Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1920-12-03
"oPEN SHOP" MOVEMENT
REAL CAUSE OF CLOSING
DOWN OF INDUSTRY
BY CHARLES NJ. KELLEY

HfafuDlau INDUSTRY anu III = aftts t@
OF least are responsible for decreased
employment Inability 10 market
goods in Europe. because Of tho u ef
tied and impossible exchange iua
ton, Is a considerable element be 6na
situation. Disinellnation Of tae public
to buy az exorhttant price has les
sened demand and decreased pHaauc-
tlon. A critical financial situation eve
10 the efforts of frightened bankers 20
check speculation and liquidate Dues
tionable loans, plays its part The
nation Is passing through a period OF
readjustment that inevitably must be
attended with unsatisfactory Incl
dent.
But more than natural economic
forces are ~ work II must net be
forgotten that for months large Rusi.
ness interests have been getting rend9
for a down-the-line assault upon Ia.
Dor, and that the opening gun Of this
struggle was prmed for firing tune
diately after the national election
Vast sums of money have been gath
cred for a conflict that in al likeli
hood will be the most important and
the most decisive in the industrial re-
lations of master and men.
Taking advantage Of conditions that
are favorable to their campaign, pro.
fessional haters of labor are aYBta-
matically increasing unemployment.
and the situation Is already SO sefl-
Gus that charitable organizations IN
large centres of population are net
ting ready to meet an extraordinary
demand for relief during the winter
Appeals now made upon them tax
their resources. Predictions that
bread lines will be everywhere egtHh
lished probably viii soon be realized ]
There Is no such thing as over pro-
duction in the sense that human
wants are measurably supplied. Mil
lions of men women and children are
underfed and underclothed, IN Amer
lea as well as In Europe. where the
conditions are pltiably abjeet and dis
tressing The United States is short
more than a million homes Coal
bins are empty. Everywhere there Is
demand for materials greatly n OK.
cess of the supply. Ii may be said,
then, that reproduction in any real
sense is a mius quantity.
That the unemployment crisis is
very largely artificial is susceptible 10
easy proof In a statement recently
issued by an organization that Is back
list of more than thousand large
employers of labor who are pledged
to lend their material and moral SUP
port to the campaign to curb the work
ers--"to put them back in their
places and keep them there. One
manufacturer recently informed
convention of business men that the
workers are already seating ont of
the boss's hand" and predicted that
during the next few months very IT.
tie would be heard from those groups
that have been insistently demanding
only economic and social Justice
II Is noteworthy that in this list are
contained the names of manufacture
ers who are diseharging workers and
closing plants. For instance, there
are the Railway Executive Association
and the Railroad Security Owners As
ISOLATION. They are pledged to CON
tribute to the success of the onen shop
campaign, which in its essence is IN
attack against labor organizations.
For the open shop, In practice. Is a
closed shop against meh who are IN.
telligenty moved to safeguard their
own interests.
The railroads are laying of thou.
sands of men. The Pennsylvania SYST
tenn since October first has DISCHARGED
more than ten thousand, and those
affected have been told that their ser.
vices are permanently ended and they
may seek elsewhere for work by
following the policy of suspendng
men continuously the railway man
ayers expect no doubt, to break the
morale of the men and make the dis
ruption of their organizations a COM
paratiyely easy matter.
The textile manufacturers very
frankly announce that they accept the
situation as affording them an oppor-
tunity TO get rid of "agtators" and
perhaps destroy their organizations
In Philadelphia, Il is announced. more
than 10000 textile workers are TO be
discharged, not because there is no
need of their services, but because
the manufacturers desire to free them-
selves of men who have during the
past few years built up an organiza
ton that has reyolutionized conditions
of employment in the textile indus.
try
A study of recent suspensions dis
closes that they are heaviest in in
dustries where organizations are
strongest. The open shop campaign
is on in earnest. 1t is proceeding with
calloused disregard OF consequences
that has always characterized the
treatment of employers when they
We're aided by economic causes
Just what organized labor is going
to do about this matter Is not vet
plain. That something must be done
is not open to discussion. That some.
thing must not be done only by labor
organizations. hut by that intangible
entity, the public. A nation that re-
volted az ,She use of poisoned gases
in warfare cannot regard with com.
placency the employment of starvation
in Industrial strife. An effort 10 make
men humble and meek through the
processes Of privatiow and suffering
must react against the best interests
of the nation. Military barharians
never conceived anything more aand
ish and inhuman than the tactics
that are being employed by American
industry in its EFFORT to perpetuate its
autocratie sway