The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-04-21

The Pacific Coast Employers associa'
ton banquetted in Portland the other
evening The richest viands money could
buy loaded the table. The seductive
strains of a splendid orchestra floated
in to the diners. Mid the blinking of
glasses confusion was drunk to trade
unionism. At the good fellowship stage
of the dinner, through haze of blue
smoke arising from the Key West per-
fectos a series Of speeches were given.
For once these members of the exploit
ing class threw off their masks and
voiced what they really thought about
the organizations known as trade unions.
You know these open shop" advocates
generally adopt patriotic strain and
pirate loudly about "the inherent right
of the free born American workman"
They lay great stress on individuality
and harp on the tendency of the
closed shop" to 'stifle ambition and
breed spirit of discomfort" 1t sounds
real patriotic and your "open shopper"
stimulates fine air of civic virtue. 1t
isn't patriotism, it isn't virtue, it's r
cloak your employer OF labor puts on
to hide his dirty dollar getting schemes
Once in a great while these fellows throw
off their masks and you see the trickery
for what it is. Something of that kind
happened in Portland when these manu-
tacturers sat around the convivial board
Perhaps something that glittered in the
glasses they cliuked together made them
throw off caution. There is a couplet
written by somebody or other at some
time or other that runs thuslv: "For
somehow the real true things We feel,
leak out when the wine leaks in" For
once these men spoke what was in their
minds. They declared that men should
be pushed to the limits of human ca
pacity. One put it call wealth comes
from sustained effort. To relax at the
suggestion Of an indolcnt disposition
means failure' There You have it
straight and definite. To these mems
minds the working machine of flesh and
blood ard the machine Of iron or steel
have but one function to perform, ie.,
the production Of wealth. Each machine
must be geared to its highest productive
capacity. If the inanimate machine he
comes too slow, replace it with one of
higher power. DO the same thing with
the human machine Arts. sciences,
beauties of nature what has a machine
to DO with such things? machine was
created for but one thing profits.
Drive If faster, faster, and ever faster
to the "limit Of its capacity" and when
at last it reaches the breaking point,
throw it to the scrap heap and install a
new one. The supply Of human ma
chimes always exceeds the demand under
this beautiful system We live under.
There is the brutal but frank system of
your open shoppers" You'll find it
exemplified in the steel mills of Pitts
burg, in the reeking aroma of Packing
ton, IN the cotton mills Of the south in
the sweat shops of any great city.
There where men, women and children
work the long day through at enervat-
ing toll and stink to their homes to drop
exhausted, you'll find the "open shop
in its fullest folwer. Maligned by the
exploiters of labor misrepresented by
the subsidized press, misunderstood by a
large portion of the general public. the
"union shop yet stands for the very
sntithesis of the above described eondi
tions. And We thank you, gentlemen
of the employers association, for youl
very brutality of speech. You are help
ing us to drive home our point and as
sisting in your own undoing.