Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1924-06-20
AMERICAN TRADE UMI0NIsTs DO
NOT IMPORT THEIR INSTITUTIONS
By JOHN P. FREY.
Editor, International Moiders' Journal.

can trade union movement has not
borrowed its policies and its program
or its institutions from any OUTSIDE
trade union movement, or from any
theorist in America or elsewhere.
This is a natural condition, and what
should be expected, neither can this
fact be taken as an evidence that
American trade unionists are CON-
placently satisfied with themselves. OF
that they are egotistical. IL Is merei,
an evidence that trade unionism haa
natural instead of an ARTIFICIAL
growth; that it was born and deve-
oped because of necessity, and that
the conditions in each industry com.
pei intelligent, independent. minded
workmen to act collectively for the
purpose of protecting their interests.
We know of no trade union move
ment which has been built up or made
more effective by copying or apply
ing the methods and policies of other
national trade union movements. The
British, French, German, Scandlna-
Wan, Italian, and other trade move
ments of the world have not forfna.
lated their policies because OF what
/ organized labor was doing In other
countries. Each of them has De
veloped their program and their meth
DDS because Of their own experiences
A trade union movement built vi
by adopting the trade union insntn'
tons of other countries, would DC
much like attempting to build a house
by adopting some detail OF the plans
drawn by a number OF architects. a
heating system which would be the
proper one to install in districts
where cold winters are the rule, would
be wholly unfit for structure erected
/, in the Sunny South. A house de,
signed for the broad, level plains Of
the Middle West, would be poorly
adapted for the thickly settled indus
| trial centers. In other words, cir
cumstances and conditions determine
what is most advantageous in tht
matter of conducting business, build,
ing homes, or adopting policies and
methods for the trade union move
ment.
1t is not the trade union institu-
tons of any other country which
should serve as a guied. The only
safe guide for each national trade
unlOn IfONcIilcnt dIc its oWh NP~
ences, and these are largely the re-
suit of the varying conditions which
industry presents in each country. A
trade union movement which de-
pended for its success upon adopting
the institutions of other trade union
movements, would confess its inability
to understand its own problems. IL
would become nothing but a crazy
patchwork, for in adopting the insti-
tutions of other trade union move
ments, it would be taking over for
its own guidance methods and pro-
grams which, because Of different con-
ditions and different situations, when
applied to other territory would re-
suit i'm nothing but clash.
1t does not follow that the trade
union movement of one country
cannot learn from the experiences
of others. As matter of fact, the ex-
periences of every trade union move
ment contains lessons for all of the
others, but there is vast difference
between learning from the expert
ences of others, and taking over the
institutions which others have erected,
and expecting them to work out sue
cessfully after being transplanted.