The Connecticut labor news., 1923-06-29
BY THE WAY Comment and Criticism About Things Doing in the World.

Some day the Pennsylvania railroad is going to recognize and deal with labor unions, not because the Railroad Labor Board says 1t must, but because the unions will say so.
 The Railroad Labor Board has just handed the Pennsylvania hot decision. The board says the. Pennsylvania denied to the shopmen essential rights as labor ing men, to which congress had declared them entitled"
 The Pennsylvania road has tried hard to build up company union scheme. It isn't succeeding very we'll, but 1t is of that bone-headed type that won't abandon the wrong even when its knows 1t Is wrong.
 The Railroad Labor Board decision is a stinger. It. charges the road with violation of a board order which was sustained by the U. s. Supreme Court
 But, apparently all the board can do about 1t Is to paw the air; and that doesn't seem to bother the hide-bound Pennsylvania
 It all comes back to business of Labor putting it's reliance in itself and to the mistake and futility of giving political tribunals power to try to run industry.
 The Cummins-Esch law will operate neither railroads nor railroad managers.
 Mr. Frank Munsey's New York Herald digs around and gets lot of special dispatches on the strength of which it concludes that the so-called open shop Is gaining strength.
 Anybody at all familiar with the me thod of getting such special dispatches knows perfectly we'll that special dis patches can be got to prove anything under the sun. Within twenty-four hours hundred special dispatches from as many cities could be got to bolster up any kind of a case, good, bad, or indifferent. ! MT. Munsey's collection of telegrams represent just so much junk. The so- called open shop 1t not gaining. On the contrary, 1t is distinctly on the toboggan.
 Arthur Brisbane, MT. Hearsts bril- liant producer of platitudes, epigrams and diluted deep stuff, hops to 1t and in- dulges in some learned comment. When jobs are plentiful and pay is high the unions suffer-" says Brisbane. Such is human nature and human folly"
 Mr.. Brisbane is wrong again Mun- sey Is wrong. And these two wrongs do not make a right.
 Truth is union membership Is highest and pay high. Today union membership IS growing. ,
 But it isn't just jobs and pay that keeps unions together. There is some thing more than that something that neither MT. Munsey nor MT. Brisbane know about becaus they are not wage earners There is tremendously inspir- ing principle in trade unionism and that's why four million workers stick together through thick and thin, adding to their ranks all the time.
 Edo Firnmen, one of the secretaries of the International Federation of Trade Unions, also secretary of the Interna- has just been given rebuke by the gov erning board of the International Fedora tion of Trade Unions.
 Firnmen, as secretary of the trans port workers, took leading part in a congress in which the International Federation of Transport Workers and the bolshevlk transport works organ1za- tion formed a united front" which means practically a fusion.
 The rebuke points out that the gov erning body of the International Fedora ton of Trade Unions knew nothing about what its secretary was doing, that 1t Is not responsible and that officials and leaders must be guided by the decisions of the congress.
 This is, to slight degree, encourag- ing. It is considerably modified, how ever, by the statement that the Interna- tional Federation of Trade Unions seeks unity with the red organization with the proviso that the reds must stop propa- ganda, proposition which is nothing if not Imaginable.
 It is to be hoped, however, that Brother Finmen will slow up at least little bit in his haste toward Moscow.
 wHIppING ROSS ON TRIAL