Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1926-09-03
The Union Shop
Is Fair to All
Paying the Local Union Dues
Same Principal as Paying
Taxes on Real Estate

Those who argue that there is
something unreasonable about
requiring men who work in a
union shop either to join the un-
ion or get off the job are resort
.ng to mighty poor logic when
they profess to believe that ev-
cry man should be left free eth
er to join the union or not and
u st the man who refuses to
loin the union should not only
Ee protected in such refusal but
c,lnplimented for his independ-
ence in refusing to submit to un-
ION regulations.
There would be just about as much
sense and logic in arguing that every
man should be left free either Co pay
his taxes or not as might suit his own
individual Whims or fancies. All peo-
pie who own property and are getting
the protection of the government to
enjoy such property are expected to
gardless of whether they like it or
not Anyone failing to pay his taxes
has his property taken from him and
it is sold to raise the money with
which to pay his taxes and the only
way any such person can redeem his
property is to pay up his back taxes
and such additional penalties as the
various states may see fit to impose
on him for his failure to pay his
taxes.
The right to work in union shop
is much like the right to own prop
erty. The man who goes to work in
such a shop gets the benefit of the
union conditions that prevail there
and it is nothing more than right and
just that he should contribute his
share to the union that is thus bene-
fitting him. When he is expected to
pay his union dues or assessments he
is simply being asked to fulfill NOR
al obligation he owes to an organlza-
ton that is benefiting him.
The workingman who does not
want to pay union dues nor belong to
a union which has bettered working
conditions for him in the shop where
he is earning his livelihood is as un-
just to his fellow workers as the
property owner is to society when he
refuses to pay his taxes but still ex-
poets to be permitted to continue the
enjoyment of his property.
Everybody recognizes that taxes
would become a standing joke unless
they were applied to all with just
such remedy as taking their prop
erty away from them unless they paid
them. In much the same way and
with very similar good reason the
man who wants to enjoy the benefits
that flow from working in shop
where union conditions have been es-
tablished should either join the union
that is thus benefiting him or get
off the job. If he does not see it this
way and if his employer insists that
such an individual should be kept on
the job, then neither of them should
find fault with union men for refus-
ing longer to work on such job.
The union shop principle is fair to
all, while the open shop idea is not
fair to anybody, not even to the en-
ployer who uses it as a weapon with
which to undermine the union. The
logical and right thing for union men
to do just as soon as they have
enough union strength to enforce the
union shop is to refuse to work in
any shop where anything else than
union men are employed. This is
just what happens everywhere, SOON
er or later, and the sooner it comes
to head and is got over with the bet
ter it is for everybody concerned.