The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1908-10-20

NeSJlSdIeQ the LHdtISI IuOTOuSQly Tor
himself.
It is a serious matter when a union,
which must at times look to the whole
community for support, votes a can
didate, who may have hundreds of
friends, unfair, simply because the
leader happens to belong to one party
or another
If there is anything the matter with
the unions today it is the fact that
they do not always recognize a friend,
and, when a friend is recognized, they
are too easily induced to break that
friendship.
This is true because the changing
character of the personnel of these
organizations does not work for a de-
gree of constancy in their policy. The
officers who denounced candidate to-
day may be replaced by officers who
will welcome that candidate as a
friend
In the meantime the members of
the union have had their friendship
for men switched back and forth so
often that they do not know when they
meet a man in the morning, whether
to give him the glad hand of fellow
ship or to turn a cold shoulder on him.
And the candidate is not sure which
he is to get.
There is not man alive today who
has not friends with whom he has been
sorely vexed. But he never thought OF
putting that friend out of his life for.
ever for that reason. If he did, he
would find that his friends would be
few. The problem is and always has
been, one of determining whether OF
not the good overshadows the evil
In the case of James Watson. There
is not question that Mr. Watson has
done wonders for labor during his
years in congress. The congressional
record shows that The list of bills
in the interests of labor for which Mr.
Watson has voted are numerous.
Yet because Mr. Watson dared t.
use his own judgment in few isolated
what he thought was right; he is de
nounced by some few labor leaders
All the good he has done has beer
wiped off from the slate by his alleged
unfriendliness to some particular meas
ure by some unionists.
On the other hand these same labo
leaders are ready to take up will
| Thomas Marshall, who has never hat
an opportunity to show whether he i
friendly to labor or not and tout hin
as the candidate of labor.
These labor leaders, most of whom
are democrats, would have the peopl
Of Indiana take chance on Mr.. Marsh
all simply because Mr.. Watson did no
come up to their idea of what hi
measure as union man should be-
But there are hundreds of men i
Lake county who begin to see throug
the sham of it all. Since they hav
heard from Mr.. Watson's own lip
what he has done for them they BIZ
gin to suspect that they have bee
fooled. Many of them are angry BIZ
cause they have been the victims c
such deception. Hundreds of laborin
men are going over to Watson an
are becoming his best friends.
But the most important feature {
the whole shameful effort to discred
Mr.. Watson, is the fact that the sent
ment is becoming strong agains
bringing politics into the unions at al
In Hammond certain unions are O
the verge of disruption because cand
dates have been endorsed against tn
advice and judgment of certain men
bers. The endorsing business has b.
come a disturbing factor and the que
ton uppermost in the minds of man
union men is, would it not be bette
to confne the matter of political pr
J ferment to the individual and keep
, out of the organization?
But the strangest feature of this e-
dorsement of candidates, force
through by the leaders of the Trade
| and Labor council, is the fact tn;
: Judge VIM. w. Mcmahon, who doe
not carry a card and whose on
} recommendation is the fact that he
) on the democratic ticket has been e
5 dorsed by this council and William ]
Kliver, at one time the national pres
) dent of the Carpenters union, who
/ now at the head of the Gary ca
, penters, and carries a card; me-
who has worked in the interests
+ labor all of his life, failed to secu
such an endorsement.
1t is the most conclusive proof tn
, could be secured that when a union
4 a council of unions is dominated
, democratic leaders, who have Meth
q sense of justice or a sense of hone
to an extent that it ignores the re
!. friends of labor, it is not worthy of Il
= %