The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1920-06-24
CITIZENS ALLIANCE /.
! PDRPOSE MADE CLEAR
!. BY DULUTH SPEAKER
e. 81 W.. "a 4: ,S h
Say. Alliance Is Dom: More for
! Lalor Than Most Labor
K Organizations Are

L. c. Harris, president or the BuSl- |
ness Me1's association of Duluth, ad-
dressed q small gathering of citizens,
mostly, business and professional men,
at the armory Wednesday evening
and made clear the purpose of the
Citizens Alliance endeavors through
out the United States.
: Where the purposes of the Alliance
movement is not understood, labor
are opposed to 1t, be-
cause they are of the opinion that
the novels directed against them. Al
though the organization favors the
Il"Open Shop idea it is not opposed to
organixed labor, but on the contrary
believes in organized labor, advocates
shorter hours and desires to recognize
and cooperate with organized labor IN
5everySways% ;.@:S ~,
IN discussing the work Mr.. Harris
said, he Citizens Alliance through
out hundreds Of cities in the United
States is doing more for labor, than
most labor orga nizations are accomp-
fishing for themselves.
''The purpose is clearly to further
prosperity OF industries. It recognizes
the principles tsof unionism and the
right OF labor to- organize. It. does
object TO the evil practices Of union
ism, forswhich the radical leaders OF
labor are mostly responsible. =
!: "There are forty million lab0rers
in the United States and only five
million belongto q Union, while
thirty-fve In illionz are unorganized.
The demand, Of these i've million is
apparently Ito the effect that the en-
.ployer hire none OF the thirty-five
millions, in shops. where union labor
has a contract with the employer |,
N THE Alliance claims that such q
Doctrine Is unfair. 1t is as unfair
as II employers would refuse to hire
those belonging 20 unions. 1t discrim-
mates q gainst the majority, the thtr-,
ty-five million, who are non-unioni
employers. Ut breaches the ooctrine;
that YhS4 kmployer should treat both
Understanding that all shontd be
given an equal chance to earn live
lihood. ',iss
X 1.-THE standardize wage fixed by the
unions compels tne employer to pay
FALL alike whether some are worth.
more or not. It 3handicaps the man
with initiative and operates against
the better class of workmen. The
man who is worth more money ought
to get it, while the man who is not
earning what he is paid, should work
for less and be given a chance to
work himself up the ladder.
"In4some instances union labor has
claimed the right to control the out
put. Miners have been fined by the
union. because they have produced
too much coal. AS result, 1t has
reduced the production of from rs
per cent to 40 per cent.
! Mr.. Harris also painted out the ad-
vantages of the open shop towns to
the closed shop towns and produced
instances where wages were higher.
He called attention to the city Of De-
troit, the most exclusive open shop
town in the United States. This city
grew from tenth in size to fourth In
size in ten years. He named actual
big industries by the score which
came to Detroit because of the open
shop principles and the absence OF
strikes in that city during the past
five years.