The labor world., 1921-09-03
REAL aim OF open SHOP |ST0
DESTROY COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
AntUnonsts Use Deceptive Methods the Word "0pen" Ap-
peas TO American Sense Of Fair Play, While as Matter Of
Fact the "Open Shop" Is Closed Shop Closed TO Unions

Just what do the chambers Of COM
merce. the employers association. the
"associated industries" the Republi-
can Publicity Association,and other
likeminded organizations actually
mean when they proclaim the "open
shop" as the new slogan of American
ism: 1t is important to find out, for
the labor struggles of the next few
months. and possibly of the next few
years. will center around that issue,
and the public is already being "edu
Gated" by the familiar methods Of
cheap propaganda to proper atti-
tude in the matter.
The employers have tried to tell us
what the open shop campaign implies;
the have named it the "AmeriCan plan
of employment" and in the words of
the "Dallas Chamber of Commerce
Open Shop Square Deal Association"
the open shop is "the only way to cure
radicalism" and has been inaugurated
''to protect personal liberty and pro-
perty right by seeing that non-union
workers have equal chance with work.
ers who belong to unions"
No Equal Chance
1t is inevitable that Americans
should respond sympathetically to the
proposal that all men must have an
equal chance" If the open shop
means an equal chance the open shop
propaganda will be easy to conduct.
What the term implies. however. is
something quite different. The open
shop, as the Executive Council of the
American Federation of Labor has
said, is in practice simply non union
shop. The idea Of union and nOn-
union men competing for jobs on
equal terms and working side by side
Is in fact nothing more than an ami
able fiction.
The primary object Of abor organi-
cation is collective bargaining between
the employer and the union. The
object of the open shop is to elimi-
nate collective bargaining and to SUBJ
stitute dealings with the individual
worker. If collective bargaining is
eliminated, the union is killed;
worker might as we'll join a golf club
as union in an open shop. The
open shop, then, becomes a non-union
shop and the meaning of the present
campaign becomes clear.
BcllcVC IL PrOi1taDlC.
The New York World put the mat
ter very plainly when it said that the
champions of the open shop are not
actuated by any patriotic impulse
whatever. They believe that the
open shop is more profitable to them-
selves than the closed shop and that
to destroy the unions would put money
in their pockets. That is all there is
to the controversy.
The open shop advocates wear
mask of patriotism because they are
afraid to meet the economic ISSUE"
In the face of the obvious intent be-
hind the open shop campaign the
noble spectacle of the embatt1ed en-
ployers of America raising in defense
of the personal liberty of their en-
ployees takes on comic aspect, while
the claims of the employers that
they seek to increase production must,
in the present state Of the market at
least, be largely discounted.
Winter. the industrial depression,
and the disorganization of the forces
of labor have joined to help the open
shop drive. In certain industries un-
employment is rapidly increasing,
in several large cities in the east we
have already read reports of missions
and lodging houses filling up with
hungry unemployed workers.
That business men are looking to