Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1906-08-30
Open Shop Means
End of Unionisrn
E u GENE SCHMITZ,
Mayor Of San Francisco

For the past year we have heard
much of the open shop policy on
the part of employers. The employer
in setting forth his reasons for in
augurating the so-called open shop at
tempts to convey the idea that the
unions are endeavoring to control and
dictate the policy by which the en-
ployers shall operate their various
factories and workshops.
The reason given by employers may
be accepted by the ordinary thinking
man, but those who have given seri-
GUS consideration to the conditions,
under which working men and women
are employed fully realize that the
reasons set forth by the employers for
the Inauguration of the open shop are
absolutely absurd and ridiculous. The
niger in the woodpile is the employer
hopes by his so-called open shop policy,
to break up the organizations of labor
so that he would be fancy free to in
augurate any condition of employment
most pleasing to himself, regardless
of the wishes or desires of the wealth
producers of our country.
The position of the employer be-
comes still more ridiculous when the
representatives of an association of
employers announces that the asso-
citation represented by him proposes
to inaugurate the open shop policy,
and in future will refuse to meet the
representatives of organized labor Or
treat with the employees as organized
wage workers; thus the very men
who are attempting to inaugurate the
open shop are denying to their en-
ployes the same right they have taken,
to themselves of forming an associa-
ton, whether the association be called
labor organization or an employers
association.
The employers associations through
out North America have attempted to
induce their employees to form various
kinds of associations among them
| selves and they (the employers) be-
come part of such associations with a
view to debating what lines shall be
| followed and outlining the policy, so
that the so-called association shall be-
| directly under the control of the en-
| ployer. This attempt to form associa-
tons Of wage workers on the part of
the employer has proven direct fall
| ure, and while there are at the pres
| ent time remnants OF a few labor or
| CARNATIONS formed by the employers,
| the employees are rapidly realizing that
| they have been and are now being used
simply as tools in the Inauguration of
system that in time would find them
in a helpless and deplorable condi-
ton.
All the increases, all the reductions
in the hours of labor, all the protection
| given to women and children in fac
| tories, all the legislation inaugurated
in the various states and the national
| government looking toward the pro-
lection of wage workers, has been
| brought about, either directly or in
directly, by the trade unions of North
| America, and no matter what attempts
may be made by the employer to in
augurate his so-called open shop pol
icy, no matter what success he may
temporarily meet with in this direc-
ton, organized labor is going to pro-
coed practically in the same lines in
it's endeavor to secure still further i'm
proved conditions of employment, and
If it is found that they can best be-
secured through the policy of the
closed shop, the trade union move
ment will be found fighting in that di-
rection.
The open shop policy, therefore, on
the part of the employers is, to my
mind, extremely foolish, and will not
tend toward bringing employer and
employee closer together, nor will it
result in adjusting differences COM
planned of by either side under the
present industrial conditions. There
is but one way to my mind, by which
this can be brought about, and that
is not by the employer refusing the
employees the same right he asks for
himself, namely, to organize, but both
sides should thoroughly organize and
recognize each other as such. Then
when questions arise affecting either
side, representatives should meet at
the round table and satisfactorily ad-
just such differences, and not, as is
proposed by the employer, declare war
upon the union.