Southwest Washington labor press. [volume] (Hoquiam, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1926-12-24


was SO much smaller that It looked
like one coal. But he couldn't repIen-
ISL It. for Scrooee kept the coal box
| in his own room; and SO surely as
the clerk came in with the shovel. the
master predicted that It would be nee
essary for them to part.
Here is q Christmas season pic
ture drawn from period Of UNI
checked employe-exploi by one
Of the very best reporters who ever
lived Mr. Charles Dickens. In all
probability. mir. Dickens, who hated
innovation, would have rejected the
prediction that this sort Of treatment
Of employees by employers would one
day be changed. not by a miraculous
softening Of eovetous hearts. but BY
trades unionism; nevertheless that IS
what has happened.
The industrial revolution, in its
swaddling clothes when Dickens wrote
his famous "A Christmas Carol" had
nto yet begun to alleviate the lot
Of mankind. Instead il was grinding
humanity more savasely than ever
before The state Of mind that gave
the world James Stuart Mill,s inhum-
an doctrine, the s'iron law Of wages,
was general yprevalent, and the right
Of the employer to wiring the last drop
Of profit out Of all labor by any
means was accepted as matter Of
course.
"Ohl But he was tight-fisted
hand at the grindstone, Scroogel a
squeezing, wrenchin9. grasping,
ing. clutching, eovstoua old sinnerl'
But he was not vastly different from
other men; his type was common
enough and employers. less frankly
cynical about the rights Of others than
he, justified themselves in emuIating
his policies BY appealing to the exi-
gencies Of competition with such As
he.
Poor Bob Cratchitt. Scrooge's clerk
after all was ewhite collar worker"
and he had fire. albeit it was small.
Workers in factory and mine Of that
period were less humanely treated,
Driven to labor twelve. fourteen and
sixteen hours q day. men, women and
children were kept in such poverty
that life was q burden, when It could
be sustained at all. Even the Tories
Of England, in complaint more prac-
teal than merciful, declared indus
trialists were endangering the nation
By their destruction Of the population
Trades Unionism, after years Of
struggle, sacrifice and suffering, has
changed the whole aspect Of worker
and boss relations. No other force
ever has proved effective in warning
against the evil Of industrial exploi-
tation. We are all Of as given to ac-
cepting unionism as mere practical
means to an end. Il IS much more
that that--it is the finest demonstra-
ton mankind has yet given Of broth
eThood. The unionist does not pray
selfishly for his own deliverance from
hardship, he prays for all his fellows.
Surely if the Great Teacher whose
birth we are about to celebrate with
festivities were with Us again in the
flesh he would approve unionism as
the very essence Of that fraternity
he urged upon men.
Old Scrooge was made to see the
error Of his way by a dream. but not
all his fellow-employers believed in
dreams. Would Ebert H. Gary be
guided BY dream And if he was,
would his associates applaud and APP
prove any generous impulses that
might thus be generated? Judge
Gary and his kind favored the twelve
hour day and the seven-day week.
They could be joIted loose from theid
conviction only by threat Of organized
labor.