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1-24-1920 The Open Shop, Number Five Business Men's Association of Omaha

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Recommended Citation Business Men's Association of Omaha, "The Open Shop, Number Five" (1920). Digitized Books. 10. http://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/ascdigitizedbooks/10

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NUMBER FIVE JANUARY 24, 1920 Abraham Lincoln Said From a Labor Viewpoint "Let every American, every lover of (CHICAGO LABOR NEWS) liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity, The production of commodities is needed swear by the blood of the Revolution never everywhere. to violate in the least particular the laws of The world is hungry for food and in need the country and never to tolerate their of almost all useful things. violation. • * * Let every man remember There is a shortage of things. This is that to violate the law is to trample on the undeniable. blood of his father and to tear the charter America has a duty to the world-a duty of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every to produce. American mother to the lisping babe that There are some working people who prattles on her lap; let it be taught in don't believe this. schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let There are some employers who don't it be written in primers, spelling books and believe it. in almanacs, let it be preached from the Let them think a moment. Do they re­ pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls and member the great war and its great and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, terrible destruction? Do they forget that let it become the political religion of the the war ran a bill of damage against the nation, and let the old and the young, the world-and that this bill must be paid in rich and the poor, the grave and the gay commodities? of all sexes and tongues and colors and con­ Production! Commodities! Things! The ditions sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars... mills have got to run to make things. '* '*' When children don't get enough to eat In The'* Constitution doctors come around and shake their heads George E . Norman, elected to the consti­ and say "Anemia.·· That means starvation. tutional convention from Douglas County If the world doesn't get enough of com­ on the union labor ticket, has introduced modities, we will have an anemic world­ a proposal which, if approved, would make and a crazy world. Much crazier than it union collective bargaining compulsory in is now. Nebraska. The proposal provides that the We must produce more, and the only courts shall be empowered to compel way to do it is by the sincere co-operation all persons to deal with trades unions of both employer and employee. on questions of industrial differences. The employee who receives good Mr. Norman expects to have the support treatment from his employer and does of other union labor members of the con­ not do his best to increase production vention elected from Douglas County. The is not doing his share to cut the high proposal is now being considered by a cost of living. committee. The employer who refuses to deal fairly with labor is not doing bis share to increase production and thereby The Cost lower the cost of living. Since January 1, 1919, strikes in the Remember this, Mr. Employer and Mr. United States have cost workme~ more than Employee, you must work together and $720,000,000. The loss to capital during the not against each other if you want to in­ same period was in excess of $1,250,000,000. crease production. 2 'Qt:be C!E'peu ~bop

Wages and Prices the employers and the many wage­ It was at a minstrel show that one "end earners including the building trades worker himself. man" asked the other: The only way to reduce the cost of "Say, did you know that George things is to produce more of them for the Washington once threw a dollar clear same money. That involves greater effi­ across the Delaware river?" ciency by labor, greater efficiency by And the other replied: managemeqt, greater efficiency by invested "Yes, but that didn't amount to much. capital. That means the "taking up of the You must remember that a dollar went a slack," the giving of real service for good lot further in those days than it docs now." wages, the payment of wages and the earning of dividends on a basis of service It is the truth. The dollar of today does and labor rather than of idleness. not "go as far" as the dollar of George Let's work-all of us-for every­ Washington's time, or even that of four body's good. "Everybody" includes us. years ago. Prices have advanced. Wages have ad­ Team'*' Work '*' '*' Wins vanced. The increased income of the mer­ The New York Sun, in the course of an chant has nbt made him any better off; interesting resume of industrial conditions, what he buys costs more. And the increased reports that, despite .1n unprecedented wage of the workingman is largely off-set demand for goods and advancing wages in by the increased cost of the things which factories and shops, the individual