Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-03-03
JOHN p. FREY AND OTIS j.
BAER DEBATE open SHOP
lContlnued from Page Onel

maintain the open shop. | want tc
submit to you this thought: that
whatever the term may be; whether
it is the American Plan for the oper
shop employers who organize for the
purpose Of making it impossible foi
their employees to enjoy that same
right, they are not only doing some.
thing which is unsound, but they are
doing something which is also un-
American. They are preventing any
confidence on the part of labor; they
are making cooperation an impossi-
bility and they are destroying what
ever confidence the workman may
have had in the employer, because II
the employer is a member of an or
ganization and believes In an organ
ization for himself and denies that
right to his employees, how can those
employees believe that the employer
is fair man in his attitude toward
them? Experience has shown that
where there is no confidence, no CO.
operation between labor and manage.
ment, it is an uneconomical condition
and a wasteful condition.
want to go a step farther at
this time. | want to make it clear To
you that this open. shop, this condi-
ton that | have referred to, is an I'M
American condition. 1t is contrary
TO the basic principles and institu-
lions of our country, and | think that
all we have that is truly American
rests upon two principles which we
adopted in the very beginning. One
was that all men are born equal and
the other that government derives its
jost powers from the consent of the
governed. Now, | don't believe that
the statement that "all men are born
equal" meant we were all blue-eyed
all six foot three, all healthy, etc
didn't refer to that at all. 1t meant
simply this: that all men born into
this world are born with equal rights
and equal opportunities; that no
men are born in this world with any
right to put saddle on another
mans back and ride that other man
and whatever right, privilege, oppor-
tunity, one man or workman has the
privilege of enjoying, every Other
man or workman has the equal priv
ileve of enjoying that same condition
Equality of rights and opportunities
The open shop DENIES that! Then
it denies something that is just al
fundamental: it denies that principle
! that governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the gov
erned. You have been in the habit
without a doubt, of thinking of tn,
labor problem as something of dollars
and cents and hours Of labor, and tina
all of this quarrel or strife which W,
have in industry, unfortunately is du'
to the wage eaner's desire to have /
little higher wages or work fewe
hours in the day. | want you to un
derstand what is involved. 1t is NOT
a matter of DOLLARS AND CENTS
it is something more, far more, i'm
portant than that. We are meetin,
here today because the rules or law
passed by the city council provide
that we may and that the building i
so constructed that it is safe for u
to sit here.
We go to school; have our free pub
lie schools; enjoy the churches, clubs
street cars operate over the streets
In other words, we live under law
which we have had hand in making
We believe in a government by law
and so we regulate our RELATIONSHIP
to each other by law. We permit nc
body to do that for us. Not refer
ing to the mistakes which we max
ON election day, but to the princips
which is evolved in government
Some of you must have voted the Re
publican ticket and if you did, yo
discovered a great difference bt
tween principle and practice, whie
is probably as true of the Democrat
or any other party.
hope the day will soon come whe