Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-01-13
HASKIN LETTER
WHITE COLLAR UNIONS
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN

Washington .. c., Jan. S-Net long
ago a number of clerks in New Orleans
organized for the purpose of getting bet
ter wages and better conditions Of labor
from their employers. The college pro-
fessors have organized, and SO, as all
the world knows, have the actors. The
police have gone on strike in one city,
at least two towns the newspaper men
have tried to organize regular 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 per-
haps in some other parts of the coun-
try. 1t means 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 beginning
to organize in self-defense. It means
| that the war of classes which is being
wages all over the world is forcing
| another class into class consciousness
| 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 perfectly good chance to be presi-
STANDARD Oil company. We have firm
faith in opportunity and in progress You
may be a book-keeper today and there
force in the class Of salaried employees,
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't know
You have immense faith in your own
luck and latent ability. You may marry
the boss's daughter, like the poor but
deserving lad in the story. or you may
You may lust 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 IA
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-
tions of work. the laboring man an
nounces in effect that he knows he is
going to remain n laboring man, and that
he intends to make that career as profit
able and comfortable AS possible. OF
course, he may skyrocket into big bust
ness. 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 a little larger, but still there is an
enormous number Of US who are DOOM
ed to work for salaries all our lives. And
VIC are beginning to realize that fact.
We notice, too that the laboring man.
is rather getting ahead of US. His
wages have come nearer to keeping up
with the living cost than have our salar
les and fees. Recently at govern
ment hospital young doctors performing
operations were getting $1,000 year,
which is about four dollars a day, and
certain artisans working around the
place were getting six. Situations like
that are numerous. Men write for news
papers and mould public opinion for less
than plasterers get A young engineer
in government employ has charge of