today. Anything in reason would be theirs for the asking. It seems that workers in the unorganized state must be beaten and buffeted and reduced to a condition of almost slavery before the value giving motion to organization will open, and then a rush is made for the relief that is so sorely needed. They may find the relief and they may not, as that depends upon action of the wise ones who have kept their lamps burning and always full of oil, and a preparation made to receive the late comers and give them needed protection. It is not always so, however, and Trade Union history has many pages reciting the bitterest of struggles of those who have been too late in organizing, and have plenty of leisure to repent the folly of not embracing golden opportunities. EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK. To the Editor of the Tobacco Workers' Journal: In inducing Mr. Ford to adopt the principle of equal pay to women for equal work, and to pay his female employes the same wages as to his male employes, $5.00 per day, Mr. Wilson has done more for the equality of the sexes, for equal rights, for the forward movement among women, progressiveism, than Mr. Hughes has done in a lifetime. Mr. Wilson believes not only in equal suffrage, but in the greater principle of equal rights for all, male and female. FRANKLIN COUCH. Peekskill, N. Y., October 28, 1916. LABOR REFUSES TO BE TIED TO ITS WORK. Various plans have been devised from time to time trying to insure peaceful relations between capital and labor. Numerous persons are trying to find a solution of the labor problem. Some try to do it by profit-sharing or bonus systems; others try to do it by welfare schemes, and still others try to do it by legislation. For quite a number of years there have been various attempts made to en act laws providing for compulsory arbitration of industrial disputes. The effort has been to use the police power of the State to compel both employing corporations and their employes to continue their activities regardless of any differences they may have as to wages or conditions of work. There are two fundamental troubles with this plan. In the first place, every man feels that his labor is his own property and no one, not even the State, can force him to part with it, for that would be involuntary servitude or slavery. Therefore a law compelling a man to work is extremely repugnant to every man who is not a criminal or convict. In the second place, under any specified form of compulsory arbitration law, the employer is in a position of commanding advantage. He hires the man and pays the wages; he also establishes the working conditions. He has the right to hire and discharge, and he can use that power to discriminate against any employes who are not amenable to any new regulations or working conditions he may wish to introduce. Compulsory arbitration, therefore, amounts to an effort to compel the worker to labor whether he wishes to or not, and under conditions in which he has no voice. If a man has a quart of beans to sell and does not like the price or terms of payment offered by a possible customer, he refuses to sell the beans. But under the compulsory arbitration statutes it is contemplated that a man, the image of his Creator, shall be compelled to sell his labor power whether he wants to or not. The comparison is ridiculous. The Dominion of Canada has adopted the compulsory idea to quite an extent, particularly as applied to public service corporations; but a recent occurrence shows that no law can be made strong enough to tie the hands of labor. The street railways employes of Hull, in the Province of Quebec, have been for a considerable time asking for better wages and working conditions. The company pursued dilatory tactics and referred them to the statute. Finally, the employes repudiated the statute on the grounds that the company would not be obliged to abide by any award, and notified the company that if their demands were not agreed to within 48 hours they would go on strike and tie up the system. Whereupon the company signed an agreement recognizing the union and granting the increased wages and improved working conditions. This is another instance going to show that there is no known method of tying the hands of labor, except such reasonable restriction on both sides as may come from a mutual agreement in which the principle of collective bargaining is recognized and expressed in a trade agreement between the employer upon the one side and the union upon the other, under the terms of which each respects the rights of the other and a method of settlement of all its differences of opinion is provided.-Butte (Mont.) Free Lance. REFUSING TO ARBITRATE. Contempt for popular intelligence is shown in the claim that the railroad brotherhoods' attitude toward arbitration accounts for the refusal to arbitrate of President Shonts of New York City's street railway company. The anti-labor press so comments on that refusal. It must take for granted that the public has forgotten the many refusals of monopolistic corporations to arbitrate labor difficulties. These refusals extend over a long period of time before the railroad brotherhoods had a chance to consider an offer of that kind. If the precedent alleged to have been set by the brotherhoods may be cited as a valid excuse for Mr. Shonts, then the brotherhoods' action may be accounted for by the numerous older precedents which corporation apologists forget to mention.