Evening star., 1923-10-21
AS A UNION MAN SEES 1T


to know that the sweatshops. as to
surroundings and as to methods Of
manufacture, were tndefensible. Is
there not some other way in which
the public may know before the war
and make that knowledge count?
The upward struggle of the toilers
is the history of the centuries. It's
course from slavery to serfdom and
from serfdom to freedom has been
marked by tyranny and bloodshed.
degradation and poverty, disappoint-
ment and defeat. But always it has
gone on and up. always 1t has per-
sisted. In this era we have 1T in
an advanced state OF development.
Today is unmakes dynasties, estab-
fishes republics, changes the course
of political history. And all because
labor organizes first on the economic
field, then on the political field.
X + n
AS to the authors equipment to set
forth the facts as to organized labor,
he can only refer to an experience
gained in more than thirty years OF
association with that movement, first
as an officer of his local union, next
as president of the central body in
his home city, then as president of
his international union for many
years, as a delegate to innumerable
labor conventions and meetings, as
| head of the great department of labor
Of the state Of New York and as a
member of the state industrial COM
mission to which was committed the
task of administering the labor law
and the compensation law. Whatever
of worth and of knowledge has re-
suited from that great opportunity
for actual participation and expert
ence will be set forth in these articles.
1t will then be for the reader to form
his own conclusions.
!; X X X
One big union, the red flag OF the
trade union movement!
The craft unionists on the one side,
the industrialists on the other.
The inciter of both tragic and sham
battles and comic warfare, in which
the participants contend more per-
sistently and with as little regard for
the casualties as the most case-hard-
ened baron of the employer class.
And yet when all Is said and done
and we are burying our dead, we now
have one big union-pardon me, /
should have written ONE BIG UNION,
and that Is the American Federation
, of Labor, and the reference is not
| to size. by any means. but to an actual
| condition in administration Prove
, it? Well, all right.
! The theory on which the American
| Federation of Labor rests is that of
| autonomy for it's constituent parts.
+, Each affiliated international union is
presumed to be supreme in its field.
It was dissatisfaction with the non
autonomous and autocratic character
and constitution of the Knights of
| Labor. that brought its great success
or, the American Federation. into
! being.
The founders of the federation,
some of them still active in the
| labor movement, were in the early
years of the venture doughty fight
! ers for autonomy. They resolutely
|
every attempt to extend the fed
eration's authority, and they insisted
that the federation was simply a
| clearing house for its units.
| The federation could resolve, yes,
| but that was all. 1t could not COM
pei the acceptance of its dictum- 1t
was organized to advance and con-
| xtrn
to aid in the extension of that move
ment So long as 1t confined Its ac-
| tivities within that sphere all was
harmony, but when Its officers
| strayed off the reservation. either
by chance. intent or purpose, and
| invaded the sacred jurisdiction of
/ one of its afiliates, then there was
| emphatic and determined protest. All
| that has been changed and without
changing the law. There was an
other and a surer way. The fedora
ton is now one big union-in capital
! letters.
X n X X
AS has been said. at It's inception
! the federation was to respect the
Jurisdiction of it's unions. AT first II
did not issue certificates of affiliation
or charters 1t was constituted by
some of the existing international
unions, many of them with years OF
history, and they were too proud to
acknowledge it's supremacy in any
thing, to agree that 1t was anything
more than a means of consultation
and so they refused to endow 1t with
! the right to charter; that might mean
| supreme power.
Then, curiously enough, It was this
very matter of jurisdiction that
started the transfer and the ceding of
! power. 1t began with the changes In
! industry brought about by the labor
saving machine, and, strange to say,
! with one of these machines that have
done so much for the better education
and therefore for the advancement of
the world-the typesetting machine.
At first, as machines came into
composing rooms, the union printers
operated them and union machinists
kept them in good condition, made
those instant repairs SO necessary to
| the conservation of time in the pub
! ltcation of a daily newspaper. So
then there were two international
| unions whose jurisdiction went into
| the same shop. 1t led to friction and
disagreements, not only between
union men, but between union men
and their employers
The situation became intolerable.
The International Typographical
| Union took action. It proclaimed
| that all persons employed in a COM
| posing room, including the machine
/ caretakers, must hold cards in its
local unions. And it enforced that
edict. The first jurisdiction war was