Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1924-05-30
SHALL LABOR UNIONS
OPERATE SCHOOLS?
Continued from Page ~

of the community about them, wheth-
er they be unionists or capitalists,
and this because of the presence In
the universe we inhabit of a great
Law of Equalization, as immutable
statute of fundamental Justice which
unerringly and inevitably through
the ages brings all inequalities to a
common level. We find it operating
all down the pages of human history.
It was in evidence in Nineveh; the
Pharaohs felt its power; by it
Babylon was swept aside into the
wreckage of human folly; ancient
Greece ran athwart it, and is but a
memory; the mighty Roman Empire
showed to what depths self-indul-
gence setting itself against the great
law could bring a mighty people;
you will have found in the records
of the French Revolution what the
law of equalization did in leveling
processes, and hardly today are we
clear Of the effects of the mad self
interest and lust for power on the
part of one people as against the
welfare Of mankind madness that
has brought down with crashing force
the penalty of opposition to the law.
Why Strikes Are Lost
If say that the greatest influ-
ence in material affairs is a moral or
spiritual force, you will agree with
me. You have long since learned
that unless you have public opinion
with you a strike is practically lost,
and doubtless you have spent many
sleepless hours in the effort to rally
this opinion to your support. You
know well the tremendous strength
that comes from being consciously
right, and you may have some slight
knowledge of the weakness that
comes from being consciously wrong.
And now l would ask you if the
great need of this country is not a
higher standard of citizenship involv-
ing better human conduct, improved
public service, more honest industrial
practice, a clearer justice, higher
sense of individual responsibility
Standards of Workmanship
The land is filled with rich men
and poor men who have low stand
ards of both morality and Industrial
ism. There are many men who would
not rob safe, but who would steal
employers time. There are men who
would not underweight an ounce, but
who would not hesitate to steal an
employees standard of living Ny i'm
posing hard conditions. All over these
States there is a growing lack of
responsibility for right standards of
workmanship and the right rewards
for it. Skimping work and skinning
wages are as surely theft as robbery
from a till, and both may prove more
dangerous and have a more disas-
trous effect
It has been charged that labor
unions resist the introduction of labor
saving machinery; that they limit the
number Of apprentices; that they have
set standard based on the capacity
of the least efficient individual These
things may be false or they may be
true. 1t has been charged that en-
ployers have gone to unheard-of
depths TO undermine a union; to stig-
Matte the worker with a crime they
themselves have committed. If these
things are true. they are as surely a
conspiracy in restraint as any other
thing that is coveed by the law.
Couldn't 5rieklayers Teaeh2
The low standards of some of our
citizenry need. to be raised and in
the hands OF the labor unions, Sam
uel Gompers, l believe. lies one ire
mendously effective remedy for our
industrial troubles. / believe you to
have the qualities of mind and heart
to make the plan have in thought
operative with the machinery ready at
your hand.
This is the plan:
would have the labor unions
comprising those millions of useful
capable men who call you their leader
establish industrial training schools
for the youth Of the land, and in these
schools / would have taught not only
honest workmanship, but good citi-
Senship. would have the labor unions
with their banded strength take up q
constructive work that today is more
sorely needed in this country than
any other single thing Of which ]
know.
During years this question Of in
dustrial education has vexed us
Academic education we have progress
ed far in, but the academic instruc-
tor. even were he well grounded, Il
mot fitted for industrial education. Il