The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-10-03
OPEN SHOP UNFAI
Its Real Purpose to Wipe Out
Trade UnioniSm.
THE PHRASE MISLEADING.

Ostensibly 1t Means Workshop
Where Organized and Unorsanzed
Toflers Work Together In Harmony.
FalIacy Exposed.
In a recent issue the Springfield Qll)
Daily Record pays its respects to the
much lauded open shop as follows:
As phrase the open shop" sounds
well.
But it is entirely misleading.
Ostensibly it means a shop where
union men and nonunion men work
for fair wages.
But there never was such a shop
and never will be.
For union labor cannot work along
side nonunion labor (and under condi-
lions which demand that the union
shall be ignored) without becoming
nonunion labor.
The union shop is a closed shop and
makes no pretense to the contrary, for
in a union shop the unions insist that
none but union labor shall be employ
ed and make no concealment of the
fact.
The open shop also is a closed shop,
for, even as the union shop is closed
to nonunion labor, so is the open or
nonunion shop closed to union labor.
OF course the advocates of the so
called open shop do not admit these
facts.
Instead they set up the fiction that
there is no good reason on earth why
union man cannot work in an open
shop.
They ignore the mighty fact that the
union man can enter an open shop
only by ignoring his union and by re-
pudiating his unionism.
The Record has no use for pretense.
1t does not believe any good purpose
ever was served by petty subterfuge.
Hence it believes that the whole
community should be told the truth,
and the truth in the present instance
is that the fight for the so called 'open
shop is fight against unions.
Just that and nothing more!
The purpose of the fight is to put the
unions out of business, so far as the
crafts affected are concerned.
The Record tries to be equitable
1t realizes that if union labor has its
right the employers also have theirs.
1t recognizes the fact that the union
labor leaders have made some serious
mistakes and that not all their de-
mands have been based on fair con
sideration of the conditions involved.
But, recognizing these things, the
Record also recognizes that there is no
good reason for and no real fairness
in the present determined attempt to
crush union labor by means of the
open shop policy.
The claim is made that just as good
wages are paid in the open shop" as
in the union shop.
Taken as rule, the claim is without
merit.
1t is true that high wages usually
are paid while the effort is being made
to establish the open shop" and de-
feat the unions.
But once these objects are accom-
plished high wages usually drop to
low wages.
The Record is for Springfield first,
last and all the time-for Springfield
capital as well as for Springfield labor.
And because it is for Springfield it
pledges itself to do everything within
its power to defeat the attempt to
crush the local unions.
For if that attempt succeeded 1t
would be found, in the final degree,
that the result would be disastrous to
the city as whole.
1t has been argued that the unions,
with their higher wages, check the
growth of town.
1t is not in evidence that they do;
but, even if they did, for one the Rec
ord sooner would see Springfield a
smaller city of fair paid, contented
men and women than see it larger
city made up of underpaid, discomfort
ed tOilers.
There can be no lasting prosperity
for any community unless that pros
perity reaches down to the great
masses that work and who. after all,
are the chief capital of any city.