output he wears, which he eats, which he must of the workingman has decreased from have to live, and the house which he rents fifteen to fifty per cent. Introducing a sta­ or which he builds to occupy. tistical summary, the Sun says: What is the answer? "In sections of the country Some labor leaders declare it is higher where the open shop prevails, con­ wages-and still higher wages. But as ditions are better than in those wages go up, so the price of the things places that are strongly unionized. which labor produces must go up. And as Individual production also is high­ prices go up, the demand grows for more er in factories where the relations wages. Who wins in this vicious circle? between capital and labor are Nobody. close, or where the co-operative The case is typically illustrated by the system is employed. building trades. Contractors employ "Generally throughout the country workmen and pay them a wage-it used to wages have been increased in the last be from 20 to 60 cents an hour, according five years, but production has fallen to the trade; today it is 55 cents to $1 an down, the greatest decrease coming hour or even more. But the wage increase since the signing of the armistice. does' not come out of the contractors' Manufacturers and large employers of pocket. It is paid by the man who builds labor pay tribute to the patriotism the home. If he is himself a wage-earner, of workers during the war, asserting his home costs him that much more. If he that the individual output then was builds the house to rent to someone else its phenomenal. Conditions at present show that with the inc rea..~ed wages cost is increased and the man who rents it paid in all lines, thrift is disappearing pays an increased rent. If the new building and that dissatisfaction is growing, is a store, the merchant who owns it or resulting in smaller output per man." rents it must receive more for the clothes, the groceries, the hardware which he sells. Eventually, the public pays for the Pressmen in "closed" union print-shops increased wage of the building trades in Omaha have struck for a seven-hour ~orker. And the public includes day and greatly increased pay; "open everybody-the few merchants and shops" were not affected. 3

Reynolds Objects The haste of the Chicago laborites to Four hundred thousand union coal miners claim common cause with the "reds" has returned to work under the compromise of not been equalled by any other group in the coal strike suggested by President the country. Wilson. But T. P . Reynolds, whom Nebraska union labor permits to appear as its spokes­ Painting Your Own Porch man as president of the State Federation of In the "Voice of the People" column last Labor, was not satisfied. The Omaha Daily week were printed letters from two men News, in an article which may be assumed who pretend to deny citizens of Chicago to be accurate in the absence of any denial the right to apply paint to their own by Reynolds, says: property. We wonder how far such a doc­ "T. P. Reynolds, president of the trine is going to reach. And we wonder how Nebraska State Federation of Labor, many citizens subscribe to it. today said the miners made a mistake The discussion was aroused thus: A in accepting President Wilson's strike woman wrote to "The Tribune" that her settlement offer while the injunction father, having painted his own porch, was and contempt proceedings against waited upon by officials of the union and them are pending. told he must pay a fine of $50 to the "'I don't think they got enough organization. Upon his refusal to pay this wages and I have no confidence in criminal demand he was slugged. political settlements,· said Mr. Rey­ The letter was published in the 'Voice nolds. of the People," and it called forth the two " ' I think the President's letter of letters appearing the next day. These Wednesday was an insult to working letters are self-explanatory. But they in­ people. The miners never should have vite some pertinent questions. Who is it gone back to work until guaranteed that preaches bolshevistic autocracy in an pay for the five weeks they have been American labor union? Is the red doctrine out.'" of Lenine and Trotsky to obtain in Chicago? This is the expression of Nebraska's When did American citizens give away highest union official!! their inalienable right to defend them­ If the miners are to be paid for five selves and their homes and to order their weeks of idleness, who is to pay hun­ personal affairs to suit themselves? dreds of thousands of other wage­ earners for time lost because of the 'This is a union town,"' writes Ivan miners' strike? Babotiwicz, in a truly sterling American­ Sometime, under the cumulative evi­ !ike way, concluding his letter with the dence of expressions such as these, Nebraska capitalized word "Liberty." Does this union labor may find food for thought as to patriot entertain the notion that a union the quality of its leadership. town means a town ruled by soviets? He is mistaken. May a Chicagoan paint his own porch? Reds May he cook his.own food? Or must he, on The Chicago Federation of Labor has order from the cooks' union pay a union passed resolutions denouncing the arrests cook to do it? Must a Chicago woman of alien anarchists as "part of a gigantic leave off baking bread because the bakers' f plot to destroy organized labor by the union reserves that right? Is a citizen employers." Delegates at the same meeting liable to be slugged if he brushes his own cheered an announcement by the Chicago hat in violation of the hat brushers' union? painters· union representatives that it Polishes his own boots? would not permit its members to join the Isn't it about time level headed citizens American Legion because the latter was get together for the re-establishment of a "tool of the capitalist system." some ordinary rights ?---CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Strikes and Railroads The House bill further makes decisions The question of taking steps to protect as to wages, hours and working conditions the people from paralysis of railroad traffic final when made by the adjustment boards by strikes is squarely before Congress. consisting only of representatives of the Each house has passed a bill for the regula­ railroads and employees, the public having tion of the railroads after their return to no representation. private ownership and, because of import­ There is no provision in the House bill ant differences in the labor provisions, final forbidding combinations or agreements to legislation now awaits the reaching of an interfere with transportation. agreement by conferences. The provision of the Cummins' bill for Both the Senate and the House bills pro­ the protection of the public from strikes vide for encouraging the settlement of has brought forth violent objections from labor disagreements affecting the railroads the American Federation of Labor and the by any existing means of negotiation or railroad brotherhoods. Threats have been mediation. The Senate bill-known as the made that passage of the bill will be the Cummins' bill-goes further and provides signal for a general strike, although the for the organization of a committee on official announcement declares that the wages and working conditions, consisting railroad brotherhoods will not take so of four representatives of the railroads and radical a step. four of their employees, with three sub­ The Cummins· bill is designed to prevent ordinate adjustment boards with like equal strikes but to insure fair-dealing to the representation. There is provision for the employee by providing for his equal repre­ settlement of all differences by these boards. sentation on wage-making and condition­ Further-and this is an important and fixing boards. The House bill provides for distinctive feature-the Cummins bill pro­ enforced "closed shop" unionism, with full vides, under penalty of a fine not exceeding right to strike. $500 or imprisonment for six months, that no two or more persons shall enter into any These bills are now before Congress. One combination or agreement to hinder or pre­ or the other or something of similar nature vent the operation of trains or other facili­ will soon be law. Now is the time to tell ties of transportation in interstate com­ Nebraska senators and congressmen what their constituents believe about this im­ merce. There is specific protection of the employee in a provision ''that nothing here­ portant subject. in shall be taken to deny to any individual the right to quit his employment for any reason." The Forked Road The bill further requires every railroad corporation to include on its board of American labor is going forward. Nothing directors one or more of its classified can stop it. No real American wants to stop employees. it if it marches on the road of our common The House bill provides for the submis­ American progress. sion of disputes to similar boards of adjust­ Nothing can stop it, but something can ment, but provides specifically that the set it far back, and that is a desertion of employee members of such boards shall be American principles for Russian and Ger­ appointed from among the membership of man theories. If labor leadership prefers railroad union crafts. It further provides imported experiments, discards American that employees involved in any specific democratic methods of progress, and resorts dispute shall be represented by men ap­ to violence instead of to a fair appeal to the pointed by the executives of the union. common conscience, it will insure its own These two provisions not only make no costly defeat. For the American people in provision for representation of non-union mass are for America and will tum upon employees but specifically deny them such any class 1,rhich attempts to destroy our right. institutions.-CH!CAGO TRIBUNE. .-

5

