Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-03-17
DO LABOR PAPERS
PAY?
Observation-Disclosures.

Do labor papers pay? To think
/ ing person and to a person who knows
anything about the struggles of the
workers this is foolish question num-
Der 9,876,543.
Labor papers do pay, but the profit
from labor papers TO the rank and
/ file of the workers cannot be meas
ured in dollars and cents.
All papers that are published in
the name of labor are not real labor
papers. There are many that are
owned privately and published for the
sole purpose of holding up the adver-
tisers of their locality and shaking
them down for every dollar that can
be squeezed out Of them.
There are real labor papers, how
ever, and these are owned by the rank
and file of labor organizations and
are not published for financial profit.
There may be a few labor papers
that are published at a profit finan-
cially, but if there are any such, it rs
an historical fact that they were pub
lished at loss for time before they
break even.
IluHuTtdS OI LIOuSdHuS Vi
have been raised by subscription and
through donations to keep various
labor papers alive during the first
years of their existence, but this
money was usually raised by those
who were intelligent enough to know
and realize the value of mouth
piece for the toilers.
A paper owned and controlled by
labor organization Is delivered week.
ly,. bi-weekly or monthly to the homes
of those who subscribe for it. In
many cases it is subscribed for by all
the members of the organization pub
fishing it. 1t is a messenger that
comes regular with its message. 1t
binds the members of an organization
together with bond of mutual I'M
derstanding. II acts as an educational
medium whose value canno the over
estimated. Through 1t the workers
are kept thoroughly informed. 1t
acts as a medium Of propaganda and
is the means of keeping many MEM
bers interested in the organization,
who would drop out, and it is the
means of bringing many new men,
bers into the organization, who would
otherwise never hear of it.
No intelligent union man expects a
labor paper to pay financially, espe-
cially at the start. The employers
are against such papers, they in
fluence the merchants to withhold adj
vertising from it and every obstacle
that can be devised is placed in the
path of labor paper.
The great tragedy of the American
labor movement is the fact that there
are so few labor papers to act as the
mouth-piece of labor. 1t is through
the ownership and control of the big
daily papers that the capitalists are
able to keep themselves in position
of power and it through these big
dailies that they disseminate their
mental poison.
The press is a powerful weapon. 1t
has been used for years to keep labor
down The more papers labor owns
and controls the sooner will labor be
free.
To that end the workers, through
their organization should strain every
effort to keep and maintain press of
their own, so that they can always be
in position to voice their sentiments
adm expound their views.
The very fact that the employers
are willing to do almost anything to
crush labor paper is the very best
reason in the world why the workers
should fight to support and maintain
press of their own.