The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1916-08-11
COMMUNITIES AND
UNIONS

Society rests upon prejudice and
federation. The bulk of the people
are prejudiced against unruly men
law breakers and trouble makers
and they keep them down. They a.
the same time tolerate drones among
prejudice and tolerance hold a GER.
tain balance, variable, but steady
thru the years, and the shades OF
each public quality are myriad.
One of the reasons why moneyed
drones are tolerated is that most
folks slyly nourish their own ambi;
lions to that end, the end of labor,
and have nothing fundamental
against being idle, or spending with
out producing. When education has
finally overborne this secret ambition
in the many to enjoy the privileges
of the few the privileges will evap-
crate, but that is a long time hence.
The immediate question is a compro-
mise between those who want to
work and those who use their labor.
The compromise is progressing
thru a pathway of trades unionism
and money monopoly, and excepting
a few jerks matters see to be grow
ing better. The jerks are in the
form of strikes and labor troubles.
Strikes and labor troubles are bred
in a cradle of criss-crossed prejudices
and tolerances. The union men are
so prejudiced against the moneyed
men who are trying to get ahead of
them that they often make bell
wethers of the lowest of their men,
bership and follow them to foolish
and painful excuses. In other words
they tolerate leadership they are
ashamed of, because they hate their
oppressors so, or whom they think
are oppressors.
The employers should remember
that the grace Of the god of chance
is generally responsible for their ele-
walton. Society just manages to hang
together enough to furnish law and
order to protect a wealthy man in
his possessions and a powerful nan
In his power. If wealth had to be
protected as precariously as it is
gained it would not stay long in the
same hands. But the prejudice of
humanity against chaos keeps up a
universal tolerance of lucky ones
whom fortune has favored and who
glut on the fat of the land. At the
beginning of the European war many
financiers were surprised to see their
long boosted power vanish in the
smokeless discharge of a high power
gun. They had been SO long pro-
tected by law and order they thought
war and disorder impossible. Be-
cause the sun shines most days men
count on it every day and the rain
interiors with many a pleasant pro-
ject.
In a case like the present in Black
foot the right idea is hard to hold.
No community wants a part of it's
body to receive less than a fair share
of wages, and yet those it protects
are not all helpers in community
progress. If the disagreement be-
tween contractors and carpenters
should stop all the busy building that
just began to hum, ten years behind
schedule, and if it shouldn't COM
mence again for a year or two, the
result would be a delay in the game
for 5000 on account of SO. That
would be fine if the SO were a strong
unit of membership; but if those SO
can't get work in this community at
the price they demand they will move
to some other place, and if they are
not careful they will harbor resent
ment enough to run down the town
they were forced to leave. That
would be natural. The rest of the
community remains holding the sack,
which accounts for some of the pre-
JUDGE against some unions. In the
union itself, if one man should talk
the whole organization into trouble
they would tolerate him; but if he
should Immediately thereafter resign
his membership it would be a differ
ent matter. They would resent in
reference with their peace just as
tho community rncnntc II