Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1950-05-26
Don't Believe The
Bunk About Big,
Bad Unions
By Braf0rd V. Carter
For Labor Press Association


WASHINGTON (LPA) - The anti-unon
w barrage is so tremendous, so constant that
some union members-especally the younger
ones-may get to believe it. That's the way
the Nazis put their theories over-they shout
ed so many lies, so loud, and so long, that
finally people began to believe them
Perhaps some younger union members,
after reading and hearing much about the
big bad unions, may begin to think there's
something to it.
Rest easy. It's the bunk And if you begin
to worry about slave state" and "handout
state" and gimme state" and "loss of free
dom and our way of life etc. just remem-
Der this The very first thing that all dictators
everywhere have done is to kill off the labor
unions They did it in Russia, and Portugal,
and Italy, and Spain and Germany and South
America The free unions went, then other
freedoms went, and then you had the police
state.
Here is the way it was put recently by
Prof. Edwin E. Witte, head of the economics
department At Wisconsin University, i n
lecture at Wayne University, Detroit:
Free trade unions can exist only where
there is democratic government and, vice
versa, / believe the survival of democratic
government, under present day conditions, is
dependent upon the continuance of strong
trade-unon movement"
Note that he says that only here where is
strong trade union movement can demo-
cratic government survive.
What do they say, these anti-union people?
Well they say unions are monopolies. They
are so powerful that they want to the
country, and they will ruin the country Our
working force today numbers about 81, 2,000,-
600 So, there are three times as many nom
union workers as union members What do
they mean, monopoly?
Then these very same people turn around
and say that legislatures and Congress should
pay no attention to the unions because after
all, the unions ars such small minority of
the total working force.
Then they say that unionism is "a foreign
ideology," and therefore un-American. The
fact is that there were American unions be-
fore the year 1900. The first central labor
bodies were formed in the next rs years. A
national federation of unions existed in the
1905 The New York local of the Interna-
tional Typographical Union is 100 years old.
Some other unions are almost as old. The
Knights of Labor flourished in the 1905.
The American Federation of Labor soon took
over
But the unions, say the antis have grown
so rich and powerful that they are menace
to the nation.
There are $4,000 unions in the country.
There are 10000 corporations But OF those
100000 corporations, 780 in 1910 owned So
per cent of the total assets of all corpora
tions, 80 had assests of more than 81 billion
each And of these 80, two each had assests
that were greater than the combined wealth
of all the people in 38 of the 48 states. And
these figures are for 1910. The concentration
has become much greater since
And the 'rch i'd powerful" unions?
Prof Witte, in his Detroit speech pointed out
that a study of so unions with 100000
uad totn nj of of
100000 including their insurance funds. Only
the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen had
assets of $50, 900, whereas 10 years ago
780 corporations h d assets of $50 700, 900
each Only % of the international unions had
a net worth of as much as 81 100000. Witte
quotes another recent study putting the total
assets of all unions at SO to $4 billion There
are at least half dozen corporations who
have that much - each.
Although some heavy thinkers have come
up with the conclusion that ours is now
''laboristic" society, Witte says that what we
have is far more a managerial" society since
industry is our main source of income, and it
is the managers who run industry. II is the
managers he points out, who the leaders
in our society. 1t Is they whose doings the
papers chronicle, and it is their statements
that the newspapers print as gospel. They are
the best people," and therefore fittest to rule,
as one Congressman frankly said in campaign
ing Tor offlce In PennSylVania.
Unionism in a way represents challenge
to the formerly absolute authority of man.
ayers Witte points out so the antis cry out
that labor wants to usurp the powers of man
agement OF course that's not true. What labor
wants is voice in determining conditions of
employment, and there is nothing revolution
airy or "socialistic" about that. Here is the
way Prof. Witte put it, 'What labor insists
upon is that human beings are more than
commodities, and that the welfare of the
workers should not be determined solely by
market considerations. 1t challenges absolut-
ism on the part of management in dealing
with the workers, not free enterprise. Rather
1t is the strongest bulwark we have against
the replacement Of free enterprise by some
form of socialism or communism"
And finally, there is the argument that
unions have boosted wage scales so high that
industry is facing ruin. The fact is, of course
that corporation profits in the last decade
have been fantastic. AS the Federal Trade
Commission pointed out, total profits in 1948
were twice the rate of 1910 The industrial
giants set profits records in 1949 and are still
setting records The very latest figures for
the first quarter of 1850, show profits well