The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1920-12-24
REIMBURSEMENT:
UNEMPLOYMENT
nv Challns NJ. Kellevl

lily disrupted industry ana IN a meas
ure at least are responsible for de-
creased employment. Inability to
market goods in Europe, because of
the unsettled and impossible ex-
change situation, is considerable
element in the situation. Disinclina-
ton of the public to buy at ex-
orbitant prices has lessened demand
and decreased production. A criti-
cal financial situation, due to the
efforts of FRIGHTENED bankers to
check speculation and liquidate ques-
tionable loans, plays it's part. The
nation is passing through a period
of REIMBURSEMENT that inevitably must
be attended with unsatisfactory in
cident.
But more than natural economic
forgotten that for months large bus
mess interests have been getting
ready for a down the-line assault
upon labor, and that the opening
gun Of this struggle was primed for
firing Immediately after the national
election. Vast sums of money have
been gathered for a conflict that in
all likelihood will be the most i'm
portant and the most decisive in the
industrial relations of master and
men.
Taking advantage of conditions
that are favorable to their campaign,
professional haterS of labor are
Systematically increasing unemploy-
ment, and the situation is already so
serious that charitable organizations
in large centers of population are
getting ready to meet an extraor-
binary demand for relief during the
winter. Appeals now made upon
them tax their resources. Predictions
that bread lines will be everywhere
established probably will soon be
realized.
There is no such thing as over
production in the sense that human
wants are measurably supplied. Mil
lions of men, women and children
are underfed and underclothed, in
America as well as in Europe, where
the conditions are pitiably abiect
and distressing. The United States
is short more than million homes.
Coal bins are empty. Everywhere
there is a demand for materials
greatly in excess of the supply. 1t
may be said, then, that over-produc-
ton in any real sense is a minus
quantity.
That the unemployment crisis is
very largely artificial is susceptible
to easy proof. In a statement re-
Gently issued by an organization
that is backing the open shop agi-
tation is given a list of more than
a thousand large employers of labor
who are pledged to lend their ma
terial and moral support to the cam
paign to curb the workers-"to put
them back in their places" and keep
them there. One manufacturer re-
Gently informed a convention of
business men that the workers are
already "eating out of the boss's
hand" and predicted that during
the next few months very little
would be heard from those groups
that have been insistently demand
ing only economic and social justice.
1t is noteworthy that in this list
are contained the names of manu-
facturers who are discharging work
ers and closing plants. For in
stance, there are the Railway Execu-
tive Association and the Railroad
Security Owners Association. They
are pledged to contribute to the sue
cess of the open shop campaign,
which in its essence is an attack
against labor organizations. For
the open shop, in practice, is a
closed shop against men who are
intelligently moved to safeguard
their own interests.
The railroads are laying off thou
sands of men. The Pennsylvania
system since October first has dis
charged more than ten thousand, and
those affected have been told that
their services are permanently end
ed and they may seek elsewhere for
work. By following the policy of
suspendrng men continuously the
railway managers expect, no doubt,
to break the morale of the men and
make the disruption of their or
CARNATIONS a comparatively easy
matter.
The textile manufacturers very
frankl y announce that they accept
the situation as affording them an
opportunity to get rid of "agitators"
and perhaps destroy their organiza-
lions. In Philadelphia, it is an
nounced, more than 10000 textile
workers are to be discharged, not
because there is no need of their
services, but because the manufac-
tuners desire to free themselves of
men who have during the past few
years built up an organization that
has revolutionized conditions of en-
ployment in the textile industry.
study of recent suspensions dis
closes that they are heaviest in in
-dustrles where organizations are
strongest. The open shop campaign
Is on in earnest. 1t is proceeding
with a calloused disregard of con-
sequences that has always charac-
terized the treatment of EMPLOYERS
when they were aided by economic
causes.
Just what organized labor is go
ing to do about this matter is not
yet plain. That something must be
done IS not open to discussion. That
something must not be done only
by labor organizations, but by that
Intangible entity, the public. A ma
ton that revolted at the use of
poisoned gases in warfare cannot
regard with complacency the en-
ployment of starvation in industrial
strife. An effort to make men hum
bic and meek through the processes
of privation and suffering must re-
act against the best interests of the
nation. Military barbarians never
conceived anything more fiendish
and inhuman than the tactics that
are being employed by American in
dustry in its efforts to perpetuate
its autocratic sway.
There are, when this article is
written, more than 100000 idle