Omaha daily bee., 1918-09-26
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Unions of Government EMPLOYEES.
Omaha, Sept. 24.-To the Editor
of The Bee: Our city fathers might
save themselves much worry and
the community some annoyance if
they would view the organization of
firemen and policemen from the
standpoint of co-workers and direc-
tors Of labor rather than as bosses.
The day of the latter is passing, if it
is not already gone. A boss by any
other name is just as offensive and
intolerable.
England, the metropolitan council
of the city Of London, the congress
of the United States and such official
and exalted bodies recognizing the
right of public employees to unionize
for the express purpose of advancing
and protecting their interests the
wisdom of the Omaha city commits
sioners in opposing such a step is,
to put it mildly, very doubtful. Our
commissioners, as we'll informed
men. must appreciate that the status
of the workingman today is vastly
different to what 1t was in the uoet
Present-day world activities are ed
ucating him, until today he Ii /
keener and truer appreciation of his
place in the social and industrial
fabric than he ever had before. Men
who have given the subject a good
deal of thought big men, men as
SiSting in guiding the destinieS of
great nations concede that in future
the man who works is not only con-
cerned about what his wages shall
be, but also as to the conditions I'M
der which he shall labor, about his
working environments in general,
about the management, If you
please, of the work in which he is
engaged-in fact. about any matter
affecting his condition and health as
a worker and member of society
The question Of unionism was in
vestigated few years ago by the
congress of the United States, and
incidentally the right of federal en-
ployes to affiliate with the American
Federation of Labor, and though
congress is not going out Of its way
to favor the working class, it could
find nothing vicious or dangerous in
American citizens protecting them
selves in the manner that seemed to
them advisable and productive of
results. The firemen and the police
men are in the same position in
! which all working bodies find them
selves at some stage of their exist
ence, waiting patiently for the en-
ployer, the supervisor or the boss
to see their wants and to apply the
remedy. but they always wait in
vain. Their silence is interpreted as
content. If an individual complains
he is a radical and dangerous to
peace and quiet and a disturbance
to be suppressed or removed The
only remedy left, then, is collective
| action. So that employers, super
visors and bosses are the real insti-
| gators and founders of unions.
1t is hard to see wherein the city
worker differs from. any other. 1t
is the Verlest moonshine to put him
in class by himself and fence him
in. He has the same wants and
wishes that / have, and they must be
| satisfied as mine are. His chrra-
tons are the same. He does not
owe a whit more loyalty to the city
than the railway mail clerk or car
i4ei oWCo " LIE HdtlOu. MOI Dlt
more than a butcher owes to Armour
or a laborer TO Swift & Co. Now, if
the National War Labor board.
which has as one Of its presidents
| that big, genial, conservative w. H.
Taft. says that such men have a
right to join a union, and that this
right shall not be questioned, it is
not popular or progressive for our
commissioners to tell this national
board that 1t is altogether wrong on
| this question.
If our commissioners would look
at this proposition through mc'Hrn
glasses fitted by themselves and not
by little local cliques vino b~..eny as
firmly as any kaiser on earth that
they were ordained to rule, they
would see not alone the advisa bility,