The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-11
DISARMAMENT is NEEDED.

DISARMAMENT is NEEDED.
gan that there is an accumulation of
IS. 200. OOO.0 900 in the various war
chests of labor organizations. The
amount probably is not exaggerated.
At the same time it. is being charged
by labor that there is in existence an
association of employers bent on the
destruction of the unions. Admitting
this to be true it is doubtful that such
association has at it's command any
such sum as $4,000. 900. 900.
In view of all the circumstances 1t
is difficult to discover on what ground
the unions can base a plea for public
sympathy. They seem to be amply
able to take care of themselves.
The man who walks, back and forth
in front of a bakery, or a theater, or
a mill or a retail store or a print shop
and repeats the word unfair" 50
that all who pass may hear, seeks to
give the impression that he is out of
a job and that somebody inside the
place of business he is picketing is
responsible. But he not only is not
out of a job. but is probably receiving
better wages as measured by the labor
he performs than before he struck Or
was discharged. Pickets are paid for
picketing. The labor unions are am
ply financed, and neither pickets nor
any others who work for them do so
without receiving remuneration there
for. Not infrequently the strike fund
of the union amounts to a dozen times
the combined assets of the employing
firm with which 1t is at odds,
When the International Typograph-
ical union demanded that the forty
four hour week be put into effect on
May 1, some of the employing firms
resisted and strikes resulted. The
strikers on that date, it is reported,
numbered 1878 men and 932 appren-
tees. The members of the union at
work by a referendum vote assessed
themselves 10 per cent of all their
earnings for the support of the strik-
ers. This assessment is said to bring
in more than 100000 per week, or
nearly $1,000. geo per month, and from
this fund strikers are being paid suf-
ficient to make both ends meet while
the recipient is fighting for a living
wage"
few years ago when the same
union inaugurated the forty-eighu
hour week in the book and job trade,
it expended 100000 which had been
raised in a similar manner. The type
settlers have never suffered for lack Of
the "sinews of wary These "sinews
Of war" now are being provided by
employing printers who have no trou-
BILE with their employees, thru payment
of wages sufficient to permit the COL
lection of the 10 per cent assessment.
If employers really be banded togeth-
er. as charged. for the purpose Of
destroying the unions, it looks as tho
they are taking a poor way to sue
coed.
The Amalgamated Clothing Work
err has been able not only to finance
thousands of it's members thru pro
tracted sieges of idleness, but has laid
by a goodly store of cash, and plans
to lay by a great deal more, to rect
the expenses of trouble they expect to
start next year. Until certain of the
big employing firms surrendered re-
Gently, the Amalgamated had spent
100000. 1t is now raising a S.
100000 defense fund" of which $3,-
100000 will be in bank by the expira-
ton of the current year, to use when
the agreements with manufacturers
organizations expire in 1922. Who
would say that the manufacturers will
have 100000 with which to fight
the Amalgamated, or that it will be
sufficient If they do?
During the last sixteen months. the
United Mine Workers of America, ac-
cording to its own admission, has
spent in excess of $2,sOO,O0o for IRE
lief of its members in the Mingo
county, West Virginia, coal field. Had
the operators spent even a minor frac-
ton OF this amount in supporting men
in idleness a hue and cry against 1t
would have been raised all over the
land.
Whatever may have formerly been
the case, it is no longer true that ev-
cry Industrial conflict is a struggle
between 'abor and capital. More fire.
quently nowadays It is a struggle be-
tween management and limited capt.
tai on the one hand against labor ana
unlimited capital on the other.
"
If all the various movements and
organizations announced as planning
IN stn ain saliva the ho,,S;,, ,,,ot,11-,, ~.