The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-08-21


 sent with conventional approval or disapproval, punitive measures or oppressive economic policies, they begin with youth and carry into the old age of the exploited this care full training SD that the exploited classes may act unselfishly in the selfish interests of the employers. But they depend for the success ot this pervegsion upon the mate self ish instinct of all human beings.
 Nor is this confined to the indi- vidual. The statement that groups do not act in a manner contrary to their own interets is true neither about classes nor about nations, al ways with the same qualification that such class or national altrulsm is merely a perversion of the selfish instincts inherent in the group or class. Thus we discover time and time again craft unions refusing to act in their own interests by striking with fellow unionists, and we have in the action of Belgium in the re- cent war another instance of na- tional altruism which is subject Of , course to the same interpretation as the altruism of the individual.
 The ability to persuade masses that they are acting Tor the best when acting against their own in- terest has been conspicuous enough in the labor movement and instances need not be repeated.
 Professor Campion's remarks on | the railroad brotherhoods now seem particularly apt:
 But the members of the railway brotherhoods who are conservative and who are very explicit in stating that they do not intend to disturb the present industrial order, are in spite of external characteristics not very dissimilar from members of ra- dical unions who are extremely bit ter in their denunciaitons of existing conditions, and who are revolution ary. The difference between the viewpoints of these two classes or unions is not to be explained by re- sorting to some more or less occult statement of group or social psycho- | logy. But it is to be found in ana lvzing the different kinds of econo- mic environments in which the groups work and live, and the diff erent kinds of economic pressure to which the groups are subjected. The members of the railway brother hoods occupy a strategic position. It is very difficult to obtain reason ably efficient substitutes in case or a strike. But union of unskilied men would be perforce compelled to take another stand or suffer their places to be filled by strikebreakers. But the railway brotherhoods face to face with the menace of the green hand with a hostile employer who is nibbling at wages and who re- fuses to consider granting a stand ard wage, eliminate their systems or insurance, put the members or these brotherhoods in the position of many another group of wage earners. and the much approved set of ideals will be rapidly replaced by others not so conservative.
 Subject the railway brotherhoods to the dangers which are and have been for several years confronting certain old line trades unions, and their conservatism and the emphasis now placed upon sacredness or con, tract will disappear with celerity. The early history of that much ma ligned organization, the Western Federation of Miners, furnishes a fine illustration of social transform- ations. The metal miners of the west were
 confronted by quickly developed and aggressive class or wealthy mine owners. Control of the mines was suddenly centralized; 1n- dividual bargaining became futile; the separate and disunited units or labor were sweated. The miners felt themselves to be in the grip of a new and strong industrial system
 Under pressure the miners knit together into strong indus trial class-conscious and avowedly socialistic union; and remember these miners were individualistic frontiersmen "(Carton)" Proceeding