The Daily Alaska empire., 1937-05-04
TIME FOR LABOR TO PUT ITS
 HOUSE IN ORDER

There IS 1ndlcatlon thaI laDOr lolces III 0'iN" difficulties with employers for better working agree ments have overlooked thing at least failed to pay sufficient attention to very important point control of their organizations
 Strikes by which better wages hours and work ing conditions gained, continue. In some m stances they for the same basic reasons-ellorl to better conditions But two of the latest strike flurries based entirely different foundation Both the Copper River and Northwestern Railroad walkout and the present trouble at the docks Tn Seattle reported to be battles for control between various groups of workmen
 While Mediation Board under the railroad act is functoning in the Copper River situation reports from Seattle indicate that there is force to cope with the condition there. Charles Hope of the Labor Relations Board says that the Board has no authority as the trouble is one between unions and not be- tween employer and employee.
 Now that unions virtually have won universal recognition with few exceptions such as Ford is the nation to go through another seize of strikes while labor organizations fight for control among them selves?
 Labor has had a field day during the last two or three years Vast majority of the nation has been sympathetic due the general American belief that good wages and decent working hours are necessary ingredients of the American system There Is no retraction of that theory except in isolated cases But there be very definite swing away rom labor which will prove disastrous to the advances Sswi1fch have-sbeen made unless labor organizations themselves are capable cope with their own situa :. tions.
 There is ample indication that labor organiza- tions are being vctimzed by the racketeer just as business has been the victim in many instances in the past.
 In recent case in New York dozen men were sent to the penitentiary when it was proven that they had worked their racket" both ways from the middle Seizing control of labor union they had levied on the union members then had gone to employers of that particular kind of labor and levied assessments on the employers promise that they would prevent labor troubles. The honest workman and the employer paying tribute to a proven racket worked by interruptions racketeers
 This is not, unfortunately, an exceptional case Such unprincpled system has been prevalent, especially in larger centers since the hey day of gangsters during the prohibition when it got its start.
 We do not propose to suggest that all differences between labor organizations is based the rackeeer angle. But when such examples the New York case are brought light it tends to njure the honest labor movement in no small way.
 Labor as we have suggested various occasions before had better get its house in order The general public which has been sympathetic will not remain in that mood if pickering continues between unions for control, such is now reported from Seattle. The American people slow to anger, but if they become sufficiently aroused by such tactics are contributed to labor organizations labor will find itself split asunder and the gains it has made will be tossed overheard.
 Labor has two courses open. It can go ahead on
 legitimate premise, accept responsibility and take it's rightful place in industrial life Or it can. through constant strife within its ranks lose all it has gained and go back to the days when it every man for himself. It is up to union workmen to kick out the racketeers who victimizng them and get down to serious business if unionism is to survive.