The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1908-01-16
Right and Humane Treatment For
the Toilers is Principle for
Which Union Shop is Fighting.
"Open Shop" Means Long Hours,
Starvation Wages and the Utter
Destruction of Organized Labor
Throughout the Country.

In discussing the subjective
merits of any real retorma
tory measure, we should al
ways distinguish between the in.
trim>ic worth, of the me sure itself,
and the methods used by it's ad,
herent> i'll giving expression to it in
adjusting and regu .ating the affairs
Of human society.
If the line of demarkation be-
tween the two-measure and
metbod--be not kept clearly in
view, confusion of thought will be
the inevitable result and the indi
vidual is rendered incapable of
judging righteous Judgment.
We are persuaded that many of
the attacks upon the wage earner's
unlon-shops as an institution, have
been occasioned by confounding
of measure with method. ANY
local departure by a wage-earners'
union shop anywhere from wise
methods of procedure is charged
up 10y our enemies against the
age.earnerS' uniOn-Shop every
where. So you see as loyal trade
unlonlStS we have double DUTY to
pertorm-educate those who come
to us and enlighten those who are
not of us.
Let it be understood once for all.
that while union men are the oc.
casion of the union shop in their
respective crafts they are not the
creators of it. The principle
which in Gods process of evolu-
ton mat"rializeS in the union shop
was projected by the creators into
nature with the first dawn of its
existence
The instinct of representation
exists i'll more or less degree in
all animate creation from the low
est to the highest forms; and it is
singular fact, that the cause
which constrainS the fowls of the
ar to form tiocks, and the fishes
IN the sea to form shoals, and
the animals on land to congregate
In herds, is the very same cause
which generates in men of similar
Nocauons feeling of brotherhood,
In II cullmlnateS in the union shop
being established in fact, though
perhaps not always by that name.
IN practically every department of
humane endeavOr. What is that
cause? Answer: A community
OF interest. Let this cause be
present and you can no more pre-
vent its producing its natural
effect the union-shop in some form
or other, than you can prevent
water from becoming steam when
heated to the proper temperature.
Inc very universality of the
union shops idea proves the exist
ehce OF an underlying principle
upon which the assaults of a thous-
ana million manufactures aSSoci-
atoms will have as little perman-
ehI effect as the barking of as
many million ours can have upon
the composition of the moon.
The strange thing about it all is
Ihat the very men who are the
most savage in their attacks upon
the union-shop of the wage earners,
themselves everyone of them have
union shop of their own. more
caliously and unfeeling "closed"
IMAM any wage earners' union-shop
IN the world. Consistency is a
Jewel so rare in the ranks of the
union smashing conspirators that
the most powerful microscope
could not detect it.
Did they distinguish between
measure and methods, and had
any substantial grievances against
methods, there is not wage
earners' union shop but would
meet them more than half way
10 correct any abuses howsoever
sllght. But it is not the redress of
grievances the gentlemen are after,
put the repudiation of solemn CON
tracts, and the destruction of or
ganlzed labor, in the hope that
they may have a free hand to re-
uuce wages to a starvation basis.
and generally demoralize wage
earning conditions. They have
not yet succeeded and they never
will.