Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1922-03-02
OUTSIDERS MAKE FOR
!. INDUSTRIAL TROUBLE

MED by anybody. But in the appro-
priation of these rights, there are
\ those who expand them beyond their
meaning, forgetting that the right
to organize does not carry with il
the right to use such organization
harmfully to the legitimate interests
of others or fer unworthy ends, and
that the right to bargain collectively
does not imply an obligation on the
part of others to become the second
parties to such bargaining if for rea-
sons satisfactory to themselves they
are unwilling to do so. They forget
also that all moral law is indiscrim-
mate and universal in its application,
and that the right to do a thing con-
notes the right to refrain from doing
it. The exercise of one mans right
does not necessarily abrogate the
i right of another.
There are providentially imposed
limitations upon all rights. Other
wise, they would be absolute, and an
absolute right cannot exist perman-
emily out of Heaven. If the charac-
! ter and uses of an organization had
nothing to do with its right to exist
ence, lynching parties might be or
ganized with moral impunity and civ
il statutes, deprived of base, would
be Ineffective and short-lived. Even
the sacred right of life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness, for the Sc
curing of which all law is instituted,
/ can be, and often is, forfeited because
of its abuse.
The confusion arising from the op-
Grafton of the principle of collective
bargaining seems to be general and
is very difficult to dissipate. Those
who directly profit most from the ex-
ercise of this right construe it to mean
that they may bargain with their en-
ployers through any representative
whom they may choose Or who may
be gratuitiously furnished for the
purpose by those in the organization
having higher authority. The rejec-
tion of this Interpretation is usually
met with the protest that the prin-
ciple of collective bargaining itself
is denied. Most, if not all, of those
holding contrary view would be will
! ling to recognize the principle By deal
| ing with their own employees collect
lively through representatives volun-
tarily chosen by them out of their
own number and without outside in
terference; but they are not willing
to bargain for the labor of their own
employees through representatives
outside OF their employment. They
predicate this position upon the sup
| position and belief that their own
employees have sufficient intelligence
orship is not necessary and that they
are themselves better friends to those
whom they employ and are more un-
selfshly interested. in their welfare
than can be foreign agents who live
upon the tolls they arbitrarily take
from those whose labor they sell.
These sharp differences in the un-
derstanding of moral rights are the
real basis of industrial antagonisms.
They have grown as our industrial
processes have multiplied and become
more complex, and have been highly
accentuated by the sordid uses to
which they have been put by industri-
al parasites parading in the guise of
friends to the toilers. So Industrious
ly have laborers been reminded of
their rights by political and economic
buccaneers that obligation as an i'm
portant item in the program of life
has been almost lost sight of. A
large portion of the wage-earning
masses has been indoctrinated with
the idea that work was sent upon man
work with their hands are to be re-
garded as working men. The idle
life has been held up before them as
the only happy life They are made
to believe that their employers have
little or nothing to do except to draw
dividends and play golf.
The thousands of men in America
who derive material profit from
strife between employer and employee
undoubtedly constitute the chief OBJ
stacle to the establishment of harmo-
ny and goodwill in the industrial
world. The overwhelming majcrities
of both employers and employees are
essentially honest and would general
| ly enjoy harmonious relations except
for the assiduous meddling of outsid-
ers. Ninety-fve per cent of all men
who employ labor have themselves
been wage-earners and have earned
their promotions by hard work and
sacrifice. They know the wage-earn-
er's viewpoint much better than the
wage-earner does or can know theirs,
and the average employer of labor is
very naturally the best friend his en-
ployees have outside their own family
circles. May the time soon come when
the public will recognize these facts
and will by the pressure of an aroused
sentiment force into productive en-
ployment the professional disturbers