The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1917-01-27
UN|0N|SM AND UNION LABELS
BY ROBERT HUNTER.


of unionism pause and consider
for a moment just one thing that
uniOnism has accomplished.
It is we'll known that in the early
days Of the present factory system
the days work extended usually to
II or 16 hours.
This long day existed for all work.
ers, the skilled and the unskilled, the
children as well as the men and
women.
The workers had not yet learned to
organize, and as individuals they
were utterly helpless to affect a
change in the hours of their labor
or in the scale of their wages.
There were, Of course, no laws to
protect them, and so they were en-
tirely at the mercy Of their en-
plOyers.
The normal conditions that existed
in the factory system little more than
half a century ago in England and
elsewhere throughout the world are
equalled today only in certain plague
spots.
" AO11 VIC ICduS l1S SLOIy VI Luo
| misery and oppression, the long
hours and low wages Of those days
one wonders how the workers man.
aged to live at all.
How much the condition OF the
workers generally has been improved
it is by no means easy to say, but we
know that the condition of the work.
ers has vastly improved wherever
they have learned to value unity.
In those trades where the men
have known enough to fight for their
rights and to stand together there
has arisen what some scoffers like
to call an "aristocracy of labor"
And if in certain trades there are
indeed aristocrats of labor, it is SIM
ply because they have had the in
telligence enough to fight together,
to pay dues to one organization and
to battle always with unity and SOL
idarity.
And what they have done all other
J workers can do.
The "aristocrats'' hold no patent on
their method of action, and by act
ing in the same manner all other
| toilers can win all the "aristocrats'
have won.
Now, it is difficult to ascertain
| just how much union workers have
| benefited by higher wages.
In that matter there is always the
| question as to the increased cost OF
| living, which makes difficult any
| comparison Of wages here and
abroad or of wages now with those
| Of 40 years ago.
The best one can do Is to compare
wages and hours today in one trade
that is organized with the wages and
hours in another trade that is unor-
| gained.
This has been we'll done by the De-
partment of Labor at Washington,
| and the figures gathered by that de-
partment show beyond dispute the
enormous benefits that have come to
labor as result of organization.
Consider for one moment the fol-
lowing facts:
We all know that the workers in
the iron and steel trade are poorly
organized, and we find that the
hours Of labor in this trade are from
60 to " per week.
I1C CIlc CdIpcHlcIS, Ll0
hodcarriers, the painters, the paper
| hangers and the plumbers are highly
| organized trades, and when we inquire
into the hours worked by these we
find that they rarely average more
than so hours per ':eek.
These workers, then, are the "aris-
| tocrats'' of labor simply because they
are we'll united in their trade, are
loyal to their organization, pay their
dues and fight a common fight.
It would be difficult to find an ar.
gument in support Of unionism sc
! potent as this one.
To find some set of workers like the
stone cutters working 4S hours pei
week, and another set Of workers in
the iron and steel trade working 81
hours per week, should alone be
enough to convince every toiler ir
this wide land of the value of union
| ism.
But this is not all. The hot blast
men, who work an average of 80
| hours week, obtain only about IL
cents per hour for their labor.
| The stone cutters, who work on ar
average Of 48 hours per week, re.
ceive an average of Al cents pei
hour.
In other words, the stone cutters
working about half the time of the
hot blast men, receive at the end of a
week much larger wages.
To look at it In another way, {
hot blast man during his life sells tt
his boss an amount of labor equa
to that sold by two stone cutter!
during their life.
The hot blast worker gives in on
life what the stone cutter would nee;
two lives to give, and he gives tn,
labor of two lives for less none.
than stone cutter receives for tn,
labor of his one life.
Think of this, and then conside
how tragic it is that one must actu
ally persuade workingmen to believ