The Seattle star. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1899-1947, 1916-07-31
The Peoples Rights
The Open Shop
ny EDWIN ). BROWN

ny EDWIN ). BROWN
Every man has a right TO life.
labor. liberty. happiness, progress
and prosperity"
Il am an American citizen and =
lawyer. I believe that every man
and where he plesses without the
consent OF any union"
That right Is guaranteed TO him
by Almighty God ana by the con.
Every man ought to work" Every
man ought to be paid adequate
wages. No man has a right to de-
fraud another man. Wages ought
TO be ample; they ought TO be COM
mensurate. they ought to be suf-
the day and Of the hour"
Let me now define what the real
economic meaning of some of the
above quotations IT, All Of the
have been worn threadbare. and are
whipped into thin air today by our
Judiciary, our college professors.
our men in pulpits and our pander-
ing political poltroons
Any man who thinks he has the
right To labor unless he also owns
the tools. implements or machinery
with which he lsbors has much TO
learn. / ask such a man TO go to
any corpora ton OF the city OF Sc
and he will probably be arrested for
disturbing the peace, fined and sent
TO the stockade or to Steilacoom.
Abraham Lincoln said: Il would
as soon man had me chained to .
log as for any man TO exercise con-
troll over the means by which live"
The means by which working people
live is the sale OF their labor pcXak
and since this labor power must be
sold to the class who own the ma
chinery OF production. IL is plain
that those who own the productive
Institutions control absolutely the
means labor power by which labor
lives. Thus We see that the right
controlled by those who buy labor
power. The workers and their FAM
ilies who can live only by the sale
of their labor power therefore have
owns the jobs. and the right to
labor, and allows the laborers to
labor (use the Job only upon terms
suitable TO him which. unless yield
TO him profit. he must fail. and
the limit of profit therefore be-
comes the extreme extent of toler-
ance by the workers. The lower
the wages. the lower the standard
of living OF the working class be-
comes. and the greater the profit
that there is no bottom TO the
depths of degradation to which the
working people may descend under
the lash OF capitalist institutions. IL
is the peoples right to abolish pro-
duction for profit and institute pro-
duction for use. so that every man
will own his own job and receive
the product of his toll.
THE OPEN SHOP
The same people in Seattle who
are today asking for an open shop
on our water front are clamoring
for a closed shop against the Jitney
bus transportation.
Heads the masters win and tails
the workers loose. while political
flunkeys run the game OF governs
ment on a percentage basis.
The open shop is desirable in
wage disputes because when the
labor market of today (which was
the slave mart OF old is un-
organized the workers are absolute-
~ at the mercy of the exploiting
masters. When labor is needed be-
cause the snow Is three feet deep.
or a ship is TO be loaded. the buyers
of labor power can pick out the
big husky workers. or single men
instead OF the married ones because
there Is not so much liability In
case OF injury. or better still. they
can select unmarried foreigners so
that there will be still less liability.
THE OPEN SHOP A LIE
Wnen men lNik the open snoR
bunk. they do not tell the people
that a man who belongs to a labor
union is blacklisted in what they
call the open shop.
The Seattle Commercial Club has
about swallowed the open shop
bunk. but what else could the work
ing people expect when we stop to
consider tho Influence that is fast
that institution?
THE CITY OF SEATTLE A CLOSED
SHOP.
The city OF Seattle has stood for
a civu service rule that men must
be five feet eight inches tall for
line. and that men over 30 years OF
age cannot make application for
city positions as Transfers, laborers.
park helpers, clerks and sanitary in
spectors. so we see that Seattle il
a closed shop against the workers
on the same Identical principle that
the water front employers union
wants an open shop against the
workers. These conditions are not
local; they are worldwide. Cap
mates the world, and the founda-
tion of capitalism is wage labor, for
II there were no wage laborers there
could not he q capitalist. Capitalism
desires the destruction of organized
labor lust as the slave owner de-
sired an uneducated slave because
he was more easily exploited. Cap
ital makes rich men class conscious;
labor strives and struggles for or
because wage labor also
makes workingmen conscious of
their class. The surplus value ex-
plotted from labor is what consti-
tutes capital, which Is no respecter
OF persons.
The closed shop in Seattle means
more pay and better working con-
ditions for labor, and better business
for Seattle merchants, business men
and professional men, and less oivi-
dends for foreign capital Il am
patriotic American citizen and I
would much rather see more of the
paid for freight remain In
Seattle In the form OF wages to a
closed shop than to see the money
paid for freight by seattle people to
go to European and Japanese cap
italists.
Seattle business men who want an
open shop are tying a knot with
their tongues that they will not be
able to unite with their teeth. Why
kill the goose that lays the golden
egS for SsattAs7