The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1913-12-19
WORK OF UN|ON|SM
Organized Labor Has Developed
Industry.
A BUILDER OF PROSPERITY.

Been Potent Factors In the Increase
of the Nations WeaIth-Future of
the Movement.
In recent editorial giving credit to
and recognizing the prominent part
played by trade unionism in the up
building of national wealth the st.
Louis Republic also hazards Il look into
the future. The Republic says:
In discussing the labor movement
not enough is said about it's purely
economic effects. So far as business
conditions are concerned where should
we be by this time if it had never
been? Has unionism been Il good thing
or n bad thing for the country gener-
ally. from purely commercial point
of view:
Some industries, probably. would
have developed about as they have.
had it never come into being. They
are Industries where the operating or
CARNATIONS are naturally small and
the contact between masters and men
Is direct and personal 1t is the great
industry in which man is merely
name or u number instead Of person.
with personal characteristics and
rights. in the eyes of his employer. that
has given rise to trade unionism
Whatever else trade unioniSm has
done or left undone. it has certainly
raised wages generally throughout the
Industrial field. That is. it has caused
the products of labor to be more widely
distributed than they would or could
have been without it.
Now. business 1ourishes best where
there is the largest consuming public.
and no public can consume largely
without a large income. Speaking gen
orally, union labor has not boarded it's
income. 1t has spent it. The result is
the highest general level of prosperity
any nation has ever seen. BY diffusion
Of wealth trade unionism has helped
wonderfully to develop the department
store, the American railroad. which af-
fords the cheapest transportation in
the civilized world: the American pos
tai system and the American factory
with facilities for cheap large scale
The congested money of the few can
not work such miracles. Large Amer
lean fortunes are not locked up in land
or hidden away in accumulationS OF
treasure They are in the instruments
Of production. And it is diffusion of
wealth which has given our wealth its
characteristic form.
Trade unionism. by forcing wages
upward and ever upward. has uncon-
sciously created the experimental de-
partment of the modern factory. 1t
has set manufacturers and merchants
to diminish labor cost by using labor
effectively, not by lowering wages.
This process has been wonderful
stimulus to American inventive genius
and brain power. 1t has done much to
give it's distinctive character to our
industrial civilization. 1t has had eff
fects far beyond the actual area Of the
organized labor field.
What will be the next chapter in the
history of the labor movement? The
question is a fascinating one. The re-
public. with a keen consciousness OF
the perils Of prophecy: ventures on a
guess or two as to the future.
Notwithstanding the events of the
past few weeks in st. Louis, the strike
is becoming obsolete. This is in har-
mony with the general tendency OF his
tory. In the middle ages two citizens
who desired to find out which was the
better man used to put on armor and
poke at each other with lances. Now
they decide by forms Of struggle which
benefit society instead of merely break
ing up hardware. Struggle is eternal.
but the strike is foolish and wasteful
and will give place to something bet
ter.
We believe also that ownership Of
industries by the workers will ulti-
mately accomplish itself. The advance
in this direction is constant. The gen
eral public knows little about it, 1t is
movement which no one has any spe-
cial interest in advertising. In the
long run the people with savings &C.
counts shall inherit the earth. Now
the working people Of America own
the savings banks. and there are many
I
signs of the development of new
thrift and new foresight on their
part. The development of corporation
management is helping to make such
collective ownership of great proper
ties possible
We should not be surprised If the
man now in early middle life should
live to see the lines dividing the own
ing and the laboring "classes" fade out
because the two had interpenetrated.
Luxury and extravaganza have not
eliminated themselves by natural proc
ess in other societies because there
was no one ready to take advantage of
the opportunity which they created. In
the workman with frugal habits
healthy American ambitions and a
bank account we see "a person who IL
bound to make financial as well as eco
homie history.