Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press., 1921-07-01
GORMAN ATTACKS
OPEN SHOP PLAN
Deputy President Railway Tel
egraphers Speak Here
UPHOLDS UNIONISM
Says Advocates of Open Shop
Seek Industrial Slavery

O. D. German, deputy president of
the rider of railway telegraphers, ad-
dressed a crowd of about six hun
dred at the Odd Fellows Hall We'd
nesday afternoon, speaking against
the open shop" movement that has
gained considerable headway in
American industry. Mayor J. L.
Pittman presided at the meeting
and introduced the speakers. Elder,
J. F. Hartley addressed the crowd
before Mr.. German began his speech.
Elder Hartley declared that the
world needed more of the spirit of
unionism and cooperation in all
phases of work. He counselled his
hearers, most of whom were strikers,
that as long as they were right in
their fight they were sure of the
support of all fair men.
Mr.. German opened his talk by
declaring that the opposition to un-
ionism i'll this country was based
entirely on ignorance of what union
ism is and what its aims and purpos
es are. He asserted that every in
terest in the United States was or
ganized, manufacturers, professional
men, merchants, and others. In ev-
cry line of human endeavor except
for the farmer and the laborer, the
seller fixes the price of his product
and, Mr.. German said, the unions
demand only that the laborer have
the right to fix the price for the only
thing he has to sell, which is his
labor.
Mr.. German declared that the
prosperity of any community and
any nation is based on the purchas-
ing power of its people. Broke farm
ers and workers on starvation
scale of pay can not make prosper
Gus business community. Union la
Dor he poined out, fixes the scale of
pay for all labor because every en-
ployer must pay his men very nearly
the union scale else they would find
it worth while to join a union.
The farmers will never get their
share of what they produce, Mr..
German declared, until they are Or
ganized and union labor stands ready
to aid the farmers to organize, to aid
them with their experience and if
necessary with their money because
the interests of all producers are the
same, whether they produce on the
farms or in the shops and factories.
In reference to the present railroad
situation Mr.. German was emphatic
in asserting that no reduction in
wages could rightfully be asked or
should be accepted withc''t dollar
for dollar reduction in freight ard
passenger rates. The tar..s of the
railroads were raised on the preteXt
of supplying the money to raise tie
wages of the railroad 'aborlr5 nd
their wages can not be reduced with
out reduction in rates"
Mr.. German secuted the state
ments in the daily press that $780,,
100000 year were to be saved to
business by wage reductions and
changes in working conditions on the
railroads." He declared that legiti-
mate business would lose that sum
of money when it was withdrawn
from circulatin through railroad pay
rolls and was taken to swell the in
comes of til e railroad owners.
american business would never see
the benefit of nickle of that money
which is now being spent by two
million families for the necessities of
life unless the railroads are forced
to reduce their tariffs he said.
In closing Mr.. German decried the
movement for the open shop as a
movement to establish a condition
of industrial slavery. "But it will
never succeed" declared the speaker
"Unionism is here to stay"