The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-10-14
PRINTING IN NEW YORK

The printing trade in New York is in a badly disorganized
condition, so much so that the big houses are preparing to move
away TO the Vest where the printers are not so we'll organized,
and where their leaders arc not so truculent. For many years
the center OF the printing trade was in Boston. The great houses
thought that they would be better off somewhere else, and one
alter another they moved to New York. Here they fourishcd for
long. OF late years the union printers have been demanding
higher wages, and of late some Of the unions have been making
demands that the publishing houses say they cannot concede.
The international officers of the Unions engaged in the printing
trade have r~epudiated the action taken by the New York unions,
and IN some instances have taken their charters away from them.
There is no fixed rule for measuring the amount OF wages that
ought to be paid. The employers pay as little as they can, and
the workmcn feel that they have a right to as much as they can
get When the employers unCtuously talk of enough money to
live on under reasonable conditions the workmcn reply. we are
not mules to work for lust enough to live on They know that
the reasonable conditions according to the employers, are the
tenement house and the sweat shop. Large employers are some
times unwisely grasping. They would pay their workmen nothing
ii they could,
When one OF tho pyramids was being built, according to the
historians Diodorus and livy, 100000 men worked for twenty
years and received no wages al all, and they were given Tor food
only garlic to cat. These, no doubt, were reasonable working
conditions from the viewpoint OF the then boss, and there are
employers today who would give their workmen the same re-
ward for their labor if they had the power.
The demands of the printers are strangely radical to con-
servative thinking. Temporarily they want increased wages, but
their ultimate object is to do away with the wage system. This
is to be done by taking over the printing plants and conducting
them for the benefit of the workingmen. This is pure Bolshe-
vism, and it did not work in Russia. 1t is also confiscatory and
revolutionary, and will hinder instead OF helping the workmen.
OF course, it will never be realized. The working classes are too
conservative. The international officers have no sympathy with
such radical action this is to be expected, These men hold high
positions with big salaries and reasonable assurance OF pcrmananCc
and they would quite naturally oppose any action that would
menace their rule. Things as they are suit them, and they are
willing to let well enough alone,
George Berry, a Tennessean, and president OF the Inter
national Freshmen union, pronounces the demands BolsheVIsm,
and this is the serious part Of the matter.
The printers union has been esteemed the most conservative
and intelligent of all the units of organized labor, and it Bolshevik
virus has entered its ranks no class OF people is immune, Taking
all you can is the immutable law OF nature. Big fish eat the little
ones, and the stronger ferine animals make prey of and take prey
from the weaker. Illuminate nature is governed by the same
rule, The great oak is the capitalist of the forest, and he absorbs
the n%ourishment from the ground and shuts off the sunlight and
the rain from everything within his power. The question o.
morals is not involved; taking all you can get is neither mora
nor immoral, it is simply immoral, and so long as it does not lead
to other maniestly wrong acts the individual can Justify himself
by recalling the fact: "Everybodys doing it,"
The survival OF the fittest means the survival of the strong
est, and those who are strong enough to take must be careful not
to destroy the tree that bears the fruit, or kill the goose that Laws
the golden egg. TO do so would be like starving the horse that
is depended upon to pull the load.
The votaries Of the goddess Papyra arc not going to turn
bolshevlSt. They may have radical and even revolutionary mem.
bers among them who make a menarinc noise, but thew have the
intelligence and the conservatism to stop short Of violence or
unwisdom.
The printing trouble in New York has already prevented III,
publication OF the leading magazines and trade papers of the coun.
try Tor this month, which is not an unmixed evil.
The country has been magazined to death, and a LITTLE ros
will do it good. ~ " Nv" g
These publications are not literature. but ADVERTISING shoo,,
that publish every fake and fraud that comes alone and ,lini
enable crooks to take money from the public to be Maid tho,
for their space. '' ""