The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-11-26
FACES
AREAL PERIL
AND KNOWS IT

Leaders or organized labor are not
Indifferent to the real peril that
faces them. They know that the
recent election has added tremend-
Gus impetus to the open shop"
movement, and they also realize that
they are about to meet the most de-
termined effort ever made to prevent
collective action on the part of pro-
ducers.
Labor haters are demanding the
repeal of the labor provision of the
Clayton antitrust law, the federal
incorporation of trade unions and the
outlawing of agreements between
employers and employees. The thought
back of these demands is to de-
prive the workers of their only eff
fective weapon, the strike. No en-
ployer, no matter how brutal and
calloused, objects to trade unions
that are guaranteed not to strike
against wrongs. The strike is the
thing that the Chamber of Com
merce and the Manufacturers Asso-
citation are after, and in their pur
suit they have commanded the sym
pathy and support of a large section
of the public that should know bet
ter.
1t is reliably reported that one
of the bills to appear in Congress
will make it unlawful for an employ
er to contract with his men by max
ing it a conspiracy to agree upon
a closed shop. That will meet in
full the demands of open shop ad-
vocates. So much accomplished,
the rest will be easy. Organized la
Dor is effective only when there is
solidarity. In open shops there is
invariably such rank discrimination
praciced as beween union and nom
union workers that it is but a mat
ter Of time until card men are forced
to withdraw from their craft unions
in self-protection.
Federal incorporation of trade
unions has long been advocated by
the National Chamber of Commerce.
1t sees in this scheme an opportunity
to take the money of the unions. |
With control of the courts fairly |
complete, an incorporation law would |
be very useful in the down-the-line |
attack upon trade unions.
The repeal of the antitrust i'm
munity of the Clayton act would |
make the injunction useful and
never-failing weapon in labor dis
putes. There are judges who are
willing to overlook this concession
wrung from an unwilling congress,
but the majority of jurists fairly
construe its provisions. Its repeal
would remove all doubt and trade
unions could be approached from
the angle of being combinations in
restraint of trade.
The railway managers are getting
ready to put the skids under the |
brotherhoods and will be before Con-
gress with number of schemes |
that, if enacted, will materially cur |
tail the legitimate activities of the
workers.
All in all, the prospect is not |
especially happy for the unions, |
They will be handicapped at the |
very outset by increasing unemploy- |
ment. Hundreds of thousands of |
men, it is predicted, will search in
vain for jobs this winter This |
number will be gradually increased, |
until hunger compels the workers |
to accept conditions made by the |
workers without consultation with |
them.
The condition that is now revealed |
was discernible before election, but
the workers could not be induced to
safeguard their own interests. They
seem to learn only in the bitter
school of experience Now that they
are going to get some hard lessons,
it may be that they will learn some
thing of value to them. For in
stance, they will discover, as their
enemies have discovered, that par
tisanism doesn't pay and that safety
lies not in blind allegiance to party
fetishes, but in answering devo-
ton to those interests and ideals
that must subsist unless we as a
nation are to sink back to a state
Of feudalism.