The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1913-09-12
OPEN SHOP UNF AIR
Its Real Purpose to Wipe Out
Trade Unionism.
THE PHRASE MISLEADING.
ostensibly It Means Workshop
Where Organized and unoreanized
Toilers Work Together In Harmony.
A FaIlacy Exposed.

Where Organized and unorsanized
Toilers Work Together In Harmony.
A FslIscy Exposed.
In 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 shop where
union men and nonunion men work
side by side In perfect harmony and
for fair wages
But there never was such a shop
and never Will be.
For union labor cannot work along
side nonunion labor land under condi-
tions which demand that the union
shall be ignoredl without becoming
nonunion labor.
The union shop is closed shop and
makes no pretense to the contrary, for
In union shop the unions insist that
none bur union labor shall be employ
ed and make no concealment OF the
fact.
The open shop also Is 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
q union man cannot work in an open
| shop.
They ignore the mighty fact that the
union man can enter nm open shop
only by ignoring his union and by re-
pudiating his unionism.
! The Record has no use for pretense
It 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 80 called "open
shop" is a 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 IL union labor has It's
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 a 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 a 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 II
pledges itself to do everything within
its power to defeat the attempt to
crush the local unions.
For If that attempt succeeded II
would be found, in the final degree
that the result would be disastrous tc
the city as a whole.
Ii has been argued that the unions
with their higher wages. check the
growth OF a town
1t is not In evidence that they do
but even II they did, for one the Rec
ord sooner would see Springfield q
smaller city OF fair paid, contented
men and women than see 1t a larger
city made up of underpaid. discomfort
ed toiers.
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.