New Britain herald., 1922-08-04
T TOLD YOU SO."

Labor men, and those who try 70
 form fair opinion between labor and
 capital, will have some foundation
 for the remark T told you so'' or
 'I heard this" when they read of the
 words of c. l.. Bardo. general man. ! ager of the N. Y. N. H. & H. R. R" ! in this city yesterday Labor, of ! course, sees in the refusal of the ! executives of roads to grant returning strikers their seniority rights unim-
 paired, a move by the roads to ! destroy unions. As before indicated ] in these columns. whether or not the motives of the roads were of the
 highest nevertheless, under the cir | cumstances after the roads had made
 promises to men who would remain ! loyal and to new men who came to work relying on those promises, and
 after the Railroad Labor Board, anxious to see transportation unim paired had practically backed up those promises. the rail heads had nothing to do but to keep their word
 and refuse to restore those seniority rights The wrong, if wrong there
 was, came when the promises were made and backed up by authority. l It is by no means admitted wrong was committed. Men had to be secured to do the work. Induce ments had to be offered. Permanent positions were inducements.
 Now comes the expected. IL was mentioned by MT. Bardo, In theory it is all right for employees of q road to organize among themselves and refuse to join any other organization. Some such system has been fairly successful on other roads. But prac- tically, when the arrangement has continued for some time members of such orga anizations have found they have not the influence with the road for which they work which they would have were they members of national labor organization. The Railroad Labor Board stated it would hear new organizations provided they could prove that they contained a majority of the men working on the roads. It is believed the Board had in contemplation a national orga niza- ton. The millennium would be here if it were possible for the employees of every great corporation to gain what was right merely by banding together into organizations local to their concerns, having no affiliations with other organizations whose mem bers were engaged in the same line , of work. and arbitrate their problems with the officers of their own corpo- rations.
 But the millennium is not here. It has been found in the past that labor was able to obtain it's deserts more surely through national organization, The association" Of the new men on the New Haven, of which Mir Rardo spoke, is fine in theory but probably will prove weak in practice from the ultimate viewpoint of the new men, The theory, however, is ideal, quite as 1t would be ideal if there were never any necessity for associations of en- ployes to work to secure fair working conditions from employers. But, as previously stated, the millennium is not here.
 One is constrained to stand with the railroads on their decision to stand by loyal and new men. But one is inclined to part company with the railroad executives when they make that action on their part a means to inspire local organizations of em- ployes the members of which cannot be members of national unions.