-The Public. OPPOSE CONTROLLED LABOR. "Slavery existed only for the purpose of controlling labor. Compulsory arbitration is suggested only for the purpose of controlling labor. Wherein is there any fundamental difference?" asks Secretary Olander of the Illinois State Federation of Labor. "What is the fundamental difference between a free man and a slave? Both work, and each may labor in the service of another. Either may have a short or a long workday, and may receive pay from the employer. Yet the free man makes progress that is impossible to the slave. What is the great difference between them? "Is it not that the free man has the right to refuse to continue in service, that he may stop work, that he can quit his job without any fear of the law? And that the slave may not do this? That the slave is prevented by force of law? Do not all other differences between the two, the free man and the slave, grow out of this one fundamental difference? "Compulsory arbitration denies the right to strike, and this denies the right to quit work and holds the laborer to his job against his will. Slavery, I tell you. "But, you say, a third party is to hear the case, a decision is to be rendered and justice done to the worker. "Don't you know, brother, that every slave State the world has ever known has had laws to 'protect' the slaves? Compulsory arbitration, the law holding the worker in the service of the employer, is a slave institution. The law decided for the man, instead of the man deciding for himself, and thus made the man a slave. To say that compulsory arbitration will not interfere with the right of the individual to quit his job is rank mockery. Forbid the individual to act with his fellows and he is helpless." A union man is very proud of himself when he contributes a Dollar a month to his Union for dues, and thinks he has contributed to charity, he thinks that miserable little dollar will build up a powerful Labor movement, but we want' to inform him that it will never be able to do very much good as long as he digs out the foundation from under the Dollar by buying scab made stogies, cigars and chewing tobacco, to say nothing of his clothing, bread and other commoditiles. Every dollar that is spent for nonunion made goods tears down the Labor movement more than ten times the amount your dollar has done good.-Ex. DEVELOP UNION FIRST THEN MAKE DEMANDS. The trade union movement in growth is not unlike many other things and beings that grow. The tree or the plant which grows rapidly and matures quickly, withers and passes into decay just as rapidly, while the sturdy oak, which grows slowly, lasts forever. The child that grows too rapidly often is unfitted for the obligations of mature life, and, morcover, often meets an early death. So it is with the trade union movement. The movement which grows slowly and acts deliberately and in keeping with experience endures forever, while the union of mushroom growth, in which the membership has no former experience and is lacking in proper leadership often makes mistakes which lead to defeat. While this is regrettable, it is not to be wondered at. If the many unions now springing into existence, especially among so-called unskilled trades and trades that are partly so, could be restrained in making demands until they had first mastered the first rudiments of tradė union ethics and self-government in economics, greater progress would be made in the long run. Some of the unions now being formed organize today and go on strike for an increase of wages and shorter hours tomorrow. Others spontaneously and without any organization go on strike for an increase of wages and shorter hours and form a union after they are on strike. These efforts meet with varied and indifferent success. There is not much danger to the old, substantial, well-grounded unions with years of experience back of them, from a rapid influx, provided the present membership with experience will courageously take hold and guide the new recruits along the lines of reason until they are first familiar with trade union discipline, its hopes and aspirations, its powers, strength and limitations, and, moreover, until they are beneficial or in a position to finance strikes.-Philadelphia NewsPost. You are placing a premium on nonunion labor every time you buy goods without the label. THE IDEAL TRADE UNIONIST. Even if it cannot be said that the strength of a trade union, like that of a chain, is no greater than its weakest link, it is true, nevertheless, that the character and grit of each individual member are potent factors in the fighting force of the whole body. A union of workers for economic emancipation may be large, numerically, and strong, financially, and yet fail when the tussle comes. Another may be comparatively small and weak, and yet, if composed of members who are all imbued with an intelligent understanding of what they are out for, and a tenacity of purpose to accomplish it, will often achieve their purpose, to the astonishment of critics and the discomfiture of the enemy. Let it never be forgotten that a trade union is not a suite of offices, a president, a secretary, a membership card and a rule book. A trade union is a body of individual men or women, whose actions, conduct, outlook and determination are all making or marring the success of the movement all the time. It is not enough even to pay your subscription regularly and to fulfill all the laws and covenants of the society you have joined. You may still be a slack member if you merely observe the letter of the nation and miss the spirit. We have known some men in trade unions who have been most scrupulous in their attention to small duties, have never missed a meeting, never been in arrears and never caused the slightest trouble. But when it comes to giving any rational explanation of what they hoped to achieve by trade unionism they were nonplused. On the other hand, we have members who (to hear them speak) were full of the most revolutionary ardor, and