The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-23
OPEN SHOP OR
 CLOSED SHOP This Question Is Agitat-
 ing Politics. WHAT WILL ROOSEVELT Dos Matter Has Been Put Up to the
 President. Labor Unioss Are Making a Fight on MT. stniings, The Public Prin- ter And Country is
 Watching.

At so other place In the country is the issue raised in such a clear-cut way, with the skyline unobscured by any other complication. Two fmpor- tant phases of it are sure to attract the attention of Congress. One is the question of the further retention of Public Printer Stillings, and the con- tinuance of the Government Printing Office as in reality an Open shop The other is the effect of government build ings of the building trades strike, which was ordered because employers would not agree to discard all non- union labor.
 Fairly and squarely the question of the right of the Government and of individuals to employ a person who does not belong to a labor union is once more being taken to the President, and the unions have evidently selected to carry the contest to the polls, if they cannot bring about a favorable decision from Theodore Roosevelt
 Primarily the struggle of which the President will have to take notice deals directly with the Government Printing Office, the greatest publishing house in the world, expending In labor and material more than 6. 000,00 a year. He will be asked. under threats to carry the contentious into politics, to reverse his decision rendered in the Miller case, when he laid down the principle that he did not belong to a labor union, and to veto the finding written into general government prac- tice by the Coal Strike Commission.
 ROOseveIt's Words.
 In view of the importance of the finding which is bound to bear on the near future of the great contentian, that Is even now causing grave con- cern to members of Congress. the Presidents own words on 1t will be in- teresting. In a letter to George B. cortelyou. then Secretary of Commerce and Labor. Mir. Roosevelt. on July 14 1903, wrote: "It is adjudged and awarded that no person shall be re- fused employment or in any way dis criminated against on account of mem bership or non-membership of any labor organization, and that there shall be no discrimination against or inter- ference with any employe who Is not a member of any labor organization by members of such organization. heartily approve of this award and judgment by the Commission appointed by me, which itself included a mem- Der of a labor union"
 Recalling this letter and the decision made by the President when he or- dered the reinstatement of Bindery Su- perintendent William A. Miller, on the ground that no rules or regula tions of labor union could be permitted to override the laws of the United States, one would suppose that there would be no likelihood of the Pres ident receding. The hope of the unions Is based on the statement made by the President to the members of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor in the Miller case, which was thus described by President Gompers in an address to labor unions: He (the President1 furthermore made plain that in any form of employment excepting that so circumscribed Gov ernment employment) he believed the full employment of union men was preferable to either non-union or open shops"
 And 1t Is now said by many that the situation here, which is a very re- markable one, would not be confront ing the Government. but for the Pres ident's amiable weakness in qualify ing his original statement through Mr. Gompers. use of which was made in the Republican campaign book in 1904 with the sanction of the President
 To Force "ClOsed ShOp."
 The situation in Washington is that since August. all labor unions have been enlisted in a struggle to force on all employers the closed shop. that Is. the employment of none but union workmen. All the nineteen trades em- ployed in building construction have struck twice on this issue. No uues- ton of wages or hours or regulation of work Is involved. Other unions not on strike have made common cause with the building trades, giving them sympathy and support. and the Amer lean Federation is taking a hand, as usual. Since this Is a direct question of whether the union shall dictate who shall not be employed, the agitation has gradually involved the Government printing office.
 It seems to be reasoned by the strik CTS that. if the fight is to go on the President and the Government are sooner or later to be involved and that labor. making its fight on such grounds, Is bound to be at a disad- vantage so long as the open shop pre- vails under the Public Printer.
 They have, therefore, started after the scalp of the Public Printer with great energy. The union men in the Government employ in the printing off, fices are making all sorts of trouble, and at times subdued anarchy has reigned there. Only the other day a visit of the Public Printer to oyster Bay was followed by an announcement that the President did not intend to displace him. This has been received with much disfavor in all union cir
 
 In the printing office, by the building strikers and by the officials of the American ederation.
 Fight for UnIOnism.
 All concealment that this is a fight for unionism in the District of Co., lumbia, whether in or out of the Gov ernment employ has been dropped and the union printers and the union build ing workers are operating hand in hand. The Printing Ofice was inject ed into the whole open shop situation at recent meeting of the Central La Dor Union. James w. Considine, the delegate of the Sheet Metal Workers Union, which is involved in the build ing trades strike, but which has no connection even indirectly with print ing, introduced a resolution in which he called on President Roosevelt to remove from office Charles A. Stillings, the Public Printer.
 The chief reason for asking the re- moVal of Mir. Stillings was stated to be that he has violated the eight-hour law, is an advocate of the open shop policy, and has been active in pro- noting the same. and his attitude In this respect is a blow aimed at the cause of trade unionism." It was also alleged that he had sought to disrupt labor unions in general and the book binders union in particular. Thereup- on the Central Labor Union resolved that Public Printer StiHings Ifs a pronounced enemy of organized labor and has used his high oface as