The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-03-19
TRADE UNIONISM
AND LIBERTY
Workers Must Keep Regulation
Of Wages In Their Own Hands.
BY SAMUEL GoMPERs.

out LHdL cOuecLlVely Iney approach
economic equality with employers and
therefore secure fairer contracts.
Therefore workers have voluntarily
associated themselves in unions. They
have worked out demands for justice
and have succeeded in having many of
these included in work contracts. This
they have done by their own economic
power without outside assistance And
the doing has not been easy.
The power of the unions and the sue
cess of their activities have been due
to their voluntary character.
What unionism has done for wage
workers is open history.
But in addition to results there is
another test of unionism-its influence
upon manhood and womanhood. There
| are no more aggressive, resourceful,
progressive men and women in the
world than those who belong to the
American trade union movement. The
trade union movement Of the United
States is the most militant yirile labor
/ movement In the world The unionists
are the embodiment of self reliant in
dependence. They infuse democracy
into all relations Of life. They are max
ing sacrifices in the endeavor to in
duce other workers to join them in
the voluntary movement for the better
ment of industrial conditions.
| Now certain political actionists and
benevolent outsiders present to trade
unionists the proposition that regula-
! ton Of hours of work and wages be
! placed In the hands Of political agents.
Minimum wage and universal eight
/ hour laws for private industries have
been persistently advocated, and trade
unionists have been denounced be
cause they have not favored them with
out reservation. Yet the surrender to
outside authority of power to deter
| mine hours of work and wages means
! also to place in governmental authority
either the enforcement Of such deter
/ limitations or the punishment of those
who refuse to yield their freedom.
This change means that agreements
and adjustments TO meet changing
conditions will cease to be voluntary
| 1t means that unionists viii lose the
| right of initiative hence their fine in
dependent spirit 1t means that trade
| unionists will cease to be an aggres-
! sive, determining force in industry, but
: will become an auxiliary to a bureau
cracy under commissions. wages
boards, etc. II means that trade union
ism will lose its virility and the power
to protect the workers.
Can the workers agree to any propo-
| sition that will weaken or embarrass
unionism?
Can the toilers afford to trust the de
termination of the terms of their con
tracts to work to agencies over which
they can at the best have only indirect
| control?
Is human nature so constituted that
the workers can trust matters affecting
their real liberty in the hands of dis
interested" outsiders?
| IL the workers surrender their right
! to determine the terms Of contract are
| they not endangering also their right
to reject terms? If that be true, what
D&NOIISS vi LuGil iUQuSIl ldl 1IEG0OQlf
the right to control or withhold their
| labor?
When contracts are determined by
governmental agents they take on the
character of official state pronounce
ments, and a strike against conditions
of work becomes strike against state
authority. In order to maintain state
| for strikes are the inevitable next stage
| of development, as is amply manifest
| ed In Australasia where such agencies
have been most fully tested. WhateV-
er name this may be called it results
| In industrial slavery for workers.
Rather than to take one step in that
direction, trade unionists maintain
| that 1t is far better to endure the ills
we have at present and to continue to
work out industrial betterment upon
| principles that are true and tried
Labor's progress has not been spec
tacular but it has been sure. 1t has
made for wholesome development
The trade union movement has al
ways accepted the assistance Of out
cate and make easier the work of in
| dustrial betterment, but it has emphat-
ically demanded that determination of
/ personal relations must be held by the
workers in their own hands.
The trade union movement has Sc
cured the enactment OF laws that as
sure to the workers freedom for work
ing out their own welfare, and has as
| serted claims TO legislation to promote
life, health and safety, objects that are
outside the province of collective eco
nomic action.
| Trade unionism has been the great
| revolutionizing force for industrial bet
| ternent and progress. 1t has been the
| one protection in which the workers
could put their trust That is why
trade unionists oppose a plan to subor-
! dinate it to other agencies. The trade
union movement is the hope Of the
workers,