The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-07-09
"HIS union, ladies and gentle
men, is natural outgrowth of
conditions in our country, said

conditions in our country said
a member of New York Typo
graphical union in a recent address.
Its object Is to secure good wages and
right working conditions for its mem
bers. 1t is designed to meet a system
with a system. 1t has prospered in
this country for more than fifty years.
Necessity for its creation existed long
before 1t became Il reality. There
seemed to be no limit to the lowering
of wages and the length of hours the
compositors were forced to accept un-
der nonunion conditions. Horace Gree
ley, then himself a compositor, taught
the printers that their labor was a
commodity, that their employers were
the purchasers and that they would
buy that labor wherever it was found
to be cheapest. A man with a wife
and children dependent upon him for
support would ask living wages, but he
was obliged to accept whatever he
could get Not alone merit, but the
necessities of men, were the basis upon
which rested the union scale of wages.
AS an individual the cOmpoSitor did
not dare make a stand for better pay.
If he did his family would starve, and
he would be forced to beg for a chance
to go to work at any price. Yes, it took
the compositors a long time to realize
that in trade unionism-which is only
another name for collective bargaining
were to be found their hope and Sc
curity under a system based upon the
principles of supply and demand.
The union Is the workingman's only
bulwark against the assaults of in
trenched capital Trade unions do not
go on strike except as Il last resort AS
evidence of this statement, permit me
to quote to you from speech made III
the year 1907, during the arbitration
proceedings between the Typographical
union and the publishers association of
New York by the counsel representing
the union, who said to the committee
of employers:
''The problem of the percentage of In
creased cost of living is problem
which the board itself will have to
thresh out. We have submitted our
evidence, and Mr. Warlman has sub
mitted his. There is a wide difference.
Mr.. Wardman argues that an increase
In the cost of living should not affect
the wage of skilled labor. Such the
ory seems to us what Mr.. WalMman
himself would term All economic mon
strosity' Most of the authorities on
economics agree that the wage scale of
the laborer. the price which labor will
bring III the open market, is an amount
that win meet his cost OF living plus Il
margin from which provision must be
made against old age sickness and
death. and the greater the skill of the
individual laborer, and the greater the
value of the product TO which it con
tributes the greater should be the mar
gin referred to, and when that margin
is lessened by an increase in the cost
of living, then the skilled laborer must
compel an increase in the wage suffi-
cient to restore the former status of
the margin from which comes the sav-
ings that assure him against the bur-
dens of sickness and old age. And
that gentlemen. is what the newspa-
per compositors are seeking to effect in
these proceedings
The printers on that occasion got
what they wanted-an increase of 10
per cent in their wages. What, under
the same circumstances, could these
men. acting as individuals, accomplish?