The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-10-14
The UNIONS and
OFFICE WORKER
HARRY .. sMlTH WRITES I'M
TEREsTlNc ARTICLE ON THE.
OFFICE WORKER AND The
TRADE uNloNs-THEY BELONG
TO THE WORKING GLASSES.

The following interesting article
has been written by Harry B. Smith
and is q most interesting treatise on
the subject OF The Office Worker and
The Trade Unions:
The office workers are here to stay.
They are "a necessary part Of the COM
munity. Present day commerce could
not 60 on without them. Without
the correspondents, auditors. ac-
counuants, boolxkeepers, stenograph-
ers, telephone operators and other Of
nee workers business would lose one
or Its greatest props. Should they 60
out on = strike in body the COM
merce Of the world would be crippled
and business would come to q stand
still.
The hand or trade workers repre-
sent the other great prop OF BUSH
ness. Without them goods could not
be produced and therefore not sold.
With no goods to sell, there would be
OF course no business But when these
hand workers 60 out on strike some-
thing unusual hapens in many cases.
Office workers are often pressed into
service and forced to scab on their
Brother trade workers.
Here we are confronted with a
peculiar state Of affairs in the world
Of working classdom. The two great
props Of this commercial world are
as far apart as the poles. One half
OF them does not know what the
other half Ii doing And what is
more. they DO not care. Their in
terests appear to clash. They hate
and despise each other. The trade
workers think the. office workers have
an enlarged head. and they are right.
The office workers think the trade
workers are beneath them. and their
standpoint is entirely wrong.
The office workers know nothing
about organization excepting nos
siply. that Of social literary or a
DEBATING society. The organization
Of the working class on the political
field they prefer to leave to the willy
politicians. And to think OF organiz-
Ing on the industrial field would
sound rnonstrous to them. Their
view is, OF course. entirely wrong. but
II is not their fault and there aer rea-
sons for 1t.
This country has approximately
Su,V0O,O0O workers Two millions OF
them are organised The remaining
2s,000,00o are unorganized. Among
the unorganixed fourteen -fifteantIfa
are the office workers. They are as
whole the most educated portion Of
the working class. They can reason
right II they have the right basis to
start upon. They can easily be made
TO understand the process and purpose
OF organisation. but, like the folks
from Missouri, they have to be shown.
Office workers look down on trade
or hand workers. They have the idea
that they are superior. Their minds
become the echo OF the boss
thoughts. Continual contact with Ia
Dor hating employers make them hate
labor and labor unions. Al strike of
course, does not meet with their SYM
patty on the contrary, they are VIII
Ing to scab At the work OF the boss.
Because their work is clean and does
not require much physical labor they
imagine they do not belong to the
working class Because they think.
walk and talk like their employers
the office workers dream OF grand
future as employers themselves.
The sum and substance of the
whole matter liz that the office work.
ers have been sadly neglected. What
they need is motheriy guidance. They
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