Seattle Goes "Open Shop" BY F. R. SINGLETON Seattle is breaking the domination over Seattle and so discourage employers that her industries of the radical element of they would be able to take over industry organized labor which has held almost themselves under a soviet system. The absolute sway in that city for the past three open shop is being established by the force years, and has so restricted production and of public opinion as the result of an in­ increased production costs that her ship tensive publicity campaign in the Seattle yards, lumber mills, and many lesser in­ dailies, conducted by the Associated Indus­ dustries have been finding it hard to com­ tries. Pages on pages of advertising in­ pete with those in which the labor situation formed the Seattle public that the indus­ was less acute; that she was beginning to tries and commerce of Seattle were being lose commerce to other Pacific ports where attacked by the radicals of organized labor the labor cost of handling cargoes was less; and that, if their domination over organ­ that she was losing new industries seeking ized labor and the industries and commerce location on the Coast, which avoided of Seattle were not broken, the population, Seattle because of industrial conditions. industry, commerce and prosperity of the Seeing her opportunity of becoming the city would decline. greatest city on the Pacific Coast and one The response was prompt. The Chamber of the great ports of the world slipping of Commerce, the Rotary Club, the away from her, Seattle has risen in the Kiwanis Club and all other civic and com­ might of an American city, and is breaking mercial organizations of the city took the tightening bonds which were beginning action demanding the end of radicalism to strangle her industries and commerce. and sabotage in Seattle, and endorsing the Seattle is rapidly going .. open shop.·· open shop in industry. These declarations Seattle has declared her independence of were published in page advertisements, and organized labor rule and is refusing even to at the end of ten days of this intensive deal with the radicals in control of organ­ advertising, the public sentiment in ized labor in the city, whose course since Seattle was overwhelmingly in favor of the signing of the Armistice has proven Americanism in industry, and the power of them to be no better in their actions, senti­ the radicals was broken. \Vhere, a year ago, ments and purposes than I. W.W. the closed shop was strongly supported by The American Plan public opinion in Seattle, today the public They do not call it "open shop" in is demanding open shop, and any employer Seattle. They call it the "American Plan of who signs a closed shop agreement with any Employment"" which, as defined by the labor union will be exceedingly unpopular. "Associated Industries of Seattle," the organization leading the movement to suc­ Fair Deal for All cess, means that every man shall be pro­ The movement in Seattle is not against tected in his inalienable right to work, unionism, but against the domination of regardless of political, religious or labor unionism and 'industry by un-American affiliations; that every employer shall be radicals. The Assodated Industries, in its protected in his right to run his own busi­ publicity, has repeatedly recognized the ness and to hire employees without having right of workers, as well as employers, to to gain the permission of an autocrat of organize; has endorsed the principle of labor. collective bargaining; has declared that The open shop is being established in there shall be no discrimination against Seattle by the breaking of a series of union men under the American Plan, and strikes, designed by the radicals in the has urged employers not to take advantage labor movement as a substitute for the of unemployment to cut wages. The general strike, by which they planned to Associated Industries has been consistently bring about the paralysis of industry in American and so has won the confidence ~be E'pen ~bop of the public and of the conservatives of by events. On September second the car­ union labor. penters and some of the other unions in the Seattle is winning industrial independ­ building trades struck to enforce impossible ence by the power of organization. While wage demands in spite of the vital pulbic the individual employer, with a few ex­ need of more homes and other buildings ceptions, in the past has been unable to and the willingness of the employers to withstand the radicals who ruled Seattle arbitrate. They arrogantly stated that labor and has bowed to their dictates, the their demands, involving $10-a-day wage employers of Seattle collectively, banded for carpenters and other exorbitant in­ together along with many other citizens in creases, must be granted first and then the Associated Industries, have been able they would talk arbitration. The job to defy the radicals and to establish open printers, the tailors, the dyers and cleaners shop in every Seattle industry in which and piledrivers followed in rapid succession a strike has occurred or a contract broken and the air was full of strikes in other by the unions, during the past three industries. months. In rapid succession, the building Strikers Lose industry, the job printing industry, the On October fourteenth Seattle contrac­ merchant tailors, the dyers and cleaners, tors, backed by the Associated Industries the jewelers, the shoe repair shops and the declared open shop in the building indus­ master pile drivers have declared and try, after six weeks of fruitless negotiations established their