The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1917-03-30
The Advantages of
Union Organization

Editor Limestone of the creates
benefits conferred upon wage Garner
by labor organization has been tn
elevation and maintenance of tn
standard of living. In the Unite
States, organizations of labor hav
constantly rallied about the standar,
and numberless strikes have occurre,
in its defense. Labor organization
have swelled the pay envelope Of tn,
workman, both by enforcing increas
es and by preventing reductions il
| his remuneration. In the last thirty
years thousands Of strikes have re
suited in the granting of higher wag,
es, and these victories have been sup,
plemented by the concession of semi.
monthly and weekly payments ir
cash and by the abolition of company
stores. There are some who claim
that the increase in wages is merely
apparent and of no real benefit to
the workingman, since if all wages
rise, all prices must rise in proper
ton, and the workingman who re-
ceives an advance in his wages must
pay it all out because of the conse-
quent increased cost of the necessi-
ties of life. 1t is thus urged that a
general increase in wages is nothing
but a wearisome march around a
circle, ceaseless and leading to no.
where.
There are several reasons, howev-
er, why this objection is not valid. In
the first place, wages do not always
increase the cost of production, since
the workingman becomes more eff
cient when he is better paid, better
fed, better clothed and better housed
1t is claimed by some that labor or
CARNATIONS do not raise or even
wages, but that the rate of
remuneration is fixed entirely by the
law of supply and demand. This
law, however, does not work auto
matically. Without the labor union,
the workingman does not derive full
from an increased demand
for labor and he suffers a dispropor-
Tomato injury with each lessening in
the demand for, or each increase in
the supply of labor. Those who as
sert that labor unions have no influ-
ence upon wages, assume that in point
of knowledge of the market andapow-
err of resistance the workingman and
employer are upon an equality. But
this is not the case. The employer
knows the state of the market both
for his goods and for the labor which
he wishes to purchase, and he, or at
least his foreman, has prabably made
a practical study of the art Of bar
gaining for labor, whereas the amor
ganized workman, unaccustomed to
such bargaining or haggling, is con-
sequently at disadvantage. The re-
suit is that the competition of unor-
ganized workmen for a job tends to
reduce wages to the very lowest
point possible.
This being true, and knowing that
in union there is strength" the
workers of the Lead Belt should be
quick to form themselves into a sol
id, compact and enduring union
Should such a union be formed, it
would experience little or no difficulty
at all in securing remuneration for
its members in proportion to the ex-
tremely high price of lead. AS |
have said before, without organiza-
ton we will have to be content with a
mere existence while the officers of
the companies, both high and low,
will receive high salaries. | will re-
late one instance that proves this
beyond doubt. We are reliably in
formed that the superintendent, the
auditor, the train dispatcher and other
high-salaried officials of the M. R. &
B. 7. Railroad, got a handsome
Christmas bonus, but the laboring
man who works on the section, fires
the engine and the brakeman and the
miner who ,endanger their lives ev-
cry time they go on duty were over
looked. Does anyone suppose that
under the Parsons-Graves regime
the common laborer would have been
given such dirty rotten deal as was
handed to us in this christmas
bonus" by the great captains of in
dustry, who come prancing down
from the East a time or, two each
year to occupy the gilded palaces
maintained for their exclusive use by
the stockholders of the Ste. Joe-Doe
Run Lead Companies? What those
companies need most at the present
time is officials with a liberal supply
of business brains, officials who are
not afraid to tell the public what it
is costing them to produce lead, for
fear their employees would not be sat
isfied with their present wage. If
Mr.. Holmes, one of the largest stock
holders of those companies, could
have his way, the present society
wall-f1ower bunch would promptly
pass into history, so far as the man
agement of those properties are con-
cerned. BUD.
DOE RUN