The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-02-24
An OBJECTLESSON
What Country Boy Learned In
a City Factory.
THE SCHOOL OF UNIONISM.
Teaches the Workingman Not Only the
Power of Combination, but His Duty
to Humanity-It Educates and Ele.
Yates the Thinking Toiler.

If every wage Garner could realize
the benefit to be personally derived
from membership in and active asso-
citation with the trade union of his
craft, if he could be made to acquire
this knowledge and to live up to 1t, 1t
would result in distinct gain to the
human race.
The trade union is a school for the
| toiler. 1t Is the workingman'S univer-
sity. 1t teaches the worker the power
of combination.
A story is told of a country boy who
went into a country shoe factory to
| learn part of shoemaking. After
working at this branch of the trade for
couple of years, during which time
he had never heard the word union"
mentioned, he went to a large shoe
| city, attracted there by reports that
the shoe workers in that city earned
| very much larger wages. Up to this
| time he had never heard the word
union" and had no conception of its
| significance. He went to work In q
factory in the large city and on taking
out his first case asked the employee
next TO him what price was paid for
that work and was informed that
there was price list over on the wall
of the factory which would give him
the desired information. Going over
to examine the price list, the young
man found it to be an agreement be-
tween the manufacturer and the union
specifying the prices paid for his part
of the work. He found that he was
getting approximately 80 per cent
he had received in the factory where
he had learned his trade.
In the factory where he was former
ly employed the wages were fixed arbi
trarily by the employer, and the en-
ployees had not taken any part what
ever in fixing the price at which their
labor was to be sold. 1t was now
borne in upon his mind that by acting
| together in combination the workers of
his branch of the trade had been able
to negotiate with the employer and to
make a collective bargain for the sale
of their labor.
On the one hand was an employer
who must buy labor in order to make
shoes; on the other hand were a num-
Der of shoe workers who had labor to
sell and who by organization had put
themselves in a position to deal with
the employer and to make trade on
the same basis as buyers and sellers of
merchandise.
If every man who works in factories
could have such clear object lesson at
the beginning of his life's work as the
! young man mentioned at the beginning
of this article the members of trade
unions would be far larger in number.
Some Of them have worked so much
under union conditions and have had
so little experience with the condi-
tons surrounding the same work I'M
der nonunion conditions that they do
not appreciate the benefits that they
derive through associated efforts or
how much worse their conditions
could be than they now are.
Unfortunately also some working
men fail to remember or to profit by
the lessons they have learned In the
school of unionism. There are many
lessons taught in the school of union
ism besides the elementary or funda-
mental lesson of the power of combi-
nation which he can remember, if he
will, or which he can shirk or ignore,
and it is the numerous workers who
prefer to do the latter or who do it
from negligence without perhaps eX
ercising any positive preference that
prevents the school of unioniSm from
reaching the highest mark of success.
The school of unionism teaches the
worker not only the power of combi-
nation, the value of his labor, the best
methods of marketing his labor and
the necessity of making collective
bargain therefor, but it also teaches
him his duty to his fellow men, his
duty to his family, his children and to
| himself
1t teaches him the value of his vari-
Gus powers in addition to his power to
labor, among which is the power of
protest, the power to withhold his Ia
Dor as well as to give it, the power of
public sentiment, the power Of legis-
lation and through combined effort the
securing of enactment of laws favor
able to those who labor.
1t also teaches him that the wages
he earns should be expended in the
purchase Of goods bearing the union
label, that he may thus reward those
employers who deal fairly with their
help and at the same time punish
those employers who do not. All these
lessons and many more which space
forbids the attempt to enumerate here
are taught in the school of unionism
to those workers who will become en-
rolled as students and who will seek
this knowledge in their everyday life
md apply it earnestly and honestly.
But perhaps the greatest of all the
tssons taught in the school of union
ism is that of mental progress and adj
vancement of the scholars, meaning by
this that in the discussions or debates
that occur where large numbers of
men are reasoning together seeking
their mutual improvement and benefit
the mental development of all must be
in proportion TO the ablest of them,
and their standard of intelligence nat
orally raises through this evolutionary
force until they are able intelligently
to weigh and measure other forces and
to accurately judge the motives and
purposes of other men.
Union Legislators.