The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-05-03
Trade Unions Are Weak
Because Of Workers Who
Remain on the Outside
By ]. LOUIS ENGDAHL

bourg My cabin steward shakes his head at
the mention of trade unonsm aboard ship 1t is i'm
possible to get the together he says When they
do organize somebody always gets something out of it,
meaning that favored places reserved for the few
while the many continue to suffer the This
was his viewpoint.
To be sure, the conditions might be better, he adj
mt The food is good but the quarters cramped
that the men compelled to stand up while eating.
The sleeping quarters also crowded.
He cited conditions the to Jamaica, and other
islands of the West Indies which the stewards who
also act walters used the dining their eat
ing place ALSO when the passengers were thru with
their meals
This steward little realized that he was confessng
to the weakness of all labor organizations which is not
found much in those who join the union in those
who do not join for other 1t is the lack
Of desire for organization among of the workers
in an industry totallng into the mass, that makes
effective organization impossible.
Thus Arthur E. suffern in his book, "The Coal Min
ers Struggle For Industrial Status" is only partially
correct, which is sometimes the being entirely
wrong, when he gives the first difficulty in making
and enforcing the agreements of the Joint Conference
of miners and mine owners, the failure to include
enough miners and operators in the agreement to make
it effective
suffern could correctly have said that the first
difficulty the failure Of the miners realize the
strength that to them thru acting unit thru
presenting a united front to the mine owners. With
the mine workers well organized, the mine will
quickly get together to protect their property in
terests As long the workers remain unorganized
the have little need of organization altho the
development of capitalism gradually concentrates
ship in fewer and fewer hands, which is form of
the organization of the power of the expoters, which
goes turnout industry even where workers have
little organization, in the steel, automobile
and other highly monopolized industries.
If the coal miners of the nation were today thoroy
organized under the banners of the United Mine Work
ers Of America, the mine owners would be eager to
meet with their representatives in joint conference The
capitalist government at Washington would also take
interest in the situation instead of adopting the
aissez fare attitude that it towards this and
other industrial struggles The burden of improving
their conditions therefore, is upon the miners them
selves. Experience has always shown this be true
The Joint Conference has functoned WELL and agree
ments thru it have been reached, when the Miners
Union has been strong 1t has failed to function when
the Miners Union is in a weak condition, at the
present time, condition growing out of the disnte-
grafton policies pursued by the administration of Pres
dent John L. Lewis. The mine quick to take
advantage Of this weakness
Thus the Northern Illinois mine owners who attended
the joint conference of 1887 complained of the
competition from Central and Southern Illinois and de-
manded the enforcement of the wage scale in those dis
tricts They demanded this of the Miners Union AS
a result the scale agreed to made a conditional
The miners to receive advance of five
cents per ton from May l, 1887 to Nov. l. 1887 and
five cents from Nov. l. 1887, to May l. 1888, on
condition that the miners able to enforce the scale
in the non-unon districts The Interstate Board of Con-
Citation and Arbitration delegated to decide whether
the scale being enforced Failure to enforce the
scale would relieve the mine who had signed the
agreement from their obligation to pay the scale.
The line of reasoning is being used today to
explain the breaking of the Jacksonville agreement of
1924 that expired the last day of March, with
agreement to take its place
William A. McGarry writes in the Magazine of Wall
Street that "the perfect illustration of this shifting
struggle is to be found in the present situation Giving
words to the philosophy of this organ of finance capital
McGay says that the present situation is Chased
the victory by the miners in 1922 and cnched
three years in the 1924 agreement of the union operators
in the central competitive field illinois, Indiana Ohio
and Western Pennsylvania to pay $3.50 day a
base rate"
McGarry then goes on to say that "John L. Lewis
president of the United Mine Workers. was hailed by
his admirers of the greatest union leaders for
this achievement At the time it made the union
mines controlled somewhere between 65 and so per
Of the total btumnous tonnage and with that balance of
power it appears to be simple matter to drive the
open shops into line and unionize the entire industry
The capitalist view of what happened is outlined by
Wall Streets spokesman follows
LESS than 80 days after the agreement was made,
however, the union operators began to discover that
they could not sell their coal at the prices necesstated
by the higher wages Then began the most rapid and
colossal shift of industry in the history Of the world
The unions mines closed and the nonunion fields opened
Before long more coal being turned out Of the
Union fields than could possibly be accounted for by the
known and tabuated number of non-union miners The
union men, in other words, finding work at $3.50
ID their own fields followed the doctrine of economic
necessity and moved TO the open shop mines at So
ger day whatever they could get.
~Stll later the familiar controversy between
7wa and the union operators breach Of contract
wa admitted m