The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1931-09-04
WHAT We owe TO
ORGANIZED LABOR
By SAMUEL SNODGRAsS

and we must pass through them
every three or four years, it is posi-
BILE that merchants, professional men
and unorganized labor may eventually
wakeup, pay some attention to union
labor, learn what it has accomplished
for humanity's welfare in the past,
and what it hopes to accomplish for
it in the future.
Labor unions may have made some
mistakes in the past and may make
some mistakes in the future; but the
principles upon which they are found
ed, and for which they are still fight
ing, are as sound and progressive as
the principles of democratic govern
ment
Government records and statistics
show that labor unions have accom-
plished more for uplift of humanity
and for the progress and prosperity
of this country than any and all other
agencies combined.
Take, for example, our immigration
laws, child labor laws, convict labor
laws, workmen's compensation laws,
in fact, most of the laws that benefit
and protect humanity in general, and
American ideals and institutions
have been placed on the statute books
of the states and the nation through
the untiring efforts of organized labor.
Yet these reforms have been
brought about by organized labor in
spite of the efforts and powerful in
fluence of organized capital and or
ganized employers, who have opposed
all laws that favored and protected
the masses, and quite often they have
had the sympathy and support of
large percentage of the merchants,
professional men and unorganized
labor.
Although but small percentage
of the factory workers are members
of independent labor unions, yet to-
day they are getting the benefits of
laws that organized labor was instru-
mental in securing for the benefit of
all wage earners. In fact, but for the
courageous fight that organized labor
has made in legislatures and con-
gress, and against powerful opposi-
ton, unorganized labor today would
be mere slaves, working under the
worst possible conditions.
SO, if present conditions are not
satisfactory to the merchant, the pro-
fessional man and the non-union man
that is out of job, this is the time
to give the mental faculties some
much-needed exercise and learn the
cause of present conditions.
We listen to politicians as they
talk political issues and point with
pride to our marvellous development,
bank deposits, to the great increase
in the number of individual depositors
during the last thirty years, which
and the evidence of general prosperity
they, of course, attribute to some wise
political policy.
Yet nothing could be further from
the truth or more misleading, for
vast of Tho orol;t co., oil +baca -,
creases should go to organized labor,
because of the battles it has fought
and won for higher wages.
Wealth, it must be admitted, is cre-
ated by labor as it transforms the
raw materials into finished products
The volume or amount of these prod.
ucts sold and consumed, and the price
they sell for, regulate the volume OF
per capita circulation of money anc
our bank deposits.
If for example, we produce 800,
100000 bushels of wheat, and it is
sold for dollar a bushel it adds
| $800,000,000 to the volume of money
and increases bank deposits in pro
portion But if we receive two dol
lars bushel for the wheat, it in
creases the volume of money and alsC
bank deposits in proportion.
But the volume, or amount of com
modities sold and consumed and th'
price they sell for, depend lin the
ory) upon the supply of them in pro
portion to the demand for them. Yet
in fact, the amount sold and consum
ed and the price they sell for, depend
principally upon the earning and pur
chasing power of the masses, for thi
is the principal source of demand.
There is scarcely any limit to hu
man wants, but the ability to satisf,
these wants depends on ability to ear
and buy.
The fight that organized labor ha
made over long period of years 70
higher wages has, without doubt, in
creased the wages of all classes 0
labor, at least a dollar a day, on a
average.
Thara arc sonathinp like thirty-fiy