The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1920-12-03
OUR LABOR SITUATION.

A publication devoted to the interest of organized labor in jackson is
still growing the action of the Board of Trade in declaring for the
open shop, and agairst the proposed 44-hour week.
Growing in this instance won't do the least bit of good. The manufac-
turers and other employers of labor in this city have fully made up. their
minds that they will not submit to insoI ent domination by labor unions
They ae convinced that the principle of the open shop is sound. 1t is not
their purpose or desire to deny organized labor its legal rights, but at the
same time they are going to maintain their W inaienable right to en-
pny whom thy wish, union or non-unon, and to pay the workmen what
ne is actually worth, based on his productive capacity, and not what some
walking delegate It local union thinks his wages ought to be.
1t is impossible to offer a sound argument in behalf of the closed shop.
No labor union has a right to demand that one but union members shall
be employed, and that they, or their representatives, shall control employ
ment, dismissal, and the general operations of the shop. That is clear tyr
rany, enforceable only through a power that soon becomes intolerable. AS
a principle in industry it is simply iniefensible.
The labor organizations simply al not afford o fight the open shop de-
caratlon IT the business men of Jackson. Labor in this country is face
t0 face with a serious situation. A few months ago it could make AFRO
giant demands, and have them granted, but that time has passed. Until
recently the Job as looking for a worker, but today the worker is look
ing LOT d o ar they re getting scarcer every day because of the in
dustrial readjustment that is taking place. The exorbitant prices that have
been demanded for all the commodities of life are crumbing. The on
sumner bore the burden as long as he could. Finally he baked, and when
toruon. And labor has played its part in this era of extortion. Make Nc
mistake about that. Exorbtant wages have been ust as mich tn bIama
for excessive prices as any other element. When a negro syitchman in
the Jackson freight yards can pull down s24O per month, and plumbers. ar
penters' brickmasons, and other members of the ordinary trades, get from
$40 to SIS per day, it canra be said that labor has been blamelss in this
err of shameless profteering.
The labor leader who says that labor will sustain no loss from the re-
mas aread declined, and will continue to decline until the country once
more gets o a ommon sense basis. And during this era of readjustment
labor, organized n otherwise, cannot continue to iunose tic omn t~us r.
must take what it "a get.
The above ron the editorial columns of the Jackson Daily News of
oVemb "a, discusses a matter of serious moment at this time to the
whole country. No right thinking person a object to labor unions for
the primary purpose of obtaining a just reward for service. But unions
ar about to- greatly overdo the job. The talk of working IA hours per
week I'M getting pay for the whole week is a preposterous business absur-
dly. Where is the merchant, banker OIL farmer that works onv IA hours
per week? What could a farmer do working only "a hours yer week?
LABOR unions should think these things over and not take a step that will
ne~spapeh n Offices OF Mississippi have to chose between al hours
and closing their offices, why, they will chose the latter. Just we'll. talk ont
n mee'ng M ok tn matters quarely in the face. Labor unions
oui nt forget that there ar a great many more people outside Of un-
than on the inside.