The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1919-11-06
A UNION LABEL STATE

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" --
No act of any state administration in recent
years is more significant than that Of the
North Dakota Industrial Commission in invit-
ing the A. F. of L. organizer in this state to
%unionize the first state industry-the flour mill
at Drake.
This act, first of all, proclaims to the world
that the League administration has laid the
foundation for permanent cooperation in all
state industries in the future between the state
and labor. It proclaims that the state the organ
lied farmers is building up is not to be a cen
tralized bureaucracy enslaving labor in the
state industries, but a democratic organism CO.
operating with self-governing labor.
The invitation for tho workers in the public
industries to unionize can have no other mean
ing. All old party governments nave bitterly
fought and crushed, wherever possible, every
effort of the workers to organize in s%tate-owned
industries, on the theory that any resistance, or
self-assertion Of labor in state industries is mu-
tiny or treason. The organization of the postof-
ficeemployes in America has been opposed with
all it's strength by the government. So too has
the organization of school teachers. In many
branches of this government today organization
is not tolerated. ..''
North Dakota starts out by advocating the
organization of it's public employees. The recog-
milton by a government of the right of it's en-
ployes to organize is tantamount to admitting
the workers into the body polite as a cor-ordin-
ate and cooperating force and giving them a
legal status as such. 1T is THE PRIMARY
FOUNDATION OF INDUSTRIAL DEMOCRA-
CY. IN MANY WAYS 1T IS THE BIGGEST
TuTNC 10NIE DIV A cTA HrEC TAI yNrrra, TRIO
TORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
This state recognition of labor organizations
in public industries leads naturally to some
thing like the Plumb plan-that is, labor repre-
sentation and state representation in the man.
agement of industry. It is significant that it
follows Governor Frazier's outspoken advocacy
of the Plumb plan.
By this great act the organized farmers have
more than made good their professions of
friendship to labor and they have forged a link
binding the workers and farmers together that
can never be broken.
This epoch making decision comes at a time
when the nation faces the greatest labor crisis
in it's history and offers the true solution of the
labor problem. The American federation of La
Dor has called a national conference to consider
the ACCESSIBILITY of a great industrial war be-
cause President Wilson's industrial con-
ference refused the workers the right to bar
gain collectively "a right all employers enjoy.
The Cummins railroad bill, which is in danger
of becoming a law, would leave the railroads I'M
der the ownership Of the private corporations,
guarantee these companies 6 per cent interest
on their investment and then turn around and
make it a punishable offense for labor to strike
or advocate striking. Therefore, railroad labor
too threatens to strike against this measure
thereby extending the industrial war. In the
face of these events is the threatened coal strike
for high enough wages to offset the increased
cost of living and short enough hours to pro-
vide all coal miners with work. In the meantime
the steel workers continue to strike for better
conditions and union recognition against a cruel
and remorseless combination bent on denying la
Dor all recognition.
To each and all of these difficulties the actof
the North Dakota Industrial Commission offers
the real solution. That solution is: PUBLIC OW-
NERSHIP OF THE BASIC INDUSTRIES AND
FULL COOPERATION BETWEEN THE
STATE AND LABOR OPERATING THESE
INDUSTRIES.
Big American interests have conspired with
the Brazilian government to corner coffee until
the price goes up to 81 a pound. This nice little
shakedown will relieve the American consumers
of onlv $500. 600 600 It's ca oasv RI nako roonov