The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1914-03-06
AIDS THE LABOR MOVEMENT.

From, the Standpoint of Principle Or
sanzed Workers Should Work In
Complete Harmony-Common Inter
est Demands Support of the Label.
In recent address on The General
Labor Movement" W. T. Luce of To
peka Typographical union. after re-
viewing the benefits Of unionism, said
In conclusion:
| will ask you, in the first place, to
take mental inventory. How many
union labels have YOU in your wearing
apparel tonight? Count them. Do you
buy union or nonunion bread? Does
the union shop card hang in your bar
ber shop? Are you buying blue label
cigars and tobacco: Do you employ
union men on every occasion when
their employment is possible? This is
the service you can render the general
labor movement, and it is the very
least that should be expected of you
/ care not how young or how old you
are. 1t makes no difference how much
of a society man you are or how much
of sage you consider yourself to be,
you are not exempt The very exist
ence of many labor unions depends
upon It,
If every one of the 100000 union
lists represented in the American Fed
Grafton of Labor would do this the
present day labor movement would be
irresistible and its example of soIidar
itz would draw all other workers to it.
| believe we should do these things
as q matter of course from the stand
point of principle But |, for one.
would be In favor of amending the
form of obligation we take on admis-
sion to our organization to include
clause making it the duty of each
member to observe the ordinary amen
tiles of union membership rs concerns
our relations with sister unions and
also a corresponding amendment to
our laws with penalties adequate to its
enforcement
When we are initiated into a labor
union we are in reality born into the
militant labor world and we should be
willing to assume the responsibilities
Of that estate
1t would seem that the struggles Of
working people for better things should
enlist the sympathy and support Of all
other men and women who work for
wages The fact that you happen to be
a printer and the other fellow chances
to be a garment worker, leather
worker or hatmaker ought not to
place an impossible gulf between you
You perhaps would say without hesita-
ton that you have an adherence for
caste. Yet in the absence of Il general
labor movement. rs connecting link
between the various trades. there is
every reason to believe that eventually
the lines would become SO closely
drawn between organizations working
along parallel lines. but never finding
point of contact. chat the labor world
would become stratiiied. with no power
to enlist in common cause Caste
lines would be the inevitable result
This is. Of course, assuming that labor
organizations could live at all under
such conditions. which is not at all
likely.
But happily there is general labor
movement, and you are part of it so
long as you hold membership in Il labor
organization. and whether you are a
plus or a minus quantity depends upon
your attitude toward it.
We of the Typographical union are
far too prone to self admiration. We
like to look at ourselves in the glass
and say, what great organization
we are!" We have built up wonder
full machine It has ground out shorter
hours. better conditions. an increased
wage scale and benefits galore VIII
lingly or otherwise we furnish the
power to keep it running, and we see
that 1t is well oiled and groomed. 1t Is
great mill, and we love to stand off
and admire it. Thus we are in danger
OF becoming so engrosSed in our trade
union machinery that we will fail to
see the higher phase of 1.-THE heart
and the soul that vii! reach out and
embrace all those who now are strug-
Cling, as our own pioneers once strug
gled, to gain a foothold in the labor
world They are fighting for life, and
they need our support and encourage
ment. and their battlecry is Boost
the labelp'