Montana labor news., 1936-07-23
WHITE COLLAR GROUPS
STUPID TOWARDS UNIONS
(Continued from Rae D

Continued from Page y
ers have so far formed unions or af-
filiated with the American Federation
Of Labor.
AS a matter of fact, teachers, social
workers, doctors, lawyers, engineers,
newspaper reporters, college profess
ors, even ministers, have all formed
unions, and some Of these unions have
struck for higher salaries and better
working conditions in the past ~ and
won. Thus, ever tho Librarians are
touchy about their professional stand
ing, as the authors OF "Post-Confer-
ence Conversations" seem to believe,
they need have no fear that they are
blazing a new trial when the thought
Of a possible librarians union enters
the minds of the most daring OF them.
On the contrary, even tho a union were
formed Immediately and of course
it will not be - librarians would be
among the last group Of professional
workers to enter the ranks Of organ
lied labor.
Albion A. Hartwell and Caroline
Whitney, the former the executive sec
rotary of the Inter-P Professional As
ISOLATION, and the latter a fellow Of the
American Academy of Political and
Social Sciences, are the authors of an
article called professional Workers
Unionize' which appeared in the New
Republic for February 70 of this year.
| should like to recommend that arti-
Gle not only to the authors Of Post
Conference Conversations but to all
the readers OF the Wilson Bulletin.
| happened to read its shortly after I
read the Bulletin article of D. N. This
tlethwaite and D. Wycoff, and from it
| learned a great many things that
| wish they had known before they
attended the last meeting OF the Ameri-
can Library Association and before
their famous conversation took place.
learned, for example, that there are
100000 professional workers in the Uni
ted States today in trade unions and
organizations with acknowledged pro-
%tective purposes, and that while a great
many persons belong to professional
associations like the American Medi-
cal Association, the National Educa-
ton Association and the American Lib
rary Association, I also found out that
the membership Of professional or
CARNATIONS which have failed to act
in the economic interest Of their mem
bers has remained static or has actually
fallen off.
learned that in 1897 Chicago Teach
ers formed a union that affiliated with
the American Federation of Labor, and
that when the American Federation of
eTachers was formed in 1916 twenty
local teachers unions had already join
ed the organized labor movement. /
found out that in 1918 the Internal
ional Association Of Technical Engin-
GERS, Architects and Draftsmen's I'm
ions, most OF whose members are en-
ployed by government agencies, re-
ceived a charter from the American
Federation Of Labor, and that before
1920 six national or international un-
ions, as well as many local ~organiza-
tions, Offered membership to workers
in the majority Of salaried professions.
found out that there was even such
a thing asa ministers union, national
in scope, which had applied for an
American Federation OF Labor charter,
and that the Association Of Hospital
and Medical Professionals, which nat
urally includes trained nurses, has al
ready been granted one.
Librarianship is a salaried profession.
To a greater extent even than social
work and teaching it is made up Of
persons who are employed by others
rather than Of persons who are self
employed. Consequently library work
ers face exactly the same conditions
that any other workers face, and in bad
times their salaries are cut just as rap
idly. They are as insecure in their
jobs eve tho they may be in civil SER
vice, and the prospect is as bleak for
them as it is for salaried workers any
where. Except as they organize for
their W protection they may have
the pleasure OF laboring for humanity,
if they wish to do so, with very little
in the way Of material compensation.
| know Of course, that the idea Of a
librarians union is not new, that it
was even discussed at a meeting of the
American Library Association in 1919,
and that nothing was done about it at
that time because it was felt that or
ganization for personal gain would in
t%refere with the idealism OF the library
profession. | have no sympathy with
such an attitude, not only because !
believe that misplaced idealism is like
ly to turn into the most vicious kind
OF sentimentalism, but also because |
am genuinely interested in the prestige
OF library work, and experience has
proved that prestige usually follows
only after adequate pay, no matter what
| thn NfA+aoa.~. = -.--.-