Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-12-04
ing hours in the furniture factories

| ing hours In the furniture factories |
throughout the country are being gem
Aally reduced to nine.
He closed by giving, in rich Irish |
brogue. the story of Mr.. Dooley ex-
planning the sOpen Shop
But tn Employers" said Mr.. Hen i
nessey, "saay they're in favor iV tn
unions, if propherly conducted"
YES" said Mr.. Dooley, IAN what do
they think is properly conducted? No
strikes no wages, and damned few
members"
j X. Mahrer
| J. K Mahrer, general organizer of
the Brotherhood Of Boiler Makers and
Iron Ship Builders, talked of his exper-
fences in organizing work in the Pitts
burgh district.
1T has been an uphill fight in our
line there" he said. Our trouble has
been principally to the fact that COM
petition exists SO keenly in our trade
i among the manufacturers. When we
approach a manufacturer in. the at
tempt to have him sign a union agree
ment, he points to tie fact that his
competitor, who may be in another
town far away, is not organized and
therefore has lower vase rate and
can underbid him. This difficulty, like
all other difficulties, must be fought
and overcome We are winning
over them in Pittsburgh. and you will
find us ready to help you win over
them here. Yoar efforts are certainly
to be commended.
! w. e. Bryan
W. E. Bryan, international president
of the Brotherhood of Leather Work
ers on Horse Goods, gave talk that
ristled with practical suggestions.
"Other speakers" he said, have
suggested that you use the churches
and schools to carry on this work. and
it is good, you must do this, but you
must also do personal work, you must
do the grubbing, you must work in
the uncleared lands, you must go down
among the unorganized and get them
) into the union. You must find one
man here, and another one there, and
talk to them, and get them to promise
, to cvop1e to a meeting, when you car
talk it over with them. But first yov
must be sure of your own ground
You must find out the facts from the
local organizations, get from them a
list of their members and statement
of just what percentage in their trade
is organized In other words, you
must be thoroughly organized your
selves before you can organize the
, others. We have 100 per cent union
in our craft in this city, and am sure
that our members will be found with
, you in this fight"
D. A. Post
: D. A. Post, vice president of the
United Brotherhood of Carpenters an
Joiners of America. was introduced
as another representative of a 100 pc,
J cent organization in Wheeling.
He began by saying. yes, We have
a through organization in this city, {
splendid organization, and we have a
2 magnificent organization of 100000
members in the United States But
want to say that of this number there
10000 hanging between the life and
death of unionism, by not being fully
paid up in their dues. I want to con
denim the faults and weaknesses of GU,
own members before talk of those of
other organizations, and I want to say
that we are just as strong as we de-
serve to be. When we keep our dues
: paid up we will be able to do whatever
we want to do.
| DIOLuCI DIydu Is I1SuI dDOuL SIuD
! bling. We have got to grub for new
members. We have got to wake up
: the weakened ones among our own
members. And we must, specially,
get the ladies interested. Too many
don't think Too many don't thing
even of the union label l believe
that it is necessary to preach unionism
to the nonunionist, but l believe that
it is sometimes also necessary to warm
up the members who are cold. l want
to get at the fellow who says: What's
, the use of going to the meeting?
There's just a clique running the local
anyway! Wherever you go my
friends, whatever organization you 60
among. you will find that a clique is
running things 1t is because a few
are left to do the work, and the many
who do not do the work call the few
; a clique. 81
"This is true even of the churches,
and yet the Labor unions have done
Iimmeasureably more for the uplift of
humanity than have the churches. The
trouble with the churches is that there
meath that building. although out of
sight, was a strong foundation, and
knew that unless that foundation was
there, a few winters, with the heavy
frosts, and the resultant thaws, would
make that big heap of brick and stone
crumple up and collapse So it is with
a Labor union, although so many do
not seem to know this. They expect
a Labor union to run with the same
thing that operates a wind mill.
I'VE found that we would have to
lay foundation. And SO when it i
came time for our convention, and
little handful of delegates were all that
were present, and some of them not
entitled to seats, we crossed the Rubi-
con. We raised the dues They told
US that we shouldn't do that, that We
would lose what we had. We said that
we couldn't lose anything. because we
didn't have anything And from that |
day we began to grow strong. The I'M
ion that had dwindled from SO locals |
with $4,000 members down to 5000