The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1921-01-21
THE WORLD WAR
VETERANS VS..
"OPEN SHOP"

LdSU week, as part VI IHc pTO"
ceedings of the Central Labor Coun-
Gil, the Journal printed the follow
ing communication from the World
War Veterans Of Minneapolis, Min
nesota. The makeup" in the print
shop so split, transposed and mixed
up handfuls of the article as to re-
quire an expert with time on his
hands to read it. Therefore, it is
Strengthened out and reprinted this
week in readable shape, for the rea-
son that it is interesting. Read it.:
Don't read this letter unless you
are fully awake and can see straight.
There will be no profit in our
kidding ourselves. If organized la
Dor can be smashed, it will be
smashed, and smashed utterly by or
ganized greed this year; for, as
Babson has pointed out, greed is
now more greedy than ever before.
And labor and few of the farmer
organizations are the only factors
possible to prevent the perfecting of
actual industrial slavery in Amer
lea. The slogan of this man-hunt
is "The Open Shop" and we think
you know, it. The central soviets of
capital and employers are marshal
ing their forces and equipping them
for the fray, and those forces in
clude all that are efficient-social,
industrial, economic, political, mill
tary and financial.
The men of the World War Vet
Grams, 80 per cent of them, went
through fire and blood for America
and humanity, on the pledge of the
rulers of America that after the
war America would be made right.
We propose to hold those rulers to
that pledge. For them to declare
industrial war on the men who
fought through the bloody hell of
France is to slap US in the face, for
we are the men of labor and in a
fight we do not know how to turn
the other cheek. So the World War
Veterans have made labor's fight
their own, and we want labor to
make our fight their own.
Let us take a few specific cases.
If you want to know the power of
organized World War Veterans, turn
to Fort Dodge, Iowa. Last spring,
Fort Dodge was the storm center of
Iowa. 1t was the home of the
Labor party in Iowa. The men of
the Quaker oats, the potteries, the
gypsum plants and the machine
shops were facing humiliation by
reason of the campaign for the open
shop. To help break the spirit of
the men, the only other large ex-
service mems organization was I'M
officially, and sometimes officially,
turned loose upon them; their meet
ings were harassed, their organizers
inundated, credit shut down, fami-
lies forcibly elected by undue proc
ess of law from leased houses; and
all the yellow tricks of greed, with
which you have often come in con-
tact, were used against them. Then,
two organizers for the Vets hap
pened on the scene. We got couple
of hundred labor men together in
Labor Hall with the agents and lead
ers of the man-hunt present to
watch what was going on, and for
about two hours we poured fire
enough into that bunch to burn
iron to gold. The result was that
the boys found their "guts." put in
post of Vets apout 300 strong;
the boys told the agents of the man
hunt that the rough stuff was off,
greed turned yellow, and the fight
against the open shop was won in
Fort Dodge through the combined
efforts of labor and the vets, with
the vets taking the lead. If you
are slow to believe, write to Billy
Reardon of the Union News in that
town.
Take another instance. Labor of
Minneapolis was facing a crisis. The
political powers of city and state
combined with all the other forces
and powers of industrial autocracy
were delivering telling broadsides
against labor. They were refused
permission to hold parades, meetings
were broken up by the blue coats,
leaders were threatened with Jail,
leaders were thrown in Jail for I'M
concealed contempt of court process.
The World War Veterans sprang
into the breach, for the vets enjoy
nothing so much as clean, open
scrap for the rights of mankind
We shot a bit of nervine into the
labor men, got them marshaled by
the thousands, were refused per-
mission to hold parade at the
same time that the other gang was
staging one. We told the city to
go to hell; and that if they tried
to stop our parade we would kick
their Billies into the mud. Zone of
our posts there numbers some 5000
hard-boiled ex-doughboys). We held
the parade, the rough stuff van
ished quickly. Minneapolis is a