The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-04-07
GONE TO OBLIVION
The "Hero" NonunioniSt Passes
From the Stage.
VICTIM OF HIS FRIENDS.

Professional Strike Breaker Paraded
Too Often-Pubio Now Knows Him
as Social Outlaw Hired to Reduce
Standard of Living.
An interesting figure, who drew to
himself the sympathies even of his
bitterest opponents. has disappeared
from the scenes of his peculiar activi
ties In the industrial field. No longer
photographed by employers agents
wept over in upper class" clubs or
held up by employers counsel before
the courts as an example OF free. fear
less and Independent American cin
zenship. He once existed-in the i'm
agination of those who used his titti
tious personality as a scarecrow. Eut
now he's gone-eXpeled from tbs
boards, like the aside" of the old
dramas. as transparency bad piece
of theatrical business. He's the fellow
who used to be depicted as the con
scientious nonunionist. jumping IN TO
defeat a strike, shouting to the crowd
as he motored car or a taXirab Or
ran into a factory past the pie keis
"In the name of liberty ! demand the
right to earn living for my starving
wife and fifteen little childrenw
To trade unionists this figure was
during it's existence something to be
reasoned over. Was it ever, in any
case, genuine? Was there any barrier
to a competent man in any occupation
joining the union? Was there valid
objection in any union to a qualified
man becoming one of its members?
Are there any sane and reasonable
working men or women opposed to
trade unionism at the present stage Of
the development of industry? The
working classes thought over this sub
ject thoroughly and well, and where
the nonunionist had a shadow of an
argument for his course the forms and
methods of organization were revised
But, in fact, the employers more
than the trade unionists drove the
pathetic stage figure Of DR.. Eliot's
"hero" from real life. They paraded
him too much and too often. The whole
country got so many good looks at him
that they saw through his poor make
up. Everybody now knows him as he
is. He's professional at so much
per diem. His heroism is the heroism
Of the yeggman. He's apt to turn on
the employer as on the employed. His
conception of his duty to society is to
get out Of it what he can for himself
the Everybody for himself and the
devil take the hindmost' policy. No
employer would think of keeping him
regularly on a job. He's unfit as a
worker or in character. The news
papers are ION" to him; the reporters
grin as they depict him in times Of
strike as model citizen: the editors
know that the last gullible circle of the
well to do no longer take stock in him.
He has even become a nightmare to
the sensible employer in most trades,
who, now knowing him as he is and
aware of the cost of hiring him. turns
to the union and asks for an inter
view with the committeeman in prefer
ence. Only in a few occupations can
he vet be used to defeat union mem
bers, and in them he Is taken on, not
as a permanent, qualified workman,
not as hero or an American citizen
maintaining sacred rights, but simply
for what he is-a social outlaw hired
to do the dirty work Of reducing the
ct 10 rd Of poorioan living
The fading away of this hero
marks a step in the progress OF the
labor movement. The country Is be-
ing educated as to the aims and the
invulnerability of the defense of the
trade unions. The common sense of
the American people has forbidden the
acceptance of the heroic nonunionist
by conviction as genuine character
just in proportion as they have come
to know the tendencies of nonunion-
ism, the tactics of the employers who
oppose unionism and the outcome or
the efforts of the trade unions in the
various fields Of protection for the
wageworking classes. Trade union
ism as an institution is more firmly
grounded today than ever before. The
cards played against it by Its enc
mics have less and less value as their
game proceeds. AS poor a card as
they ever threw down on the table
with the air Of showing a trump has
been the "scab hero" He was simply
one of those out of the deck cards
xyhtoh rackIaSs gamblers keep up their
sleeve and which. in case they are
detected in playing it. cause them to
iosa their game. - American Fedora