The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1931-09-04
LIBERTY
Is the First Step Toward
Industrial Justice
By JOHN p. FREY

talking about liberty when they are
discussing social questions"
The speaker was professional So
cial worker, the executive head of
large charity organization, and the
occasion was a representative club
meeting at which three speakers had
discussed the subject of unemploy-
ment and unemployment insurance.
The trade union representative had
pointed out that something must be
done to protect the unemployed, but
that before state unemployment in
surance was approved some yet unan-
swered questions must be discussed.
for American trade unionists were not
yet ready to carry employment cards
to be visited by employers in a man
ner which might interfere with their
| liberty in securing employment, or
| quitting it when they became dissat-
isfied with the terms and conditions
of their labor.
1t was during the general discus
sion which followed that the profess
sional social worker expressed dis
pleasure and disgust with the con-
stant reference to the wage earners'
liberties which were made by trade
unionists.
The trade unionist who had been
one of the speakers of the evening,
replied with some vigor and direct
ness. He stated that the American
trade union movement was as deeply
concerned with the wage earners'
liberty as with any other problem
that affected them. Attention was
called to the constant struggle for
liberty which had marked American
trade unionism from the beginning.
Reference was made to the linden
tured labor which placed many thou
sands of workers in a position of
semi-slavery during Colonial times, |
and for many years after the Revolu-
ton. Parents bound out" their chill |
dren under indentures for as long as
nine years. Adults, unable to pay
their debts, accepted indentures for
labor as the way out. Thousands of |
those who emigrated to the United
States secured their passage by sign
ing labor indentures binding them to
labor for so many years to pay for
their passage.
These indentures were looked upon
as other property rights. The en-
ployer could transfer his indenture to |
another, and the indentured person
was compelled to work for whoever
held the indenture papers. State laws
protected the holders of labor inden-
lures, and so strongly was this sys-
tenn established that subsection of
the federal constitution still provides
that these labor contracts are valid,
even though the indentured workman
might escape to another state inl
which there might be laws declaring
indentures null and voil.
So far as the constitution is con-
cerned, it still provides for the return
of the runaway indentured labor, in
the same manner as the fugitive slave
law provided for the return of the
runaway slave.
1t was the activity of the early
trade union movement which brought
these labor indentures to their end.
In the very beginning trade unionists
were primarily interested in estab
fishing labor's freedom. The trade
union movement was one of the most
active forces in the country in abol-
ishing human slavery, and in support
ing the government during the Civil
| War
1t is the trade union movement
which has so vigorously attacked the
injustice of "yellow dog" contracts,
and of injunctions which tied labor's
hands and prevented it from enjoying
the same rights and liberties which
were enjoyed by other citizens.
1t was the American Federation of
Labor which had declared in general
terms that labor must not lose any of
its citizen rights when it organized
into trade unions, and that there could
be neither justice in industry nor fair
dealing unless labor was entitled to
all of the right sand the privileges of
free men enjoyed by employers.
If there were social workers who
felt that the trade union movement
spoke of human liberty too frequently,
it was their misfortune, for nothing
was of greater Importance to the ma
tion's welfare than to constantly guard
the liberty and the freedom of action
of those who must work for wages.
Charity organizations had a noble
and necessary work to perform, but