were just about to usher in the New Jerusalem with a flourish of trumpets (their own, as a rule), yet who were woefully deficient in their attendances and generally owed two or three months' subscriptions. May we be saved from both these classes! A strong union-one capable of doing battle with the serried ranks of capitalism is one which possesses not only a good bank balance--(strikes have been won on empty coffers before now) but strong, resolute members-members who take the trouble to understand the whole aim and policy of the working-class movement. A strong union is one wherein is exhibited a nice balance of forcesaspiration urging on leadership, and diplomacy counselling the rank and file. This ideal is impossible in a body made up of men who think they have done all that is required of them when they have seen the secretary's initial ticked against their weekly three pence. The best members-the members we want behind us when we start to do battle with the enemy are those who are not afraid of the drudgery (and often danger) of delegate duty; are steady proselytisersbringing outsiders into the fold like brands from the burning; are loyal to their fellows and their officers; are not afraid to put their finger on the weak places of the organization, yet who do not indulge in carping criticism at a crisis; and who, above all, are daily identifying themselves, body and soul, with the democratic uplift. With such a force we can go far. All types of workers, even in the most conservative trades, may find their level and sink their differences if this spirit is pursued. It is a high ideal, but it is the only one worth following if we want to create a union that shall be a power in the industrial world.-The Labor Call, Melbourne, Australia. IT MUST BE LEARNED. No man or woman in this world ever got justice-that thing that all know is due them-unless he or she went after it. Philanthropy is separate and apart from justice-as far as the moon is from the earth, and infinitely farther. The workers recognized this many years ago, and the American Federation of Labor is the result. It is beyond the power of man to imagine that there would have been any organization of the workers if the workers had always received fair treatment. Industrial conditions have been such that a few men have been able to secure control of a larger share of this world's goods than they are entitled to, and this has been followed by dissatis faction of those who produce these goods. This dissatisfaction has crystallized into what are called labor unions. With this crystallization have come many forms of effort to correct the abuse-an abuse that is vital to the producers-that spells absolute life or death to them. The present-day labor union has been and is the result of nothing but oppression and unfairness on the part of the employer of labor. Lesser oppression will mean lesser unions, and greater oppression will mean greater unions. This is simply a law of nature, and those who do not understand it or who do not recognize it will inevitably have to learn the truth of it in the stern school of experience.—Tacoma Labor Advocate. NO ENEMIES. You have no enemies, you say? Chas. Mackay. Suppose every man of the 3,000,000 trade unionists in this country, considered it a crime to buy prison products or scab labor products; suppose the merchants knew every penny of the $1,500,000,000 spent by these trade unionists would be spent only for union goods, what would you see? Every store in this broad land patronized by workingmen would have a big union label over its door. Merchants would themselves advertise the union label, and manufacturers would produce union products and hire union labor or go bankrupt. If union men bought right they would not have to strike so much.-Robert Hunter. The greatest force for the betterment of the worker's condition lies in the worker himself. Not by independent effort, but by uniting with his fellow worker and presenting a solid front. UNION PHILOSOPHY. The world is full of those who wish to reform other people according to their own ideas. Singularly enough, those who wish to remake other people do not relish the idea of having other people remodel them. Each person seems to have an idea that he wants to be boss of his own affairs and of those of others as well. We will make distinct progress if we have it distinctly understood that each individual or group has its own rights that others are bound to respect. In respecting the rights of others we will find the fullest enjoyment of our own rights and liberties.-Ex. WHAT LABOR WANTS. First. The same right to govern and control its asset, "labor," the employer demands for his asset, "capital." Second. An equal participation in the necessaries and luxuries of life accorded the employer. Third. The right to protect life and limb of the workers and compensate them when injured or their dependents, if killed, without private profit to individual insurers. Fourth. The right to do these things in combination that are not illegal when done by an individual. Fifth.-Equal opportunity with the non-producer and the employer in educating and bringing up their offspring.J. G. Owens, Secretary Cleveland Federation of Labor. Here's to laughter, the sunshine of the soul, the happiness of the heart, the leaven of youth, the privilege of purity, the echo of innocence, the treasure of the humble, the wealth of the poor, the bead of the cup of pleasure; it dispels defection, banishes blues and mangles melancholy, for it's the foe of woe, the destroyer of depression, the enemy of grief; it is what makes kings envy peas ants, plutocrats envy the poor, the guilty envy the innocent; it's the sheen on the silver of smiles, the ripple on the water's |