The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-12-02
ALWAYS UPWARD.
Trade Unionism Tends to Elevate
Mankind.
IMPROVES SOCIAL SYSTEM.

High Class Workers Valuable Asse,
to the Nation-Cheap Labor Destroys
Markets and Clogs the Wheels Of
Progress.
The idea has been expressed many
times by employers that the efforts OF
trade unions to shorten hours and in
crease wages are barriers to progress
in a community, but such an idea can
not be successfully maintained unless
very narrow and unreasonable def
milton is given the word If progress
is simply held to be population, and
this notion prevails in the minds of
many employers, then China is the
most progressive country in the world.
Trade unionists do not believe that
great masses of people, regardless of
their character, denote progress, nor
do they believe that the addition of
cheap, unintelligent, servile laborers
add to the progress or welfare of a
people
Trade unionists have been taught
by stern experience that constant toll
units a man for valuable productive
labor and that the man who works
long hours, like the rubber which is
always stretched, will not last long,
so that when the union shortens hours
of labor it becomes an instrument for
the progress and improvement Of the
entire community, even in point OF
population rather than hindrance to
it, as some employers seem to believe.
The fact that constant toll, like a
cancer, robs the human being Of the
vitality so essential to progress can
not be disputed by any man who is a
student of industrial conditions.
The unionist contends and main
tains that the most valuable asset a
country can have is an intelligent,
healthy class of wage workers, and
intelligence and health go hand. in
hand with short hours of labor and
reasonable pay.
The man who would increase the
population by bringing in hordes Of
unhealthy, ignorant laboring men sim
ply because they will work long hours
for low wages is not the friend, but
the enemy, of the community.
The big financier who has accumu-
lated millions by hiring cheap labor
calls out to the small manufacturer
and business man, Come on, get in;
the water is fine" but the merchant
who has been foolish enough to heed
such advice has invariably found him
self drawn out to sea by resistleSs
current because cheap labor does not
furnish a market for his wares.
The history of unionism in Amer
lea demonstrates that short hours and
good pay give such an impetus to the
brain and muscle of the labOring man
that he has surpassed the world in
efficiency and is thus enabled, while re-
ceiving high wages, to produce many
of the necessaries of life at lower
cost of production than cheap foreign
labor; therefore the complaint that
unionism interferes with progress is
proved to be without foundation.
The cheap, ignorant laborer, it is
urged, is easier satisfied, more con-
tented than the unionist, which is in
itself an admission that he does not
add to the progress of the community,
because the man who is contented
with his position never achieves much.
1t is the constant ambition to better
himself, to do away with present con-
ditions, that makes man accomplish
things for himself and a factor toward
progress.
Nonunionism, with its small pay and
long hours, is the mortal enemy of
progress.
Unionism, with its short hours and
fair pay, is the strongest factor in
any community for progress.-San
Francisco Labor Clarion.