New-York tribune., 1921-04-22

Unionism's Inner Enemy
That Ebert H. Gary, head of the
United States Steel Corporation,
which is the worlds largest single
employer of labor, should openly
ask for a curb on labor unions is
q fact in itself of great significance.
1t suggests how rapidly has come a
shift in public opinion. The tradi-
ton has prevailed that organiza-
tions of labor were sacred and that
no large employer, as he valued in
dustrial peace in his plant, would
dare venture to criticize them.
Any intelligent unionist can To-
cate responsibility for the change.
It is within rather than without the
unions. Formerly labor was the
under dog and had sympathy as
such. Now in many industries it is
the upper dog, and all know it.
It is giving instead of receiving
orders.
Few will question that railroad
employees, for example, come near
er to controlling the railroads than
their owners or managers. The
Adamson law and the successive
orders of the railroad administra-
ton during the Wilson regime am
ply attest the fact. The American
labor unionist has not lost all his
sense of humor and is we'll aware
how nimbly employers have danced
TO his whistling.
Power develops a disease-the
disease of bossing-partly from the
innate human love of .bossing and
partly because any group or class
inevitably tends to put first what it
considers it's interest. None are
free from the common vice. None
are to be blindly trusted. The
man Of labor and the man of capital
are brothers under their skins.
What use have the labor organ
lzations made of their power? In
countless instances they have gross
ly abused it. Any person who has
brains enough to perceive the self
evident truth that the whole cannot
be larger than the sum of it's parts
sees that the total of wages cannot
exceed the total of production. Yet
the codes of labor unions are large.
ly regulations to limit production
The multiplication Of jobs and the
doing of unnecessary work have
been the passion of writer's of labor
statutes.
With the growth of economic
education has come permeatins
knowledge of the preposterous ig
norance Of this policy. 1t is fount
to injure the worker who woul,
have more wages even more thai
the employer who discovers tha
such waste nibbles at profits an
tends to drive him out of business
That which brings amazement
the astonishing unintelligence O
the unions.
No longer is there much opposi
ton to labor organizations as such
The bargain theory of wages is gen
orally accepted. We're it not fo
the senseless tethers attached t.
production every shop would prob
ably become closed. But, a
things are, aspiring industries refus
to be shackled. Necessity demands
If progress is not to stop, of ever,
employer to add to his efficienc,
and to cheaper his product. Som
concern declines to be bridled b,
sloth and sabotage and creates
competition that undermines tn,
whole union structure. Are tn
unions never to perceive this sin,
PIE truth? Are they never to know
that they chiefly contribute to tn
making of open shops? Will the,
forever postpone a scrapping of alb
surd shop rules?
Judge Gary says the unions ar
archaic. He. of course, has in min,
unlonsm as at present manifest il
its prevailing practices. With a diff
ferent kind of unionism, one tha
would perceive that capital and la
bor are cooperators and are boil
interested in increasing production
he would, of course, as sensibl,
and practical man, be not only will
ing but glad to have close relations
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The Mohansic Bill