Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1910-07-28
PORTLAND FOR
THE Open SHOP
RETAIL merchants TO DISPLAY
SIGNS.
Strike of TeamSterS UniteS Mer.
chants and Manufacturers in a
Movement for Open Shop. Stand
Taken for Equal Rights for Union
and NOn.UniOn Men.


PORTLAND, Ore, July 26.-Every
store in Portland whose proprietor
belongs to the Retail Merchants as
sociation will display prominently in
it's window, a card notifying the pub
lie that it Stands for the open shop"
says today's Oregonian. adding:
This action is the result of a unani-
nous decision made by 33 of the AZ
members of the association present
at a meeting last night. The senti-
ment of the meeting was formulated
in resolution, short but clear, which
is also to be the sentiment inscribed
on the card:
1--WE stand for the open shop mean
ing thereby square deal and equal
rights for union and non-union work
ers"
Five members of the Employers
association, representing the lumber
and logging, the manufacturing and
the iron working industries of Port
land, were present, assuring the mer-
chants of their cooperation and sup
port in the stand taken. These men
were Lloyd J. Wentworth and F. II.
Ransom, from the lumbermen; Ever
ett' Ames from the manufacturers,
and w. H. Corbett and w. G. Alvord
from the iron industry.
Teamsters' Strike Crisis
The strike of the teamsters is the
concrete instance of the working of
unionism, says the merchants, that
brought about the action.
"The strike as a strike is over"
said the spokesman of the association
in an official statement announcing
the result of the meeting.
"It consists now merely in sluggling
non-union men on the quiet, in dis
order and in outbreaks that keep the
city in a turmoil. The police depart
ment is not stopping it, and is not
keeping the order that it should. This
action of the Retail Merchants asso-
citation is an effort to stop the strike,
in part, but mostly an effort to check
the attempt of the unions to unionize
the whole city, to make it like San
Francisco, a closed-shop town.
"This action of ours pledges us as
merchants to the open shop. 1t is
taken after several meetings of the
association. in which the questions
last meeting of the executive board,
this step was recommended, and this
resolution is in accordance with that
recommendation.
Nc Hostility Intended
I'VE want it understood that we
have no hostility to the unions, that
we do not want to put the unions out
of existence. When we place these
cards in our windows it is simply
negative effort to oppose the evil
side of unionism. Such things as
picketing, the secondary boycott, the
display of unfair signs by man
parading past store and most of ali
the refusal to let man work unless
he belongs to union--these things
we think are wrong, and these we
oppose.
I'VE believe a man who is not
union man has just as much right to
work as man who belongs to union
and we do not concede the right of
any union to say that non-union
man shall not earn his living.
paid organizers are coming here
from other parts of the country to as
sist in the effort to make Portland a
union town, like San Francisco. The
teamsters, strike was test, and to
carry it on money is being sent to
Portland from San Francisco, Chi
cago and New York. 1t is the plan
of the unions to enlarge the move
ment, to keep at Portland until the
effort to unionize it either falls or is
success
Public Misunderstsnds
"The general public does not un-
derstand the principle OF the open
shop. 1t is not hostile to organiza-
ton. The man who stands for the
open shop does not attempt to say
that other men shall not organize, but
he does believe, and by standing for
the open shop. declares his belief in
the right of the non-union men to
make living.
'In way this principle OF the
open shop is an effort to help union
ism, to put it on decent basis. The
men who are for the open shop want
to see the unlawful features OF union
ism stopped and this action OF ours
is merely step toward assisting the
Portland unions to keep the name
of Portland as good as it has been
kept heretofore"
Members of the association present
last night were unanimous in declar-
ing that they would stand by the ac-
ton taken. AS soon as the cards can
be printed they will be displayed in
the windows.