Iron County record. [volume] (Cedar City, Utah) 1893-1982, 1919-06-13
FRIDAY, JUNE Is, 1919.
THE CLOSED SHOP


editorial of last week in relation to the strike
which was on at that place yb the cooks and wait
ers of the restaurants, takes occasion to shed |
little additional light on the subject, which was
concealed by the sentries or walking delegates"
in front of the various eating houses involved as
follows:
Notice also your editorial "The Eight Hour
Custom" and your remarks in regard to the strik-
ing walters am afraid that the other people have
the same opinion in regard to the strike you
hay g and therefore want to set you right.
and every other demand Of the union except that Of
they should not tie up their business to any par
ticular union and agree to hire none but members
business in the hands of few officials of the union
The pickets misrepresented the proposition
they are not striking for eight hours and not
striking for increased wages or better working
ditions, but simply for the closed shop.
l trust that you will set your readers right on
this subject
The writer of the above is not interested in
the hotel or restaurant business, any more than
we are. Neither is he an employer of labor eX-
cept to the extent of possibly stenographer in
his office. The explanation given can be influenced
only by a desire to see fair play, and brings us
face to face with this fact: That when labor or
ganizes and gets in position to dictate it is about
the most arbitrary and unreasonable master one
can find. Who is there, with spark of red Amer
lean blood in his VEINS that would not take issue
on such an unreasonable, unfair mandate? Why
should these organized cooks and walters have q
right to say who, when and how the owners of the
establishments should employ, and who, when and
under what conditions one of them may be dis
charged? And yet, by reason of the federation OF
organized labor they have the country by the
throat and do not scruple to misrepresent the is
sues in order to gain popular sentiment. Even
the city papers are powerless to assert the right
because they are solely dependent upon organized
labor to produce their papers and would them.
selves precipitate strike or walkout if they were
to take hostile stand attempt to set the public
right.
What the outcome will be cannot be safely pre-
dcted at this time, but it is evident that the end
is not yet. The indications are that labor will be-
come more and more arbitrary and unreasonable
in its demands until finally practically all enter.
prise on the part of capital will be discouraged and
activities which employ labor will suspend opera
tons in such numbers that great armies will be
without employment or means of support except
by acts of lawlessness and crime, until the resourc
es of the country shall have been wasted anC
wantonly dissipated. Then with capital gone anC
discouraged, and with the men who by their un
reasonable demands have wrecked the industry o
the nation and of the world unable to either fl
nance manage the activities they have de
stroyed there will be period of extreme suffering
and want, and then what? Will Socialism come
by which the government will be the only employe
OF labor and each employee participant pro rat
in its profits and earnings, or will we begin at tn
bottom of the ladder and rebuild another simila
social system to that which we now have?
Or will the great middle class of the peop
step in between capital and labor and compel thel
to submit their differences to arbitration with di
interested persons for the jury and avert tn
great catastrophe which threatens our peace an
safety? Just as long as the general public main
tains an air of indifference and unconcem in sue
matters just so long will the conditions go fro
bad to worse Labor is deserving of full recogn
ton and reward for the world cannot proceC
without it but on the other hand, there must
some recognized authority to see that its demand
are within reason and justice
DO not forget that the Thrift Campaign CO..
tinues all through the year 1919 and we are e.
pected to invest as much as we can spare in Thri