The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-04-07
NONUN|ONISTS
UNCRATEFUL
Reap Benefits Of Organization
Without Giving Support.
SOME INSTANCES IN POINT.

Sh0u SNtn Itd 10 Ndift6u anu IDeH
Fall out-Shortsishted Workers Fail
to Appreciate the Great Power Of
United Effort.
The following from the Shoe Work
ers' Journal voices conditions all too
common in the unions of other trades:
There are many shoe workers who
are not members Of this union who
have profited by the fact that this I'M
ion exists and is active in promoting
the material interests Of the shoe
workers. We have in mind several
instances of this character where large
numbers Of shoe workers have been
benefited, but have refrained from Civ,
ing their support to the organization
that benefited them.
In one instance that we have in
mind there is a large number of shoe
cutters who have recently benefited
by an advance of approximately So a
week in their pay. They secured this
advance by attending mass meeting
in large numbers, said meeting being
called by local union attached to the
Boot and Shoe Workers union.
Hearing of this activity among the
cutters the manufacturers of that city
advanced wages, whereupon the inter
est of the cutters in union affairs sub
sided, and only very few Joined this
union through whose instrumentality
they had received an advance IN wAges
Of So week
Significantly enough, this same thing
has occurred in the same city three
times in the last six years; the advance
in each case may not have been so
large, but there has three times in six
years been an advance in wages Sc
cured by the cutters of this particular
city, while only a very few of them
are members of the union through
whose aid they secured these several
advances in wages.
OOluC yCdl0 ago III JAG odl1C CILyS bnC
cutters being at that time unorganized.
an organizer was sent there for
number Of weeks to get the cutters to-
gether. Finally he got meeting of
about 100 cutters, whereupon they
asked the organizer to retire from the
hall while they proceeded to organize
an independent union. These cutters
are evidently actuated by the motive
of getting all they can for nothing, and
they are succeeding fairly well. But
if some day, perhaps when the war Is
over, they should feel the need Of
strong organization Of their own craft
to fight defensive battle they may
then realize that they made a mistake
in Withholding their support from the
organization to which they must turn
In the hour of their extremity.
The above stated instance is perhaps
the most prominent illustration of the
ingratitude of nonunion shoe workers
that we can recall, but there are 9th
ers just as bad, except in degree. Dur
ing the past season good shoe cutters
have been In demand, and shoe con-
Germs in nonunion shoe towns have
been compelled to pay material ad.
vances In wages to shoe cutters in or
der to keep the help who were in del
mand at higher prices In towns where
union conditions prevailed There has
been tendency upward Of shoe wages.
due to the existence of the Boot and
Shoe Workers union, and these non
union shoe workers who have received
these benefits have been ungratefulI
enough to refuse to recognize the debt
they owe to the Boot and Shoe Work
ers' union and to affiliate themselves
with the organization that has bene-
flied them.
In spite of the ingratitude of thesel
non union shoe workers who are will
ing to take all and give nothing the
union prospers in the sense that 1t Is
holding its own in membership and
finances-in fact, is gaining in both OF
these respects Still, if the shoe work
ers themselves would realize what they
owe to the organization and do theilr
duty and support it, 1t could be POI
much stronger and so much more ef
fective In its work that the caiis Pr
the shoe workers would be imfnea1tfs
ably advanced.