by business men who are
antagonistic to labor unions, either are
not men of family, or have left their
families elsewhere. The money they
make in Lincoln is spent elsewhere,
save comparatively small proportion
spent for board and lodging. OF the
SIG or SIT per week made by the nom
union carpenter whose family is else
where, only 81 or S. is spent with Lin
coin merchants. The rest is sent to
chants of those cities.
The whole matter resolves itself into
a single mathematical proposition-a
simple business proposition.
From your standpoint-the stand
point of merchant-would you not
rather have 200 union men of family
spending SIS week each in Lincoln
than to have 400 non-union men with
out families spending $6 a week each
in Lincoln?
We maintain that unionism makes
for better citizenship; that it encour-
ages sobriety; that it encourages
home building and home owning. We
maintain that the better the trades
OF community are organized the bet
ter the business conditions of that.
community. We maintain that COM
mon business sense ought to influence
any retail or wholesale merchant to
lend every aid and encouragement pos
sible to legitimate trades unionism.
We maintain-and the proof is abun-
dant-that unionism makes for better
wages, shorter hours and happier con-
ditions, and as business men you GER
tainly know that better wages and
shorter hours mean a larger volume
of business.
We have mentioned the carpenters
specifically in this article because
they, more than the members of any
other craft, have suffered by the i'm
portation of non-union carpenters.
What is true of them is, however, prac-
tically true in smaller measure of all
the building trades in this city. 1t
will not be difficult to submit proof
that members of your organization are
responsible for this. Whether it is
with the knowledge and sanction of
your organization, acting along a
we'll defined plan of opposition to the
labor unions, we can not tell. But
the fact remains that there is a grow
ing suspicion among the union men
of the city that your organization is
party to it all. If this suspicion IS
ly open it's columns to your officials
to make denial.
What we want you to do is to study
this matter from the standpoint of or