Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-11-30

Mr.. Lewis has gone to some pans 70 |
locate and quote rulings Of the rights
of the workers to organize from men
known throughout the world. 10
their opinions he has added some
ideas of his own. The total gives
cause for thought-and that, evident
ly, was Mr.. Lewis idea in presenting
the manuscript.
Opposition to strikes, except as a
last resort and after every other non
orable means Of reaching settlement
! Of differences has failed, is cardinal
principle of the United Mine Workers
of America. But they hold firmly and
detel minedly to the well-established
principle Of the right of workers 70
organize and to deal collectively with
their employers. When this right is
denied or attacked the miners stand
ready 20 engage in industrial battle
for the maintenance of that right.
The right of workers to organize IS
fundamental. 1t has been pronounced
and affirmed by the Government, by
the last four Presidents, the Congress,
the courts, by state legislatures, by
The press, the pulpit, by civic bodies
everywhere and by the public.
Theodore Roosevelt, while Presi-
lent of the United States in 1902,
said: II believe emphatically in or
sanized labor. l believe in organiza-
lions of wage workers. Organization
is one of the laws of our social and
economic development at this time
Chief Justice Taft, before his cleo
lion to the Presidency, said: What
he capitalist, who is the employer Of
| labor, must face is that the organiza-
| lion of labor-the labor unions a
| permanent condition in the industrial
| world. It has come to stay. IF the
employer would consult his own in
terest he must admit this and act on
/ It. Under existing conditions the blind
| est course that an employer of labor
! can pursue is to decline to recognize
| labor unions as the controlling force
in the labor market and to insist upon
| iealing only with his particular en-
| Dloyes Time and agan one has
heard the indignant expression Of a
manager Of seine great industrial en-
terprise, that he did not propose 10
have the Labor union to run his bssi-
| ness; that he would deal with his own
| men and not with outsiders. The
| 5ime has passed IN which that attitude
San be assumed with any hope Of sue
cessfUlly maintaining it. During the
war emergency Mr.. Taft served as
joint chairman Of the War Labor
Board, aud it is interesting to note
that ter bis experience IN that work
he said 81 august 8, 1919: Labor
uni. rs have been naces cary to sec1rc
to tie individual workman an oppor-
tun + deal with his employer or
on equality and free from the durass
Of t. Immediate want Of daily
waga, tc demand what he regards as
an adequate and just return for his
| labcr, or to withdraw from employ
| ment."
Hughes Speaks Up.
And this from Charles Evans
Hughes, now Secretary of State, in an
address at Columbia University, on
| November 80, 1918; II trust there will
De 70 more struggle in futile opposi-
tion to the right of collective bargain
ing the part of the employees. The
| recc gnition Of the right of represen-
! tation and the prompt hearing of
grievances provides the open door to
reasonable and just settlements. And
in returning 20 peace conditions there
| should be the utmost care to preserve
every possible means which has been
found helpful during the way for the
investigation of complaints of labor
| and for the adjustment Of demands
Employers of Importance and vision
| coneede the right to the workers TO
organize Thus John D. Rockefeller
Jr, said in the Annals OF the Ameri-
can Academy Of Political and Social
Science, January, 1919: AS regards
the organization of labor. it is just as
proper and advantageous for labor 10
associate itself into organized groups
for the advancement Of its legitimate
interests as for capital to combine fer
! the same objects"
j n Tittenmore, member of tbu
Employers Group in the Presidents
first Industrial Conference, October
1919, said: so far as | am con-
cernSd, | am committed in my mind
and IN my very soul to unionjsm as
it is expressed by the administrative
faculty of the American Federation Of
Labor; and in saying that, my friends
| do not sanction ultra-radicaIism'
Harry A Wheeler, former president
of the Chamber of Commerce of the
United States and another member of
the Employers Group in the First IN
dustrial Conference, said: 1--WE free
| " accord the place of the trade and
labor unions in those organizations
which the men have the right to
|