The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-07-07
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By T. J. o'FLAHERrY.

I EFT those who do not keep abreast
of the times mediate on the sad
story of the dodo. This unfortun-
ate bird passed out of history about
the year 1851. The dodo was slow
on his feet, could not fly and was
so darned lazy that he laid only one
egg, which he had to drop in the
grass, being unable to use his wings
or climb up tree. Trade unionists
should take lesson from the dodo.
While the capitalists are amalga-
mating the big industries of the
nation the comparatively few work
ers that are organized into unions
are separated by craft barriers, thus
weakening their power.
0F course the workingclass will not
pass out like the dodo. Without
the workers society would be as bar
rem as desert. The wheels of in
dustry would cease to hum and star
walton would stalk the land. But the
producers are not content to carry
the burdens of society on their shoul-
ders for the benefit of the parasite
class. They want to create an econo-
mic order which will confront the
parasite with the alternative of star
wing or working for what he puts in
his belly or on his back. And in
order to accomplish this purpose they
must have organizations built on
modern lines.
THE day of the craft union is gone.
With the growth of giant industry
the form of union organization based
on the tool used and not on the pro-
duct has become passe. The develop
ment of proletarian class conscious
ness and the classification of indus
trial apd financial power makes it
possible and renders it necessary for
the workers to organize in a mass
Labor Party. The dodo passed away
because he ignored evolution. The
dodo must not be the symbol of the
American labor movement.
THE convention of the Brotherhood
OF Locomotive Engineers chopped
off several heads, that once rested
proudly on the shoulders of high of
ficials of that organization. Misfor-
tune befell them and woe unto those
who fall by the wayside. Trade union
officials who were going to save the
workers one by one from wage slav-
cry by turning them into capitalists
4 have lived to see their pipe dreams
fade in the cold light of the morning
after.
THE DAILY WORKER is not prone
to chortle over the stunning blows
dealt by unkind fate, even to it's ad-
versaries. Meaner spirits might be
driven by irresistible force to say:
"Too darned good for them; we
warned them of the perils of class
collaboration" The fact is we SYM
pathize with the engineers who in
vested their savings in schemes they
hoped would enable them to quit their
hazardous jobs and spend the evening
of their lives in ease and security,
smoking their pipes on secluded
porches and relating their thrilling
experiences to their trusting and low
ing wives. We draw the line, how
ever on those brotherhood members
who invested their savings in the
scabby Coal Rivers Galleries.
N
WE hope the entire trade union
movement will take lesson from
the disaster that befell the business
operations Of the railroad engineers.
Trade unionism and business ala cap
italism will not mix except to the
detriment of labor. The cooperative
movement must be the substitute of
labor for the debauching and degen-
Grating trade union capitalism, that
the labor lieutenants of imperialism
have been saddling on the workers
for several years past And the Gle
Aver proponents of labor banking and
Other forms of business unionism
must go to work now and dig up
excuses for the B. of L. K. debacle.
THAT the reports of a possible re-
newal of the discarded Anglo-Jap-