The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-11
GREATEST HANDICAPS TO
 UNION LABOR

UNION LABOR
 One the sanest discussions of radicaism in labor unions and the need of conservative lead tention in long while was written for the Birmingham Labor Advocate by Will H. Vim, former employe of this newspaper and well known member of the Typographical union. Taking the recent pressmen's strike in New York example of the damage that can be done to organized labor by a few misguided orators and the strain that can be put on the friendly relations existing between employers and employees by violation of contract, Mr. Vim shows how noisy windjammers frequently stampede union members into taking action that is contrary to all ideas of fair play and injures rather than helps the cause of union labor.
 After the pressmen and publishers of New York had agreed to abide by the decision of an arbitrator when they were unable to ne- gotiate satisfactory wage scale, the press men struck when the award was made, despite the fact that they were granted probably the highest wages for that kind of work paid any the arbitrator were displeasing to few hot heads who burst forth into typical oratory and persuaded the men to strike. More conserva- tive leadership promptly asserted itself and the men went back to work, but they will rest for a long time under the onus of having violated a solemn agreement
 As MT. Vim well says in one part of his ar ticle:
 Radical action in the conduct of trade union af fairs has in the past and does now, constitute what is possibly the greatest barrier summation of the higher ideals towards which the American workingman struggling.
 It sounds grandioquent, and sometimes takes of the mock-heroie snap ones finger in face of a settled if enlightened public sentiment and bid the whole world go hanged, and be damned if it happens to be out of tune with particular line of piping.
 And with a certain element this kind of bonn bast is always popular and with the applause dear to the heart of the orator
 this type of radical knows better than his auditors that the program he advocates leads frequently to his elevation into sort of ephemeral leadership, rather than to the complishment of any lasting good to his organiza- ton And it invariably that that is just what he is driving
 This is the type of in the labor move nent that is forever erecting barriers progress and delaying and often frustrating the and matured program of the conservatives who always constitute majority in every labor union, though making the least noise
 Unions bound to eventually succeed in of their undertakings. because they right and spring from great truths but there cardinal virtues that be religiously adhered to, such the inviolabity of contracts, the stunning of violence, and insstence s far practicable, of every member claiming the right of franchise. If add to these. temperance of speech and a eut- vaton of, the knack of recognizing the psyehoog- caS hou when it presents itself, I have probably covered my subject finish.
 Right now, before, conservative delibera- ton and moderate action the valuable assets labor organization may lay claim to.
 Organized labor is here to stay, but it's pro- gress has been seriously retarded and much of the industrial strife in America has been caused by the wrong kind of leadership. Violence be- gets violence. Nothing ever be accom- plished in that direction. The Typograp phical union is one of the strongest unions in exis- tence simply because it elects competent men, as rule, to direct its affairs and lives up 10 its obligations. No organization will survive ever amount to anything that adopts a con- trary policy.