Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1914-07-02
CUTTING OUT THE CANCER.
Evening Wisconsin.

Evening Wisconsin.
There is a monstrous cancerous
growth on the trade unionism Of the
country of which labor as well as capt. |
tai has been the victim, and which |
must be cut out jim the interest Of good
government as well as of justice be-
tween man and man. 1t exploits the
unions as well as the employers of la
Dor IT'S beneficiaries are men who use
the machinery Of unions chiefly to fur
Their the feathering of their own nests.
The path of this class Of men is Shiny
with graft and bristling with crime.
Decent labor abhors their deeds. They
are traitors to trade unionism as well
as enemies to justice and order.
They are confined to no part of the
country. In New York and Chicago
there have been times when for their
own selfish ends they brought about and
kept up war in the building trades and
other important industries. They have
called strikes in many an instance
where they very well knew it to be
! against the interest Of union labor to
cali a strike, but where this helped
them to enforce plot Of blaekmeil for
their own personal enrichment. Now
ard then they have been brought to
grief by conviction in court for some
Of their crimes, md subsequent confne-
ment in prison.
The horrible tragedy at Los Angeles,
where the Office Of the Times was blown
up with dynamite and number of in
nocent working people were killed; the
widespread dynamite outrages involv-
= ing certain members Of the ironwork-
ers' union, and the hugh disorders APP
proximating civil war in the mining
regions Of uppe- Michigan and Colorado,
all presented phases Of criminal con-
spiracy more or less connected with
what has been described No wonder
that the pardon of four dynamiters 10y
President Wilson calls forth sharp crit
icism from citizens familiar with the
history of criminal outrages in connee-
ton with labor disputes and cognizant
of the desperate and despicable char
acters responsible for this mode of
procedure, and of the encouragement
to new atrocities which they will derive
from examples Of the lax enforcement
of the law when plain cases have been
made against It's violators.
| A tragedy which has occurred at Chi
cago serves TO call renewed attention
to the widespread evil possible when
unions place unworthy men in positions
Of trust and authority. Contractors al
lege that union representatives have
been misusing their powers and acting
as hold-up men, boldly demanding con-
siderable sums Of money with the hint
that if their demands were not granted
they would call strikes and might ruin
the business of individual contractors.
The fatal shooting Of a union represen-
tative by contractor on Wednesday, it
is asserted, was due to anger and indig-
nation of the contractor aroused by a !
threat of this kind. The contractor
win have TO take his chances in court |
Shooting men down, by private indy /.
iduals, even on great provocation is not |
tolerated by law or public opinion But
the tragedy in Chicago may DO some
good if the excitement it arouses is
promotive of the taking of steps to ex-
pose and punish the grafters who EN-
ploy the machinery Of the unions to rob
business men and bring on Fictitious
disputes between labor and capital.