independence of radical with the unions to bring the strike to a domination, meaning that the unions have settlement on terms which would not make lost control of industries in which thous­ it impossible for new buildings to be under­ ands of men and women are employed. taken. Their action, announced in page Seattle would progress on the open shop advertisements in the daily 'newspapers, road much more rapidly, under the stimu­ was applauded by the public. On October lus of public opinion, if it were not for the twenty-first, the Buildings Trades Council fact that the Associated Industries has voted to call the strike off. The strikers taken a strong stand against the breaking returned at their old wages and under open of existing contracts with labor unions. shop conditions. One of the cardinal principles of the It took only one seven-column, fifteen­ organization is that employers must keep inch advertisement in the Seattle dailies, faith with each other and with employees, announcing open shop and inviting men to and so the open shop movement progresses work under the American Plan, to establish as strikes occur, unions break contracts and the piledriving industry on the open shop existing contracts expire. basis. The fight has been harder with the "Open Shop" at Last job printers, the tailors and the dyers and During last spring and summer the cleaners, but the employers in each of Associated Industries grew rapidly in these three industries declared unequivo­ membership and influence and endeavored cally for the open shop and are "'making it consistently to cultivate better relations stick.·· The employing printers have been between employers and labor, and to pro­ drawing men from all over the United mote a square deal for the employee, the States to take the place of those strikers employer and the public in general in who refuse to return to work, and are Seattle-but the unions failed to clean gradually building their forces up to nor­ house. mal. The tailors have been greatly helped The final declaration for the open shop by the fact that all the associations of came when Mr. Waterhouse became con­ employing tailors in the cities of the vinced that the radicals, still in complete Pacific coast, as far south as Sian Dego, domination of the unions, were attempting, California, have followed the example of by a series of strikes, to paralyze the indus­ Seattle and have declared open shop. The tries of Seattle and take them over. Ad­ dyers and cleaners have got back many of vance information of this plan was verified their old employees and are back to normal ---

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in their operations. To have granted the To Prevent Strikes demands made in any of these lines would The second national industrial confer­ have amounted practically to turning over ence, called by President Wilson after the the business to the employees. failure of the first, drafted a tentative No More Strikes statement of principles and has proposed a plan for the avoidance of strikes as a The declaration of open shop by the method of settling industrial disputes. building contractors was a body blow to Having done this much-with emphasis union labor radicals and disarranged their upon the tentative nature of its action­ plans to bring about industrial paralysis the conference adjourned over the Christ­ by involving one industry after another in mas holidays, in order that it might await strikes. A sentiment against strikes de­ the development of public opinion for or veloped in the unions and no more strikes against its proposals and that it might were called. receive the benefit of constructive sugges­ Once decided for the open shop, the tion and criticism before making a final Associated Industries conducted an in­ report. tensive publicity campaign in the three The result is two-fold: The conference loyal daily newspapers of Seattle. In a declares positively against the unionization series of ten-page advertisements, [begin­ of government employees in departments ning October twenty-ninth, the Industries whose conduct is essential to the adminis­ aroused the community to the danger of tration of justice or the maintenance of radical domination and demanded that the public safety and order; further, it pro­ industries of Seattle be run on the Ameri­ poses an elaborate system of adjusting can Plan. The campaign was assisted industrial disputes or, in the failure of greatly by the newspapers themselves in both sides to submit to adjustment, of strong editorial and news publicity. investigating the issues and making public At the end of ten days public sentiment declaration of a finding. was strongly in favor of the open shop. Briefly, the conciliation and arbitration plan proposes the establishment of a Then came the murder of four former National Tribunal whose members shall soldiers by the I. W.W. during the Armis­ be appointed by the President, with the tice celebration parade at Centralia, Wash0 approval of the Senate. Subordinate to ington, a few miles from Seattle, and the this are to be Regional Adjustment Boards, suppression by the government of the