The wageworker. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1904-????, 1910-09-02


similar to trades unions, far from being
hindrance to IA free market to labor,
are the necessary instrumentalitles OF
that free market the indispensable
means of making the sellers of labor to
take due care of their own interests I'M
der a system of competition. There is an
Interior consideration of much import
ance to which attention was for the
first time drawn by Professor Fawcett
in an article in the Westminster Re-
view Experience has at length
enabled the more intelligent trades to
take tolerable correct measure OF the
circumstances on which the success of
a strike for an advance of wages de-
pends The workmen are now nearly
all as well informed as the masters,
of the state of the market for this com
modify: they can calculate his gains
and his expenses; they know when his
trade is or is not prosperous, and only
when it is are they ever again likely to
to strike for higher wages; which wages
their known readiness to strike makes
their employers for the most part will
ing to concede. The tendency. there
fore, of this state of things is to make
raise of wages in any particular trade,
usually consequent upon a rise of pro-
fits. which as Mr.. Fawcett observes, is
a commencement of that regular par
ticipation of the laborers in the profits
derived from the profits of their labor
every tendency to which, for the rea-
sons stated in a previous chapter, it is
so important to encourage, since to 1T
we have chiefly to look for any radical
improvement in the social and econ
omical relations between labor and
capital. Strikes. therefore. and the
trades societies which render strikes
possible. are for these various reasons
not a miscellaneous, but on the contrary,
valuable part of the existing mach
--inery of society"
THE labor organizations. writes
Richard 7. Ely in his splendid hoax,
The Trade Union Movement in
America, -" enable the laborer to with
hold his commodity temporarily from
the market. and 20 wait for more salts
factory conditions of service than it is
possible for his to secure when he is
obliged to offer it Internationally. They
further enable him to gain the advan-
tages of an increased demand for IN
commodity to bring about Il more satis-
factory relation than would otherwise
be possible between the supply and the
demand for labor, and also to exercise
an influence upon the supply in the
future market These organizations are
calculated to do away with the in
furious consequences of the peculiarl-
ties of labor AS commodity to be sold
and, through them labor for the first
time becomes really commodity, and
the laborer Il man
Trades unions' continues Profess
sor Ely, have, as IA rule, grown up
out of conditions during a strike. and
these first days have been abnormal;
vet it is only during the abnormal
period of struggle that public at
tention is called to them. The general
public knows little and seems to care
less for the quiet. steady. benefcent in
tluences which these unions are exert
ing upon workingmen. Union men
make mistakes. and even very ntellig-
ent men are not Invaluable as guides.
Men. too have often committed crimes
and been guilty of folly for which they
alone. as individuals. were to blame.
vet which have been attributed to them
as union men,
Rev DR.. John Hall says: There
is widespread suspicion of trades
unions as being selfishly managed by
paid agents for fomenting discord be-
tween the employer and the employed
When continued strike embarasses a
~ Tractor and throws the workers and
.he- families on the benevOlence of
:hee fellows. it is natural to look to the
evil on the surface and forget the I'M
deriving good which is contemplated.
In the nature of the case, union effort
by working people admits of easy
vindication.'
Rev. DIR. r. Edwin Brown says
.'When we remember the history of the
Christian church, the history of human
ity, and by what terrific throes good
evolves itself out of and through evil,
we must not be too hard upon work
ingmen Are we perfectg Do we COM
nit no plumbers? Are we never car
ried away by passions? Are we al
ways able to balance with perfect ac-
curancy the conflicting interest Of our