The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-01-20

and H., Indianapolis, Ind.)
Sometimes it is bad practice to
keep men in office too long, and
they should not be retained unless
they render the best service possible
to the organization by which they
are employed. However. splendid
results are obtained in many in
stances by retaining the same man
in office, because from year to year
he acquires fund of experience
which is helpful to the membership
he represents. Any man who fails
to profit by his experience is not a
fit man to have working for an or
ganization. A man may not be worth
very much to an organization i'm
mediately upon his employment. 1t
takes two or three years to proper
ly break a man in and make him in
any way safe for either a local or
International union. You cannot ex-
pect to take a man off truck to-
day and make him diplomat of
the type we need, able to go in and
argue with a number of smooth en-
ployers, who are represented by the
smoothest, most cold-blooded law
yers that can be produced. 1t is al
most impossible to imagine how
Labor has developed, who are able
to go out and battle their way in
argument, produce facts, and hold
their own against the odds that con-
front them, is indeed. to say the
least, surprising The labor move
ment has developed men who are
able to hold their own in the confer
ence, on the public platform and in
the press, but this cannot be done
in year or two and it will never
be done by some individuals who
have refused to move ahead, who
refuse to be enlightened, who refuse
to profit by their experience, who
believe because they have gained a
little imagine they can, by their
backward tactics, overcome every
thing. l say to our officers and to
our unions that loud talking and
threatening language will not get us
anything. There is indeed a great
responsibility placed upon the Shout
ders of local and international Of
ficers of a labor union. Men rep
resenting The membership of any or
ganization should remember that the
old-time clustering tactics, which
were adopted years ago (and that a
few men continue to retain) are
worn out, useless, undignified and
discreditable to the individual, and
the union that he represents. An
| International officer, from the years
of experience that he has had (and
the writer contends that he should
endeavor to improve his mind each
year,, can almost tell the outcome
of a controversy before it begins.
The same condition obtains amongst
many of our local officers through
out the country. For instance, in
city where the men are not very
we'll organized, we know that it is
impossible to win a strike. We have
before our eyes a map of the dis
trict where men will fight and win
and the district where men will
fight and lose. We know the caliber
of employers we have to deal with
in each city. We know the kind of
industrial years when it is profitable
for unions to make a noise We
know the dangers surrounding each
union each year; the result of con-
tests in the past that were ill-con-
sidered, and we say to you honestly
that this year in nearly every dis
trict it is impossible to obtain any
increase in wages or any shortening
of hours until this industrial depres-
sion passes over, and the set of Of
ficers that insist on getting substan-
tial changes in their agreements are
doing so at the risk of losing their |
unions, jeopardizing the work that |
it has taken years to accomplish and |
destroying the conditions that are at |
present enjoyed by the membership. |
Such men are dangerous and such |
men cannot continue to function for |
local unions very long because it will |
take but a short time for the unions |
to realize how pin-headed and dam
gerous their judgment has been. Of |
course, this is not true in all dis |
tricts or in all unions, for there are
some isolated districts where men
are working for very low wages and |
are entitled to a betterment of their
conditions, but in 80 per cent. of the
cities and towns in this country at
the present time where our craft is
organized, it is true that it is i'm
possible, at this time, to change con-
ditions. This means also that we
must not change conditions down |
ward. We must fight against re-
auctions as much as possible Every |
dollar that we are receiving today |
we are entitled to and we are going |
TO try 10 hold. If we fight and lose |
that which we have struggled to |
obtain it will be a fight forced on