dis­ composed of "panels" of employers and loyal Union Record, the organ of the workingmen of the various industries in the radicals, to crystalize sentiment in Seattle region. against the reds in control of labor. The Provision is made for submission of in­ sentiment grew so strong that the elimina­ dustrial disputes to arbitration boards, to tion of the radical alone can save unionism consist in each case of representatives of in Seattle. the employers and employees affected, plus The movement for the American Plan, employers and employees drawn in rota­ the open shop has spread from Seattle to tion from the "panels" of the Regional the other cities of the Pacific Coast, and Adjustment Board. If both sides agree to the Coast expects to see it sweep the submit the controversial issue to the arbi­ country until the right of all Americans tration board so constituted, agreeing to to work without being subjected to coer­ continue or resume the existing status cion and intimidation is established. San pending arbitration, the arbitration board Francisco, Portland, Spokane and Tacoma shall hear the case and make a binding have organized "Associated Industries" on award. If either side refuses arbitration, the Seattle plan. the board may make a finding nevertheless, The Pacific Coast is making a new which shall be made public but which shall declaration of independence for America. not be binding. There is no provision for 8 compulsion, either as to delaying strikes brings nothing but loss to the workers who pending investigation or as to enforcing obeyed the strike order. awards to which either side has not volun­ There are days ahead with plenty of tarily submitted. work to be done. There is a crisis in The report is one which should be studied the land which calls for every man's by everyone and on which constructive best and utmost. Is the "best" to be suggestions should be made. It was for this half-hearted, half-way production, purpose that the conference made it, hampered by strikes in this industry avowedly as a tentative report subject to and that? revision in the light of future suggestions. Already Samuel Gompers and Secretary Morrison of the American Federation of As to Negro Labor Labor have condemned the plan because it The inflammatory attack of a certain fails to pro-,·ide specifically that negotia­ labor paper upon "The Open Shop" and tions with employees shall be through trade Omaha employers generally, alleging a con­ unions. Mr. Gompers declares that the certed plan to import negro workmen in an conference, in its final report, should em­ effort to smash Omaha unions, is perhaps body such recognition. beneath the dignity of notice. The paper refers pointedly to "the possi­ bility of a repetition of the disgraceful scenes of September 28, ·· openly suggesting Strikes that race riots may be union labor's answer Any eighth grade school boy can answer to the negro importations falsely alleged. this question: Without desiring to engage in useless "If a man strikes for thirty days and argument over a false issue, but merely to wins a ten per cent wage increase at the end keep the record straight, ''The Open Shop·' of the walk-out, does he win or lose at the declares its entire lack of sympathy with end of the year?"' the importation or colonization of any He loses! groups of colored citizens. It further denies that such action has been undertaken or is Yet that is the result of many a strike. contemplated. As such workers may come The business agent doesn"t lose, of or go, in the natural and ordinary move­ course; hfs salary goes on. The international ment from one industrial center to another, organizer doesn't lose. His salary continues; "The Open Shop" bespeaks for them, as in fact, the more strikes the more work for for all other citizens, equal and fair con­ the organizers. The strikers foot the bill. sideration. But it looks with disfavor But the man who loses all his wage for upon their importation or colonization, thirty days in order to win a ten per cent because of the very tendency to raise race raise for a year comes out a loser at the end prejudice and becloud the issue which does of the year. exist-Shall Omaha remain industrially And if the strike is for something other free? than wages, the- loss is even more easily In this statement, "The Open Shop·· figured. speaks the policy and practice of the Yet, union men frequently empower Business Men"s Association of Omaha. their officials to call strikes at their will, "The Open Shop'" does not rest its case for real or fancied grievance. And too for industrial liberty upon racial prejudices frequently-too frequently for the good of or antipathies. It refuses to be a party to the union man himself, to say nothing of the incitement of racial disturbances. It is the public-the strike is~finally settled by fighting for a just cause with weapons of a compromise which might have been Truth and Reason. It rests its case on the achieved without a walk-out. merits of the issue. Many times the strike is lost because of Will the labor press of Omaha undertake the leader"s mistake in calling it, and the same responsibility?