The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1919-11-04
SUMMING UP THE
LABOR SITUATION

The following from the New York
Sun is concise and accurate nara
tive of the labor disputes that have
brought us face to face with revolu-
ton:
Who Hit Union Labor Between the
Eyes?
Mr.. Samuel Gompers, discussing
the strike mania in Washington on
Tuesday evening, told 10000 labor
uHion paraders:
s"1Big business had definitely deter
mined to give labor. because of it's
growing strength. blow between the
eyes"
What Mr.. Gompers means when he
says ''labor" is union labor, and thus
We refer to it when we ask: Who hit
union labor between the eyes when
the steel strike was engineered,
launched and lost?
There was no difference between
the steel employer and the steel en-
ployee over wages. The wages had
been increased frequently and heav-
lily. They were higher. much higher,
than the level of similar occupations.
Both employer and employee were
agreed as to that Thsee were no
differences between the steel employ
er and the steel employee over hours.
Both were agreed as to them. There
was no difference between the steel
employer and the steel employee over
other terms. Both said no.
What happened was that outside
union organizers and agitators went
to the management of the open shop
steel mills and demanded that it turn
the mills into closed shops, with the
organization by the outsiders of the
non-union men into unions whether
they wanted to be so unionized or not.
These outside organizers and agita-
tors threatened that if their orders
were not obeyed they would tie up the
steel Industry. union and non-union,
OF the whole country.
The outside organizers and agita-
tors tried it. They pulled out of their
work thousands of ignorant foreign
ers so deluded by the agitators or so
seh-deluded that they believed they
were actually going to get paid by
the steel mills for being on strike.
The deceived foreigners actually went
70 the mills to collect the wages they
thought they were getting from the
mills for striking against the mills.
These outside organizers and agi-
tatprs cost such poor creatures their
earnings for weeks. They cost others
their earnings. They cost the steel
workers, the steel industry and the
union altogether tens of millions of
dollars. But they did not tie up the
steel mills. They did not make closed
shops OF the open shop mills. They
Just blew UP. Who hit union labor
between the eyes then?
Who hit union labor between the
eyes when the president of the United
States called a national conference
to try TO establish better relations be-
tween every employer and every en-
ployse in the interest of the public :.
MT Samuel Gompers. representing
union labor IN that conference, first
strove to use the conference to save
the, day for his fellow agitators and
leaders who had called the strike
against the steel mills and had lost
1t. Next he tried to distort the con-
ference into an esidorser of collective
bargaining by and through unions
only: Finally, because his resolution
on these lines was defeated, he bolted
the conference and broke it up. Thus
he aroused the American people
against union bulldozing. Who hit
union labor between the eyes then?
Who hit union labor between the
eyes when the longshoremen in New
York violated their contracts and