The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-12-03
.DRACS ON PROGRESS
Fair Weather Unionists Retard
labOr'S Advance.
MENDICANTS OF INDUSTRY.
Workers Who Are Willing to Accept
Benefits From Trades Organizations
Without Aiding In Their Support.
Loyal to No Principle.

Benefits From Trades Organizations
Without Aiding In Their Support.
Loyal to No Principle.
In recent strike by women. the pur.
pose Icing TO secure an increase of
wages from So to $40 per week, several
of the young women involved were
conversing upon the subject in a street
car. says writer in Shoe Workers
Journal.
The main idea of this group was how
JeSt 10 secure the raise in wages and
1t tn" same time avoid paying dues to
he union.
70 secure Il raise in wages through
union and then refuse to support the
union that secured the raise is not
new. but this is the first time the
writer ever knew of plan being con-
cocted to avoid all obligations to the
union which was to secure the raise
even before the raise had been secured.
1t did not seem to occur to these
young women that the two dollar
weekly increase was worth having or
that, inasmuch as it required a union
to obtain it, it might also require a I'M
ION to protect or retain it.
Nor is this idea peculiar only to these
young women.
Working people have always been
too prone to avail themselves of the
strength of labor unions temporarily
for the purpose Of redressing the more
pressing grievances Of the immediate
present and, having accomplished this
much, then abandon the union until
menaced by some new oppression.
In the meantime it often suits their
fancy to speak disparagingly Of the
union as being weak" or mo good"
when, as q matter Of fact, If the union
is weak it is simply and solely because
those who are under obligations to 1t
and who are morally bound to support
1t have refused to give 1t any support.
A beggar is one who solcits aims
while offering nothing In return and is
sometimes styled a mendicant.
A wage Garner who tries through
inion to get advanced wages and who
avoids giving anything to the union in
return may properly be termed an in
dustrial mendicant
These Industrial mendicants are very
largely responsible for the fluctuations
In the membership Of trades unions
They flock in temporarily when there
is melon to be cut in the shape of
raise in wages, and as soon as the raise
is secured they flock out again.
If all the wage earners who ever
joined the unions remained true men,
bers labor would be nearly completely
organized or perhaps wholly.
The PERCENTAGE organized would be
so very large that to be nonunionist
would be questionable and perhaps
uncomfortable, and all remaining out
side the union would join.
The industrial mendicants are quite
numerous in the shoe trade. They
have made an unenviable record or
being in and out of all unions many
times, but loyal to none.
They have retarded organization to
remarkable degree, for the reason that
whenever business conditions make for
extension of the union membership
the first work to be done is to gather
In the industrial mendicants once more,
and in doing this much valuable time
is consumed.
II the trades unions were able to hold
their gains in membership from season
TO season, so that the gains made in
the new season would be net gains,
progress would be much faster and OPP
portunities to improve wages and con-
ditions would be vastly more numerous.
Those members who are conscien-
tious In the discharge of their obliga-
tons to the union. both as regards pay
ment Of dues and the rendering Of per-
sona support and service to the union
cause, should realize the enormous
damage the movement suffers from the
Industrial mendicant.
The greatest service any and all good
and active members of trades unions
eau render is to arouse these thought
less. Indifferent or dishonest members
to true sense of their union duty and
thus by Kidding the union of the indus
trial mendicant multiply the chances
Of trades union success.
Look over your membership rolls, see
how many are inactive and try to de-
wise some way Of getting them back In
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