Denver labor bulletin., 1918-05-25
RIGHT OF WORKERS TO
ORGANIZE SHALL NOT
BE DENIED BY EN-
PLOYERS.
United States Steel Corporation
and Western Union Telegraph
Company Have Been Called
Upon the Carpet for Their
Anti-Labor Tactics.
by LAURENCE TODD
Especial Representative The Denver Labor |
Bulletin.l

WASHINGTON, May ls.-Three
million wage workers Of the United
States are today directly denied by
their corporate employers the right 20
organize.
President Wilson, by his proclama-
ton Of April 8, establishing the ma
tional war labor board, has made the
set Of principles adopted by the mem
bers Of that board the common law
for settlement Of all labor disputes
during the war. And the first of
those principles is: THE right of
workers to organize in trade unions
and bargain collectively thru chosen
representatives is recognized and af
firmed. This right shall not be de-
MED. abridged or intcrfered with by
the employers in any manner what
soever."
That proclamation by President
Wilson has the effect of an industrial
emancipation proclamation for 3,000.-
900 men and women who have been
subjected to what Mr.. Wilson has
called economic serfdom."
To Enforce Proclamation.
Unlike the emancipation proclama-
ton issued by Abraham Lincoln, this
order TO the anti-union employers of
forced by armies and navics. 1t will
be enforced in accordance with the
Anglo-Saxon tradition-thru judicial
process, after full hearing in each
case, and with due consideration of
every private and public interest in
volved. But 1t will be enforced. The
machinery for its enforcement was
organized by the national war labor
board this past week. The first great
test of the refusal of an anti-union
employer to recognize the emancipa-
ton will come to n climax within n
very few days.
The Western Union Telegraph Com
pany, which has definitely refused to
obey the order of the national war
labor board that II cease to dismiss
employees who joined the Commercial
Tclegraphers Union, is now on the
grill. Mcssrs. Taft and Walsh are
trying to get Ncwcomb Carleton, pres
ident of the company, to see that
unless he backs down the government
will be forced TO declare his concern
an industrial outlaw. and to take over
its properties in order to make sure
that their operation shall continue
without interruption during the war.
Call Officers on Carpet.
That is the final choice for these
anti-union corporations in each case.
They can let the union come in and
organize their plants, with the pros
pect of an increasing degree of con-
troll of the industry by the workers,
or they can see the government take
charge of the industry.
Before the Western Union case is
settled, it is probable that the Wall
street fnanciers and lawyers who
.rl Il h..
called here to tell where they stand.
Among the directors are Vincent As
tor, William X. Vanderbilt, Jr., Percy
A. Rockefeller and Chauncey Depew.
"Our case has been kept clean as
whistle" said S. J. Koncnkamp, in
ternational president of the CONNER
cial Telcgraphers, who represents the
men before the war labor board. 1--WE
ask simply that the first principle set
forth by the employers and employees
spokesmen in the board. and endorsed
by President Wilson, be enforced. We
ask for the right to belong to n union.
On that point the company must either
accept trade unionism or public own
ership.
Ani-Union Labor Policy.
"You will notice that ever since the
United States Steel Corporation was
formed, in 190O, and set out with the
policy of utterly crushing union labor
wherever it could extend its power,
the biggest aggregations of industrial
capital in the country have taken the
same stand. The steel companies, the
copper companies, the biggest public
utility syndicates, such as Stone &
Webster and the Byllesbys, and such
huge industrials as the American To-
bacco Compnny-all Of them have
fought labor to finish. The bigger
the corporation, the less chance for
trade unionism. There was ono ex-
ception, and that was the railroad