Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-02-22
SHIPYARD HEADS REMOVED.

Heads of the Sloan shipyards In
this city, during the last few months,
rendered their designations, by re-
quest, Saturday last. The decision to
behead these gentlemen was reached
after an investigation due to the un-
fortunate strike Of last week. 1t
transpired that the directors of the
yard who were fired cherished rabid
anti-union sentiments and, Of course,
had used their position to antagonize
the unions and foment trouble among
the men. Mr.. Piggott, who has had
more than a quarter century's expe-
rience in dealing with organized
labor in his own business, promptly
struck at the root of the difficulty
by handing the manager and the su-
perintendent of the yards their pass
ports.
One of the discharged men had re-
instated Barnes and refused to allow
him to quit work when he desired to
do so.
The other had listened to the
coaching of certain financial pirates
and refused to carry out In good
faith the rules Of the federal labor
adjustment board.
Sailing, and batting the skilled
men employed in the shipyards final
ly called for q showdown and these
two officials met their Waterloo.
1t is the old story OF the stretching
of little brief authority far beyond
reason. These men. like many 9TH
ers, are still ignorant of the fact that
the skilled craftsmen OF the Ameri-
can Labor Movement constitute the
most intelligent and independent
class of our citizenship.
At the time of the walkout, as the
younger men were leaving the yard.
they were threatened, by the Office
army. and a local patriot. addressing
the Carpenters Wednesday night,
while saying that he intended no
yelled threat, went on to elucidate
what the government might do to the
strikers. The amusing part OF 1t is
that these limbs of the Goldfish aris-
tocracy" seem to place exceeding
great faith in the theory that "the
government" consists OF themselves
and few Of their kind.
President Wilson and his advisers
clearly understand the part that or
ganized labor is playing and have
outlined a policy Of cooperation with
our millions of skilled craftsmen.
And President Wilson is bearing his
tremendous burden courageously, but
he can't attend to every detail. All
over the country petty politicians,
lawyers and financiers have seized
control of subordinate boards and
commissions and have conducted op-
erations from a spirit of prejudice
against organized labor and to q con-
siderable extent for personal aggran-
dizement, and while most of them
are clothed with little or no positive
authority. they issue orders right and
left as though they were direct repre-
sentatives Of a kaiser. They are Sc
curing coolies of publicity through a
plant press, but are more often a
The president, in his address to
the Buffalo convention of the A. F..
of L., said: ut means not only that
we must do what we have declared
our purpose to do, see that the con-
ditions of labor are not rendered
more onerous by the war, but also
that we shall see to 1t that instru-
mentalities by which the conditions
of labor are improved are not blocked
or checked"
And whenever the piratical prac-
tice of some board or some swell
head official is brought to his notice,
he at once proceeds to undo the work
of the mischief maker.
And about every second wise
gink" in the community is positive
that "the government" cannot and
will not recognize the closed shop.
None, however, have put forward any
good reason why the government
could not or would not recognize
such conditions. You perhaps have