The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-01-24

ga;a means therefore J1at sheroI
 logically and seHsthIg orag one fe-M el organization in aay ia0ns- try aac that is the one that takes in tb- E.Ied and the unsatde4
 It is true that right today em- ployers make use of unskillcd meu to lower the wages of the skilled But they have done nothing differ cnt to what the skilled men in the past did: to mako the lack of skill and lack of organization because of. it, pretext to jusEfy employers 10 cut unsHllod workers pay to the very lowest.
 In this emergency there is only one refuge and that is the organize tion of both the skilled and un- skilled in any one and in all indus | tries.
 Thus the lack of skill may no longer be used as it has been and as it is for an excuse to pay lower wages nor ayailed of by employ CTS to pay the skilled less wages by threatening to place unskilled at work instead. But it seems to be the hardest kind of thing to get a skilled worker to admit that any unskillcd person can acquire his ability with certain machines or certain tools It has been his ability so long and comes so naturally from the ends of his fingers, that he thinks no man unless with great natural gifts, can do what he does.
 It is the employer who swiftly disillusions the skilled man. He takes the most hopeless case of lack of skill and ability, and after q short period of factory discipline has him turning out quality ot work which shows no difference to that turned out by the man of great skill who thought his art was to be acquired only by lifetime of study
 Skill today therefore is no protec- tion. It is nothing at all worth or ganizing. Skill today is quite i'm material. It is the labor that counts. And unless all labor is or ganized, the workers are up against it, no matter what their ability ana technical skill.
 We see in the intention of the British government to employ un- skilled where heretofore have beea only employed skilled, an evident confirmation of the facts observers in the industrial world have long ago pointed out.
 Today machinery is so advanced and men are merely machine tend CTS that the place of the unskillei the unskilled.
 In spite of the most patent fact however we see the American Fed eration of Labor turn dowI with cut any hesitation the industrial system of organization and cling ing ot an archaic system which is in many other respects dividing rather than uniting the workers.
 I his is due of course to several reasons Not the least important is the suiid instinct of the craftsman With his trade still to him what il was to the guildsman of an.,her epoch, he regards the mass of ur- skilled workers with no common feeling as a worker. It is true however that the economic strug- gle in which he finds himself would rapidly knock such nonsense out of his head were it not for another factor
 His craft organization is divided into number of locals with officers and officials of one sort or another, most receiving recompense es dele gates, business agents, secretaries presidents and so forth. The sun, collected in dues is enormous and the sum collected and disburscd for salaries is no whit less large. Thus , single industry will often have ten maybe more, and of course very often considerably less, craft unions operating within that industry Each has its own organization; its own special salaries and its owr , particular union jobs. Naturally , and inevitably these officials who } are enjoying these jobs will be tht , very last to admit that the whols } system is an expensive inefficiency 5 They find that their stand is easily endorsed by the craftOmen who ar' &fttst.g .:..y.ys.f :lS: -' ,'-'st,