The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-12-18
Misleaders in
the American
Labor Unions

One of the many graft-infected
organizations that might be cited is
the Chicago Flat Janitors' Union.
it's head, until his death in Feb,
1927, was VIM. F. Quesse, also
president of the Building Service
Employees International Union.
Quesse, a very capable organizer,
beginning in 1912, built a union of
the flat janitors, and undeniably i'm
proved their hours, wages, and
working conditions. But he and his
aids feathered their personal nests
meanwhile. They had their own sys-
tenn, consisting of filming" the land
lords for making their janitors do
unauthorized work, for employing
non-union building trades workers
to do repair work, and for various
other violations of the unions rules.
The many fines ranged from $40
to $4,000 each, very little of which
reached the union treasury. In 1922
Quesse and nine of his fellow Of
ficials were convicted of conspiracy
to exort money and they were SEN
fenced to prison terms of from one
to five years each. Their trials cost
the union $250,000. But their re-
publican friend, Governor Small, 10
whose support Quesse was commit
tee, came to their rescue in the nick
CT time. He pardoned the lot be-
fore they did day in the peniten-
tiary. Quesse left an estate of
100000 when he died.
Unions in this general group are
the two locals of the Street Car
mems Union, with $4,000 members.
Division No. 241, dominated by gun.
men who play the company's game
at all times, is but little better as
an organization than the Mitten
Plan in Philadelphia or the Inter
borough company union in New
York. All opposition is slugged
under. n 1921, ]. E. Rooney, oppo-
sition leader, was murderously at
tackled and sent to the hospital for
16 months. In 1927, Frank Carlson,
another opposition leader, was
beaten and shot. Men who dare to
speak at meetings against the union
officials are removed from their jobs
the next day. The men know moth
ing about the finances of their
union, especially not about the mill
lion dollar carmen's auditorium, for
which they have been paying for
10 years. The officers are all rich.
Quinlan, president, receives $1,000
salary; Tabor, secretary-treasurer,
$1,000, and Kehoe, recording secre-
tary, $4,000. Bowler, custodian of
the auditorium, receives $4,000, in
addition to his salary as city coun-
Gilman.
The officials Of the building trades
organizations and the reactionary
bureaucrats of the other unions al
lied to them have formed the basis
of the Gompers machine in Chicago
for third of century. Saturated
with corruption and bound by a
thousand cords to the employers and
the capitalist politicians, they eff
fectively block progress in the local
labor movement. They oppose every
advance, every improvement in the
unions, theological and organization
al. To them proposals to amalga-
mate the unions and to form a labor
party are sheer Bolshevism. Their
baneful influence is spreading. For
I18 years after the defeat of
skinny" Madden in the Chicago
Federation of Labor that body
proper was in the hands of the more
honest elements, led by John Fitz-
patrick. But since Fitzpatrick's col
lapse and retreat to the right after
the Farmer-Labor Party convention
of 1928 the ultra-reactionaries, led
by Oscar Nelson, have been making
greater and greater inroads on the
Federation until now it is almost
entirely within their control.
New York.
The foregoing paragraphs on cor
rupt practice in the Chicago build
ing trades fairly indicate the situa-
! ton prevailing in all the larger in
dustrial centers. Possibly conditions
are somewhat worse in Chicago than
elsewhere, but not much. The Chi
cago building trades business agents
maylb be little quicker on the trig
ger or, because of the greater
strength of their unions, somewhat
more ruthless in their grating. But
their confreres in the building trades
in other cities also let no grass grow
under their feet. This is seen from
few examples taken from the
New York building trades.
that the establishment of the Soviet
representative of workers, peasants
and soldiers is one of the most i'm