The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-31
A SENSIBLE STEP.

The little town of High Point, Gull ford County N. C., has manufacturing enterprises whose managers propose to tice has just been given that none of the men employed in the factories and mills will be retained if they are members of the unions which have re- gently been organized in that town. If any of the employees belong to an or ganized labor union they must with draw from 1t or lose their positions. The High Point Enterprise has this to say of the conditions which have ex- isted there;
 For fifteen years in High Point the factory owners and employees have pulled together and both have prospered. In undeniable proof of this many of the factory employees and office boys Of years ago are now owners of and stock holders in many of the plants. and oth- CTS have erected homes Tor their fami- lies. There is no town on earth where under proper conditions the employer and employe can get as close to each other as in High Point. A man who shows any inclination at all to better his condition has been able to get all the help desired. The history of the DuSlnGSS interests uGTS DtdIS ItlAo Ohts
 This desirable state of affairs. as The Charlotte Observer says. ris the very condition which the outside organizers desire to break up. The idea Of mechanic becoming stockhoider or proprietor of an establishment doesn't suit them at all; they are for organiza- ton first and perpetual agitation af- terward until their game ceases to bring them in the usual fees and pick ings and then they are off for pastures new. As we understand it. these High Point workmen are practically all home people-natives of North Caro- lina-and many of them own their resi- dences and have other reasons to re- gard themselves as fixtures in the town. It would be especially to he regretted if any of these should be compelled to leave owing to their giving ear to the loud -mouthed agitator. If these me chanics will think for themselves it will not take them long to decide who are to be relied on in this crisis.
 The proprietors and employers of these manufacturing establishments have seen. as have all others who try to do so. that wherever the labor unions obtain a foothold trouble and discon- tent invariably follow. The first thing is to organize a union and get some of the employees of shop to join 1t. The next thing is to declare for clos ed shop and demand the dismissal of all but union men, and about the next move is a strike if the unsuitable de- mands of the unions are not complied with. This is the usual sequence of events when unionism gets its nose in any shop, for 1t will never rest till it gets its entire body in.
 It is not the unionism in the abstract that is objectionable. but its methods. In any large manufacturing establish mcnt there will be found men of diff ferent religious faiths and of different political beliefs. but they work togeth- CT in peace and harmony If the men of one faith or one belief should de- mand the dismissal of all who do not believe as they do, and should resort to a strike. lockout, boycott or any or all the usual union tactics. we suppose there would be no one 10 defend such intolerance. except those who practice it. but that would be no worse than un- ionism's methods. If the union men in any shop carried their unionism no further than their individual member ship is concerned there could be no ob- jection to 1t just az there could be no objection to an employe being a Mason an Odd Fellow, but when those who belong to a union demand that all their fellow workngmen shall join or quit the shop it Is going beyond the limit of justice or fairness. Such demands and the strikes that follow are usual Iy ordered by some walking delegate who makes his living by playing on the weakness and moran cowardtce Of uniontsts who have suffered themselves