The Connecticut labor press., 1920-11-13
LABOR, LIKE BIG
 BUSINESS HAVING
 A REIMBURSEMENT
Weighing New Problems Brought About By Changed Conditions
 and Getting Results.
IS CLEANING HOUSE
Work of Needing Out Unde- sirable Element From Organ
 izations Being Pushed.

Upon many occasions The Connecti- cut Labor Press has called attention to the fact that members of organized la Dor must be ever watchfu1 of the radi- cal element which will always be active within the ranks so long as there re- mains the slightest possibility of com hitting the trade union movement to the policies of organizations distinctly un-American. It also recently warned the public at large against the danger of believing that the opponents of Bol- shevlsm and other dangerous "isms'' had given up the idea of gaining a supremacy in this coutnry.
 Apparently the big men in the move ment hold the same views for of late their activities toward stamping out the undesirable element within the organ izations have been redoub1ed. The Ma tional Labor Digest in its last issue re- views the situation comprehensively as follows:
 American Labor, 1t appears, has at last found time to breathe and think after strenuous war period and the natural after-war confusion. Like other big undertakings the world over, 1t is, though perhaps unconsciously, go- llIS lllCVlldDlG DIOCSSS OI readjustment Like Big Business it is daily facing new problems which must be weighed and then solved in man. ner calculated to create the least dis turbance to the country as a whole.
 Like most other fields during the rush and urgency of the war period, Government, the ranks of legitimate workers were flooded with undesir- ables. Extremists crept into many La bor organizations and demanded of all the last drop of blood, holding up the strike as potent threat. Destructive influences became we'll entrenched, with the result that Organized Labor has had serious problems to solve with in its own house. Taken all in all 1t has been no less unsettled than has much of industry.
 Hardly a day passes now but what some step by Labor Sist noted marking pronounced advance toward its re- adjustment to a peace-tirne basis. The principles which these steps bring to the front are not entirely new to Unionism but during the war their control, Tn many instances, was lost to a great de- gree Now balance Is steadily being recovered, and the determination that is evidently being put back of a rigid enforcement of sounder policies prom ises much for Labor's future welfare. Within the past 30 days four distinct incidents have come to notce, all derot- ing on the part of Labor return to rationalism.
 At it's national convention, held al Kansas City during September, the In ternational Brotherhod of Boilernak- CTS, Iron Ship Builders and Helpers of America, went on record as determined to enforce a healthy policy regarding destructive elements within its mem late the action of the boilermakers to the great advantage of themselves and the Labor movement in general. One McKe1vey, a delegate from Seattle Local 104, was openly charged witt being an I. w. w, was tried and ex- pel1ed for life from the brotherhood One of his co-delegates, Marvin Bren- nan, feeling that the same punishment was about to befal1 him, hurried out oi the convention and left for parts un- known Reafirming their confidence 1T the American Federation of Labor, as the one organization which has bene- hted their cause. the boilermakers put their international definitely on record to the effect that any member advocat- ing 1. w. w. or One Big Union policies could no longer retain membership 1T the brotherhood. "The International Association o1 Machinists at its annual convention just held at Rochester, New York, put in force policy which will result 1T the expulsion of members known te hold~cards in dual organizations. The cleanup began immediately with the unseating of delegate Linckenhely o1 Massi1lon, Ohio, who admitted, wher questioned by President Vim. H. John ston, that he held membership in ths One Big Union. Either we will clear out the dual organization men in oul association, there for the purpose ot disrupting it, or they will clean us out We are going to start a house-clean1ns | right here" announced General Secre tary E. C. Davison, who prefererd thu ! charges against Linckenhely.
 John Don1in, head of the Building ! Trades Department of the America1 Federation of Labor, has voiced time | 1y warning to the members of the build l ing crafts. MT. Don1in is not a man t. call halt when men are pressing ;; | just and reasonable cause. When he ad ! vises a modification of any, so-called forward practice or policy II IS only De cause he realizes that right and reason | in the particular instance, are not on tn side of the workers. Unjustihed, de mands unreasonable jurisdictions | claims and disputes, unwarranted pres sure in behalf of the closed shop, ar \ all pointed out and denounced i'll plail
 language by MT. Don1in as jeopardizin
 the welfare of the great building trade orpaniZatiors
 "Samuel Gompers' and Matthe,
 Woll's Announcement of radical foreig
 labor bodies is something which mus
 meet with the approval of all goo
 Americans in and out of Organize
 Labor.
 "No expressions by the Governmer
 or Labor in this country during the pas
 five years hold as much promise c effective suppression of foreign radics
 activities in America as does MT. Con pers' and Mr. Wolps pronouncemen
 For years alien destructionists hay
 hung on the fringe of American Labo
 and so long as Labor remained siler
 on the subject of radical activitie | ro~a:<~., s,d:oafr %I,se co,1,1tv