The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-02-11
PAY DUES PROMPT
UnioniSm Is a Privilege to Be
Cherished.
HE SINS AGAINST MANKIND.

The Nonunion Workingman Takes the
Benefits Won by His Organized
Brothers Without Cost to Himself.
The Strike Breaker a Stun Product
Every social order develops its own
ethics. Even IN the same social order
there are at least two codes of ethics.
The exploiter has his code, the exploit
ed his.
History shows with unmistakable
clearness that the ethics of the OPP
pressed have in due course become the
dominant ethics.
Those who have fought against
wrong, injustice and oppression have
naturally been the wronged and OPP
pressed.
Again and again in the history of the
world the lower orders, so called, have
impressed upon the world their code
of ethics.
In the present order a new word has
been coined to express the contempt
one class feels for those who betray its
cause
The expressing class has tried to
glorify the term. Homilies have been
delivered upon it. The president of a
it, but in the minds of millions and
millions today there can be no greater
reproach than to be called 'scab."
When man robs another he Injuries
one man. When a man is drunken, is
addicted to vice, is idle and shiftless,
he Injuries himself more than another.
But the "scab'' sins against man
kind.
A group of men come together mutu-
ally pledged to support one another.
They are struggling against great OBJ
stacles for better conditions of life for
themselves and their families. By sac
riice. by the payment of dues, by the
slow and arduous work of organiza-
ton, they raise to decency and self re-
spect the mass Of workers.
Their struggle is as vital to the prog
ress of humanity as any battle that
was ever fought. No war ever decided
an issue more important
What they seek for themselves they
seek for mankind, and no creature is
SO poor and helpless as to be outside
the horizon of their effort.
In the midst of their conflict men
suffering the same evils and oppres-
sions they suffer go over to aid and
comfort the oppressors.
Playing the part of Judas, they be-
tray to the executioner those who are
lighting for their salvation as for their
own.
The scab is not only condemned by
his fellow workers; he is also pushed
aside and scorned as soon as the con-
dict is over by those to whom he sells
himself.
He is used when it serves his mas
ter to use him. Even though he sue
coed in breaking the union of his fell
lows, in humiliating his comrades and
in helping to fasten upon them again
and himself as well the yoke of slav
cry, the oppressor has no thought to
give him thanks.
The scab is like a piece of waste,
useful to wipe away a nuisance and
then to wash ones hand Of
AS a Workingman the scab benefits
with other workingmen by the con
quests of unionism. When wages are
raised, hours shortened, machines
guarded, factories made sanitary,
mines made safe, he also benefits. But
t,n 10 a IN
a sneak thief.
Fortunately few workingmen today
are content to be scabs. For that rea-
sen detectives, eX-convicts and other
desperate characters must be employ
ed to recruit strike breakers. Out of
the Stun, dive and lodging house they
select penniless desperadoes to ship
about the country to serve as scabs.
70 the thoughtful this is perhaps
the most hopeful sign in the struggle
of the workers. 1t shows that self re-
specting workingmen are unwilling to
desert their comrades in battle to serve
the enemy.
If you are workingman let nothing
keep you out of your organization.
If there is no organization in your
town call the men in your shop to-
gether and form one.
Pay your dues promptly as a privi-
lege and an honor.
Bear your taxes in this emancipatory
movement with joy and Thanksgiving.
Ethical principles are being fought
out in those battles of today, and none
is more important than the solidarity
Of the workers-Robert Hunter.