The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1928-11-27
Misleaders in
the American
Labor Unions
BY WILLIAM 2. FOSTER.

Ilic progressive lnUVSIleIt, we pOIliI-
ed out the profound consequences
flowing out of the Inflated shop
mems strike of 1922. The unions
were shattered, their declarations dis
solved, and their generally progress
sive spirit demoralized. 1t consti-
tuted the greatest single defeat ever
suffered by the workers in this coun-
try. 1t was a sort of summing up
of all the weaknesses of the rail
road union leadership, it's deep-root-
ed craft theology, it's personal cor
ruption, is toadying to the railroad
companies.
Lee was one of the sorry heroes
OF this labor catastrophe. When the
conflict doomed ahead, with the conf
panles viciously centering their at
tack upon the shop mechanics and
the unions of unskilled workers, Lee,
IN 1921, split the four brotherhoods
away from the twelve other organi-
cations with which they had been
affiliated. This split in the ranks
opened the door wide for the en-
ployers' great attack in 1922. Lee
defended the split later as follows:
New York Times, Oct. II, 1927
This whole business, with all
railroad labor unions on one side
and all railroads on the other, with
the Railroad Labor Board in be-
tween, got too big for any one
or a few men to handle. 1t was
loaded with dynamite for the coun-
try as well as for ourselves and
the executives. No sane govern
ment would permit any faction Or
class to paralyze the transpyrta-
ton business of the country and
thereby punish the innocent, who
are always in the majority. The
only way out was to separate"
Presidents Reward.
When the inevitable strike came
in July, 1922, the four brotherhoods,
which under Lees general leader
ship had been bribed with conces-
sions by the companies, refused to
participate. Then came the ignoblc
Cradle to the fore. Although his
union, the Maintenance of Way
Workers, had voted 80 per cent for
a strike he refused to issue strike
call. For this treason he was later
made member of the Railroad La
Dor Board by President Harding, and
his union members got a beggarly
two cents per hour reduction of the
wage cut. Fitzgerald of the Rail-
way Clerks also managed to keep
his men out of the fight, notwith-
standing that they were overwhelm-
ingly in favor of a strike. And
when the train service workers on
the Santa Fe, Alton and other roads,
Infused with a wonderful spirit of
solidarity, began to strike spontan-
eously in spite of their leaderse Lee,
in cooperation with the companies
forced them back to work.
Deserted by their nine fellow rail-
road unions, the seven shop unions
notwithstanding reactionary leader
ship. fought stubbornly, but they
came to bitter defeat in weller
Of betrayal by their leaders. The
loss of their strike, as we have seen,
is having profoundly reactionary
effect on the whole labor movement.
1t constitutes one of the many heavy
penalties which the railroad work
ers in particular and the working
class in general are continually pay
ing for having capitalist-minded
leaders at the head of their trade
unions.
The Metal Trades.
Misleadership has also been de-
vastating to the metal workers
unions. The six principal metal
trades organizations (Machinists,
Steel Workers, Molders, Pattern
Makers, Blacksmiths, Boilermakers)
have, according to A. F. of L. 1926
reports, only 10000 members (and
this figure is padded) out of at least
100000 eligible metal workers.
These unions, headed by such hope
less reactionaries as Wharton, Tighe,
and Wilson, are steadily declining in
strength.
Steel's Weak Leadership.
A deadly blow was struck against
unionism in the metal industry when
the Carnegie Steel Co. defeated the
Amalgamated Association of Iron,
Steel and Tin Workers in the Home
stead strike of 1892. The United
States Steel Corporation struck an
other blow when it crushed the rem
nants of the A. A. in its plants in the
1901 and 1909 strikes. Since then
the organization, cursed by weak
and treacherous leadership, has not
been able to recover. 1t fingers along
on the fringe of the steel industry,
leaving severely alone the U. ).
Steel and the big independents.
The officials policy is one of utter
cringing in order to maintain even
this anaemic existence. This is
sad come-down for what was once
the best organized and most mill
tant trade union in America.