The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1906-03-09

begin with as hard IA proposition any, let us
understand his impacable hostility toward the
non-union workingman
MANY of us, on the other hand have gone
to the length of making sort of moral hero
out of the 'scab. AS rule he is anything but
that. We must remember that unionists believe
that their battle for shorter hours, and higher
standard of living is battle for humanity ami
civilization and on the whole that belief is true.
TO the nobler natures among them their cause
is sublime ideasm and it is humanity impos-
sible for them to look at the -lnonist in any
other light than that which patriot fathers
looked on the Tories later patriots Cop
perheads. Indeed they compelled to see
him in even worse light. However wrong
headed it must have been to be Copperhead
the Copperhead and the Tory We're often brave
men who willing to lose everything for the
stand they took. But suppose that the 'scab
most often appears to the unionist mean
fellow who participates in all the victories OF
the labor uniOniSt without sharing in the bat
ties and the losses.
"Quoting Professor Il. S. Adams: Nine out
Of ten non-unionists who receive much the
union rate may be justly regarded parasites
upon the world of organized labor, reaping
where they have not SOwn, sharing the rewards
but not the burdens of combination.
Indeed. we of the church ought to be able
of all men to fully understand how the unonst
feels toward the scab. because of the man who
shares all the amenities of Christian civilization
and yet refuses to join support the Christian
church
ssThat man is a 'scab' a religious 'scab If
| We're laborng man would like neither sort
of 'scab. Yet either sort of 'scab' is my
brother and your brother and if when
cannot admire his attitude toward the church
,or toward the union we must still render him a
brothers. sympathy a brothers. protection. a
brothers aid not for the church s sake, not for
the union s sake, but for our Fathers sake.
''The church has learned some lessons in this
line of bitter experience and we hope that the
unions will be wise enough to profit by
perience without having to repeat it for them
selves.
''We used to persecute 'scabs. Dynamite
not having been invented we burned them at
the stake and by various coerciohs sought to
enforce sort of CLOSED shop and to extend
organization, our idea of brotherhood was
to force the unbrotherly brother to be brother
ly. Now know the better way is to persuade
him. and if he will not be persuaded then to
treat him as brother anyhow
"You will not misunderstood me- believe
that every workingman ought to join the union,
just as | believe that every man ought to join
the church. But believe that both church and
labor union ought to be purely voluntary or
ganizations with membership enforced neither
by penalties, nor determinations nor discourte-
sizes. but solely by appeal to conscience.
The speaker declared that the employer
while fighting the closed shop idea on the part
of the trade unions in reality often practiced it
himself and it is to beat the employer at his
game that accounts for the closed shop
sentiment in the labor unions.
He said that many well dressed folks think
of the unionist not only as hog but a tiger
They imagine him as a shockngly rough fellow
with stick of dynamite up his sleeve and a
quart Of whiskey down in his stomach. He
declared that it could not be denied that the
unions have often failed to exculpate them
selves from completely in crimes of such mem
Init Low, NOT oh
acteristic of unions.
Mr.. Bach thought that great injustice
might be done to the unions by declaring that
unionism is purely a class movement and there
fore Objectionable. He characterized unionism
movement in the interest of the brother
He declared that non-partisan statements de-
cIared that the unions were more often willing
to arbtrate differences Of hours and wages than
employers. He pointed out that by victorious
strikes and by show OF strength the unions
often protected the fair employer who desired
| to pay good wages from the cutthroat competl-
ton of rivals who if able to secure workingmen
I at lower wages. would result in forcing the fair
| employer down to the same wage level when the
1 latter wanted to pay living prices for help.
/ He declared that there was more than a cash
relation between workingmen and employers,
and that was cooperation with the highest in
terest in common He said that there must al
ways be leaders in the industrial field. but to
fulfill the brotherhood of man idea, the leaders
must to be masters. but high servants
4 carrying out sacred trust.
whence came the labor movement - said
he, 81 mean not factiona conflict not blind
selfshness, nor mad fury, but that true labor
movement which is nothing less than the broth
erhood of man. Whence came it, Not from
John Mitchell, John Burns por Carl Marx, for
when I look upon their work l that they
have merely given direction to mighty energies
that were already surging past from far beyond
them Not from Wat Tyler nor Jack Cade nor
the peasant revolutonsts Of France, Germany
1 or Russia. All the historic streams of the labor
movement converging toward their
| common source. the heart love, the soul power
of one lowly Man. plain artisan in rustic gafb
but from His eyes beams forth majesty. from
His lips proceeds wisdom. from His hands move