The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-05-16
LOCKOUT A BOOMERANG.

put organized laDOr out Oh COMMISSION
in Duluth has recoiled upon it's pro.
moters
Contractors and employers who
suffered themselves to be made the
easy dupes of the Post, Parry and
Van Cleave aggregation of conspir-
ators, are today repenting in sack
cloth and ashes.
They were bamboozled by the oily
tongued Drew into believing that If
they would assist the conspirators in
annihilating trades unionism the
earth would be theirs with the fulness
thereof.
They are wiser though sadder men,
than they were last fall, when Drew
karangued them at the Commercial
club rooms with his plausible sophis-
tries.
They find themselves today, the un-
happy financial victims Of misplaced
confidence. Their former faithful
employees, whom they SO cruelty
locked out in the face of hard win
ter, with view of starving them into
submission to any kind of terms, are
today successful and prosperous, doing
contract work of their own, under fair
conditions, here and elsewhere. "The
mills of the Gods grind slowly" but
they eventually do their work and do
it thoroughly.
We do not believe the misguided
contractors and employers, who be-
came the willing tools of the conspir-
ators, got one dollar of the enormous
fund raised to annihilate trades
unionism.
There are, no doubt, some people in
Duluth who could tell what was done
with part of the money, but we
don't care. In all probability there
will be no more money forthcoming,
as we'll meaning manufacturers all
over the country, are withdrawing
from the so-called national association
and refusing to pay any more assess
ments to be used in gratifying the
vindictiveness of Post, Peary and
Van Cleave.
AS for the trio, themselves: Board
of Health revelations in several states
have raised Cain" with the sale of
grape nuts and other misnamed pro-
ducts from which the Post revenue
comes; Parry's open shop" products
are ''getting it in the neck" from
union shop products in the open mar
ket; and the supreme court has not
said that any one is compelled to give
Van Cleave stoves precedence over
better articles. So there you are. 1T
takes money to pay the fiddler" and
where is it coming from?
The unions today are stronger than
ever. Their baptism of fire eliminated
the dross, corrected the errors that
through human frailty had crept in,
and established union princi upon
firmer basis if possible than ever
before.
The men who were suddenly and
mercilessly locked out of employment
in this city last fall were equal to the
occasion, and in the midst of the
severest trials, acquitted themselves
as becometh honorable, law abiding,
American citizens. The lawlessne ss,
which Mr.. Drew prophesied and hoped
for, did not materialize, not in one
single instance
The men took the situation philo-
sophically-waited patiently for their
former employers to see the error of
their ways. The unions made no pre-
tense to AVAILABILITY; on the contrary,
they offered to confer with the en-
ployers and effect an immediate ad-
justment of any grievances the latter
might have had, but all to no avail.
The employers were so under the sAell
of certain real estate schemcrs that
apparently they did not dare say their
souls were their own. All efforts at
reconciliation being repulsed by the
employers the locked out men were
thrown upon their own resources, and
left no alternative but to devise other
ways and means of supporting them.
selves and their families
AS many of the locked-out men
were the equal of their former bosses
in executive ability, and many more
their superior in mechanical skill,
certain of the locked out men in the
various crafts began taking contracts
of their own and gave employment
under fair conditions to their former
fellow workmen, until at this writing,
SO far as. the men are concerned the
/ - lockout" is q dead letter and only