The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1920-01-20
THEHASKINLETTER
WHITE COLLAR UNIONS
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

WASHINGTON. Jan. 20-Not long
ago number of clerks in New Orleans
organized for the purpose of getting
| Detter wages and better conditions of
labor from their employers. The col
lege professors have organized, and so,
as all the world knows, have the actors,
| Inc police have gone on strike in one
city and threatened to do so in an
other In at least two towns the news
paper men have tried to organize regu-
lar unions, though without complete
| success
And this is only partial list OF them
the white collar unions. You will
hear that term in the Middle West, and
perhaps In some other parts of the
country. 1t seems that the vast army
of the salaried and professional people,
squeezed and starved between capital
and labor bearing the brunt Of heavy
taxes and high living cost, are begin
ming to organize in self-defense. 1t
means that the war of classes which
Is being waged all over the world Is
! forcing another class into class con-
| seriousness and class organization-the
| middle class.
| OF course, in this country we have no
| classes. We are all social equals, and
so there are, theoretically, no social
classes. We have been raised on the
doctrine that any boy born in America
| has a perfectly good chance to be pres
ident of the United States-or of the
Standard Oil company. We have firm
faith In opportunity and in progress.
You may be a bookkeeper today and
| therefore in the class of salaried EN- =
| ployes, but you look confidently forward
to the time when you will own a share
| OF the company, or found company of
your own How you will do it, YOU don
! know. You have immense faith In your
own luck and latent ability, You may
NM ha hnu No
but deserving lad in the story, or you
may play the stock market on good
| tip, or you may just naturally plug your
way to the top by hard work. Isn't
that the way Abe Lincoln climbed from
a log cabin into the White House?
This has long been our national faith
that opportunity is equal and that a
good man can forge ahead, and is not
therefore, permanent member of any
class, social or economic. The validity
of this national faith might be debated
at great length The point is that we
have it, especially those of us who wear
white collars. Labor has practically re
jected it. BY organizing unions. and
striking and lobbying for better condi-
tons Of work, the laboring man an
nounces in effect that he knows he is
going to remain a lahoring man, and
that he intends to make that career as
profitable and comfortable as possible
|
business. Witness, Charley Schwab
But he has observed that the number
Of those who so skyrocket Is relatively
small In the salaried classes it may
be little larger, but still there Is Ar
enormous number Of us who are doomed
to work for salaries all our lives AnC
we are beginning to realize that fact
We notice too, that the laboring man
by acting upon the assumption that ht
is going to remain a laborng man, il
rather getting ahead Of us His wages
have come nearer to keeping up witt
the living cost than have our salarie!
and fees. Recently at government
hospital young doctors performing op
era tions were getting $1,000 year
which is about 81 a day, and certain
artisans working around the place Wer
getting &c. Situations like that ar,
numerous. Men write for newspaper
and mould public opinion for less THAI
plasterers get. A young engineer II
government employ has charge Of
hundred Iaborers on big job, and SOM
of the skilled ones make more than h
does. A coal miner in Alabama make
$50 week, and the superintendent o
a local high school enVies him.
But it Is hardly necessary to empha
size the fact that the salaried man, ant
to lesser extent the professional mel
working for fees. are the ones VIII
have suffered most from the high COS
class are bitterly aware OF the fact
The significant thing is that we ar
beginning to be conscious OF ourselve
as u class and TO band together in self
defense, That is what the white cola
unions mean, IT. is also what most o
the consumers league and co-operativ
stores mean.
IN England they have gone a ste
farther. They have never had GU
democratic scneamishness about classe
over the~e They have frankly organ
ized Middle Class union under tina
name, and it has already become
rNlitical factor 10 be reCkoned with. !
Germany too. there have been forme
some middle class organizations to re
sist the spartacide effort of the work
in class to RUE
The fact OF the matter is, OF course
that there IRE at least three distinc
: crpsses in every industrial nation, an
that most OF the members Of each c
them remain in them all Of their lives
on the one hand is the laboring class
comnosed OF those who work for wage
in the great primary industries whic
produce the necessities OF life On tn
other hand IL the capitalist class com
nosed Of those who have money and liv
by investing IL in those same indus
tries, for the most part The farmer
. really constitute "A separate class. TIL
, farmer has been wont TO regard himse
as a capitalist. but is beginning TO real
ize that his interests are more nearl
identical with those Of the laborin
man.
The other and the largest class Of a