Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1911-07-26

iui ''du' thhb 'uI5 'TlguC 10
work" proposition in the way
that it is being pu: forward hy
the trusts. TIE right to work
for nothing is not a right, it is
wrong.
When body Of workmen are
being treated with gross injustice,
and when employe rs coute mpucus-
w refuse even TO hrbitrate and
when they choose 10 be strikers
rather than slaves, the "scahs"
who take their places are morally
criminals.
There is a vas. difference be-
tween the "scab" and the mere
non-unionist. Non-unionists are
those workers who drudge along
like dumb, driven cattle" tiking
no part in the great industrial
struggles that are being wagsd
around them; but "ecahs" are
those who take an active part i'm
the fight against the workers Of
their own trade. The scat in
neatly every case is like the horse
III burning stable, who not only
refuses to come out, but kicks and
bites the brave fireman who goes
to bis rescue.
w hat are trade unions organ
ized for, if not to obtain more
personal liberty for their mem
bers1 Can anyone seriously
imagine that body of men will
band together end pay dues for
years for the sake OF getting less
personal liberty than thew have?
What does liberty mean? Il
man free who has nothing 10 say
about his wages aud his hours OF
labor? Is a man free who takes
the harness and the whip as obed-
iently as a carthorse? Is man
free whose only aim in life is to
do what he is told and take what
he is offered? If this is freedom
then the trusts must have
peculiar dictionary o. their own.
The free man today is he who
has some money in the bank, who
is out of debt and who works
fair length of time for fair
amount of money, and who can.
personally or through his union,
remedy an injustice from which
he may be suffering.
If the wage-workers do not pro-
tect their own interests, who
will? VIII the politician? Will
the college professor? WEI the
supreme court?
Men who are working Cor an
employer and who are not organ
Ized are like this: When
man owns a team and takes a GER
tain job of work, in tim Der or
other such jobs, having 20 buy
feed and pay his board, he knows
the sooner he can do the Job the
bigger his profits. He loads the
team heavy, half feeds and works
early and late. This is the way
of the employers. They know tho
least wages aud the longer the
work day the bigger his profits
will be.
If workin2men had no unions
there Is no limit TO the wrongs
they would suffer at the hands of
despotic capitalists. The misery
of the victim would be as limit
less as the greed of the oppre ssor.
The competition in luxury now
being waged by millionaires and
their wives would cause one re.
duction to follow another in quick
succession.
Whenever a new palace was
built, or million dollars given
to college or daughter married
to duke, another ten per cent
cut-down would be ordered, or
another hour added to the length
of the days work.
But the trade unions tell them
something else: She says, suhIs
is America and not Russia; and
you must do business in the
American way" 1t transforms
the wage-earners from human
machines to human beings.
Organization is the only ex-
pedlent by which the worker can
retain any individual rights
whatever. If he has no right
to set minimum price upon his
labor then the grocer has no right
to get a price upon his groceries,
and the physician has no right TO
fix his own fee. When any BODY
OF people are prevented from com
biniDg for mutual profit, bust
ness stops and slavery begins.
The use Of the union label on
union made goods is no longer an
experiment. it IS success. Ill
has provided a way by which the
worker and the employer aud the