Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-03-31
HOW CAN'T STRIKE
IDEA PARALLELS
AGE-0LD SLAVERY
(By Samuel Gompers)
President. American Federation el
Labor.


The promoters Of this legislation
say. well, IL Is time we made pro-
gress. progress' One need
but read history Alright 10 know that
proposals of this character were tho
laws OF England and the Continent
of Europe more than 800 years ago
when the courts Of Quarter Sessions
handed down their decisions and
stipulated what the wages Of the
workers should be. what the rations
Of tho workers should be and en-
ployers were forbidden to pay high
er wages than the Court Of Quarter
Sessions decided. The result Of this
was WHAT That the workmen would
escape from their employers juris-
diction and go elsewhere and then
the minions Of the law and the Off
GERS of the court would 20 like pack
hounds after these men and bring
them back in the service Of the mas
ter with the addition that they would
be fiogged and branded on tho fore
head with red-hot irons and after n
repetition of this offense of robbing
the employer of his labor which
the employer was entitled 10 under
the law and under the courts decree,
hinged to the gibbet.
No one who has been engaged In
strike, no one who has been on
strike, advocates strikes. As mat
ter of fact there Is no agency In all
our country so potent 10 prevent or
minimize strikes as is tho much mis-
understood and much misreprcsented
organized labor movement Of Ameri-
"a
We ara opposed, unaiterably ev-
posed, 70 any species Of Legislation
which shall bind men 10 their Jobs
even for one minute.
As 10 turn-ovur In industry, during
1918, In 10S industrial plants select
ed at random In different industries,
employing z07,303 workers, there
were 393,i64 accessions and 299.i57
voluntary separations, all Of which
tends TO lessen the productivity and
increase the cost Of production, and
involving a net economic loss In the
United States estimated at $300, ,000.-
600. Wherever the work
Ing people of our country are organ
ixed, and the better organized the
more assuredly Ia this tho fact, tho
turnover" has been reduced 10 an
absolute minimum.
"But," say the promoters OF this
proposed legislation, "the public shall
know. Let us take the public Into
our confidence and let them decide
what is the right course TO pursue"
II you can imagine the existing con-
ditions by which information perco-
lates to the public, what do they re-
ceivef You know II quite
well as do |, that the newspapers are
owned either by men of great wealth
or by corporations or syndieates and
In the event Of publicity upon the dis
pute or the relations between work
ers and employers, the workers have
little to look forward to. - There
are In the United States at this time
hundreds and hundreds of publicity
agencies and they will take any as
signment for the largest price that
can be paid. Corporate i1srests,
business interests, special ifSerests,
those who want law by Congress or
the Legislature, particularly with q
good appropriation employ them.
What opportunity have the working
people TO indulge in that system? .
Even II they could, II they had
the means. ! should oppose with
, whatever power ] may exert dealing
in any agency to befoul the public
mind Of our people.
We hear great deal about the
losses due to strikes (which cause
but an infnitesimal part OF unemploy-
ment), while causes of unemployment
seventeen times greater than that re-
sllting from industrial disputes are
overlooked. II Is an acknowledged
fact that unemployment is something
that can be solved.