The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-12-29

eral times in the past few years and it
is so good that it ought to be kept cir
culating for several years more. 1t is
the best sermon we know to recommend
for your careful perusal as we stand at
the dawn of a new year filled with
momentous possibilities for the trades
union movement.--Editor's Note.
How often do we hear the younger
members of the craft say what is the
use of paying dues to the union, it don't
do me any good?"
Yes. what use2 This much, young
man: Because the union has made it
possible for you to earn a living better
by far than better Workmen than you
We're able to earn Before your union was
formed. You simply don't know condi-
tions of twenty years ago, and if You
do it is because some one told you, not
because YOU suffered the hardships
which beset us in those days. Prices,
lOul - NOAtS. SllllbdlN NpIihitlohS, h"ii
days or whole days off were unknown
to the old guard when they served their
time. Closing all day on holidays would
have been drop from heaven. The
handful who started this union and made
it possible for you to enjoy such bene-
fits as we have attained get no more
than you do, but they paid the price,
while you enjoy the fruits of their eff
forts.
Why pay dues to your union?
In order that you may keep the bene-
fits which others in days gone by gained
for you.
In order that you may take your
place in the world of labor which is
yours by right.
In order that your skill shall give you
recognition.
In order that as ciyiization advances
you will advance with it and be enabled
TO enjoy the privileges which increased
civilization brings.
In order that the thousand and one
benefits which you derive every day
may not be taken from you and the
trade as whole forced backward in
place of forward.
Hundreds, yea, thousands, of argu-
ments are at hand why you should, not
alone keep up your union, but improve
it as well.
Not a single, solitary reason can you
give why you should not keep it up.
Your argument that it does you no
good is groundless, foolish, asinine.
If it were not for organized labor the
workingmen and women of today would
be serfs, if not actual slaves.
Organized labor compels the recogni-
tion which individual effort could not
accomplish. It's very existence is the
bar which has separated us from the
grasping greed which made the black
slave possible and which evolution would
have forced upon white and black alike
if restraining hand had not appeared.
Study the history of Greece and Rome
and YOU will find an exact parallel at
the start. but the exact opposite at the
finish You pay a certain amount per
month. that is true Your actual bene-
fits amount to dollars per week, not
even thinking of the monetary benefits
which your union allows
Some of you say you only pay it so
that few officers can have fat and
lazy job. You know it is a lie when you
say it. You know that your salaried
officers can do better at smaller wages
in the shop than they can in the office
where so many calls are made on them
that when the month is over they sell
dom have living wages left.
You know the insults they have to
suffer from people like you, who make
accusations you can not substantiate.
You fail to realize that they are
human and have feelings. You only
think of yourself.
1t has never been our province tc
boast, but this we say advisedly. FoI
twenty years man may have been an
officer of some kind in your union, and
not one year of the period has he even
cared for the job.
Do you think your officers care when
you roast them? Not at all. If they
feared criticism, they would not last
three months Because they do not feal
it, is the reason we are Il success.
If any officers fears criticism; if any
officer carries water ON both shoulders
to keep the friendship of him who is
right and him who is wrong, that man
is a disgrace to the craft and dishonor
to his office.
Remember this, the few pennies you
pay toward the salary of your Officers
would never be missed, and yet those
Officers would miss you if yon dropped
out. no matter how unfair you have
been to them and to yourself. 1t is not
the praise you give a fovrite officer, it
Is the results achieved for us all.
If the union is no good why did you
Join it
Was it to hold your job in shop