The Connecticut labor news., 1922-10-20
Anti-UniOn Cohorts
(Continued from First Page.)

Tt is not necessary to send to Pat
 I am the friend of my people," he ex- claimed MT. Edgerton felt that in the last analysis he was the one to de- eide whom the employees were to be. He claimed the right to hire or not,
 but would not exclude a man simply because that man belonged to a labor organization. If the organization taught disloyalty to the business or the flag, 1t became different from a loyal organization. He believed in
 employers and said that the average employer made more sacrifices for an employe that the average labor agent did.
 He maintained that some of the
 trouble in which employers found themselves was due to themselves more than to others, for they had not the courage of their convictions and had made concessions as to shop management. If a man had an in fectious disease the employer had d right to exclude him, to protect the health of other hands Had not the employer the same right to exclude a
 man with moral disease who wished to spread unsound economic ideas and discontent the factory and to infect the hands with views which impaired the efficiency of such as were inf1u- enced, he asked. "It has been said that Samuel Gompers, the labor lead CT, had argued that there was no such thing as an open shop, that there was either a closed union shop or a closed non-union shop" MT. Edgerton ap- pealed to manufacturer to encourage employees and said that they had no right to operate closed non-union shop under the guise of an open, shop.
 Mr. Edgerton freely admitted the right of union labor to organize but said that. when 1t tried to use force. trouble at once began.
 Mr. Edgerton told about a recent conference of men from open shop associations in New York City, held to coordinate their efforts. He said that great progress was made in practical direction. Manufacturers were beginning to see that they had interests which the public might as sist. MT. Edgerton congratulated Clarence E. Whitney on the magnih- cent work for the movement. He did not know of state in which work was more promising, he said. The national association was ready to cooperate.
 Then came Saint Bardo and as most of those present had driven to the Hartford Club in their gasoline char iots, they actually believed him when he told them the New Haven road trains are running on schedule. Then he told his story of his life work for the Open Shop saying that the road now had 5,o3o men in the shops taking the places of $500 who went out July I.
 When the serfs in the shops had the temerity to take strike ballot to protect their rights, Mir. Bardo told how he and other executives of the company made a tour of speechmak- ing among the shops and round houses Tn New. England They told the workmen, he said, of the under lying economical forces bringing about an adjustment of wartime con ditions.- When the strike order came for the mechanical workers, Mir Bar do said, early in July, on the threshold of one of the greatest passenger movements of the year, 273 out of a force of $500 men remained. They kept the service going, and not a single train schedule for the Fourth of July rush was annulled
 lne 1CdQ OIIlCldIS, NIT. bdIQO Sd1Q, sensed that the public was against the strike. To assure themselves of the righteousness of their wage ad- justment cause they made a canvass of $500 crafts and found that the average workman was receiving less than Go cents an hour Reports showed that there was a "substan- ftial falling off of the cost of living" and that the menNwould be better off even under the reduced wages than at any time during the war. A bold stroke was made, and the recruiting of men to take the place of strikers started, he said There was not a single complaint, he said, of train service, and the road was getting the unqualified support of manufacturers and public when the decision was
 made to fight.
 On the first of August, when the seniority question arose, the danger
 was greater than most people on the
 outside realized, Mr. Bardo said It had the effect of unbalancing both
 the men who stayed at-work and the
 new recruits. Our good president, ,,'
 declared Mr. Bardo, was no doubt
 misguided by information he had a
 right to believe to be authentic on , the railroad situation and the ques- ton of seniority
 Thus endeth the second lesson and
 the chapter and the party was ad-
 journed voting that "a fine time was had by all'
 l Paforo 1oox1ipo boueyaA tha fo1Iou,