Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-06-08
A NATIONAL ORGANIZA-
TON OF "MALEFACTORS"
lELom ne american Feaera.lonL.t for june

elefalDHlsI Tor june
brazen attempt to carry conviction by
mere assertion. The lie is 50 old that
it Is almost stereotyped. It is sur
pnsing that an ORGANIZATION purpOrt-
ing TO have on its membership lists
500 employers should have the effron-
terry 10 continue TO stand for such
brazen and shame-faced psfyefslOn
Of truth in the face Of a public that
is more and more coming to under
stand the truth. The National AssO-
citation Of Manufacturers, through the
medium Of the same committee re-
port, lays claim 10 a belief that pub
nc welfare is the paramount issue"
II claims also 10 have repeatedly
demonstrated that the philosophy Of
the closed shop is theory Of force,
monopoly and destruction which
presents a very real menace to our
fundamental issues 1t would be in
teefsting if, in the course Of its hypO-
critical professions Of an interest in
the public welfare, the National As
ISOLATION of Manufacturers would re-
veal through a public financial report
the source of its income and the
character of its expenditures; also
how much it gets and how much it
spends. No organization that oper-
ates in financial secrecy can lay any
good claim to have an interest in the
public welfare.
Elsewhere in the report there is a
tinge of regret that one of the politi-
cal parties apparently does not see
fit to champion the anti-unon shop
as paramount Issue in the forth
coming campaign. The committee
thinks that friends of what it is
pleased to call free American labor"
by which il means labor that is free
to work for whatever the boss determ-
ines, cannot but look with interest
on the fact that one of the great poll
teal parties, according to the press
is being urged to incorporate in its
next platform declaration in behalf
of the open shop" Strange are the
ways of the propagandists!
II there is an effort to revive in
terest in the recent attempt of Briga-
dier-General Dawes, and one or two
others, to inilict upon the already
overloaded Republican party an issue
as fatal as the open shop issue, it
probably is doomed to failure. Since
the President of the American Fed
| Grafton of Labor has made clear to
the country Just what the wage
earnefs would think of such an issue
| in the realm of politics, the politi-
clans have manifested a keen desire
! to leave that question severely alone.
The New York N. A. M. convention
! rs not likely to prove powerful enough
to induce any political party to pre-
| mediate self destruction.
There are among the members of
! the National Association of Manu-
facturers, many honest, upright em-
! ployers, whose integrity is beyond
! question. The official proceedings of
the organization in its conventions,
however, would be much more befit-
ting to an organization which frankly
stood before the public as a National
Association of Highbinders, or Ma
| tional Association of Unprincipled
! Propagandists.
As to, the childish assertion that
the union shop rests upon a theory of
| force, monopoly and destruction, any
| attempt to characterize it would be
much like applying a tar brush to a
coal pile on dark night. The con-
| duct of the trade union movement is
| Always pubiiC, II can never DE any
thing else. Its conduct is the best
answer to the rawlings of organized
greed, as manifested in the recent
convention of the organization over
which Mr.. John L. Edgerton presides
in more or less NOUS dignity.
1t is forgivable for any employer
to misunderstood the fundamental
difference between the employment of
union wage-earners and non-union
wage-earners. 1t is forgivable for a
misinformed employer to even go so
| far as to insist upon the employment
of unorganized wage-earners. If he
is misinformed, he may some day be-
come correctly informed. The unfor-
givable thing and the despicable thing
is for an organization, formed purely
in the interest of greedy reaction,
to masquerade before the public as a
pious brand of Christian brothers,
seeking the moral uplift and the pub
lie welfare. A convention of the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers
is in the main one of the most perfect
manifestations extant of hypocrisy
! and undiluted bunk. The Congress
sional Mulhall N, A. M. investiga-
! ton is not yet forgotten.