WE MUST STUDY INVENTIONS New Processes Ahead Will Change Workers' M Lives ODERN invention, taken by and large, waits for no man. Here and there strong financial forces may successfully hamper some one new process, or postpone its coming into use for a lifetime. That is increasingly the exception, however, and the general sweep of the Machine and of the countless additions to it cannot be stopped. Trade unionism has a vital interest in just what these inventions are to be, and how they are to be met. The cigarmakers' union failed to adapt itself to the coming of the machine. Thereby it descended from one of the most powerful of American unions at the time of the foundation of the A. F. of L. to one of the weakest in our day. The printers, by finding a way to conquer the machinery introduced into their trade, succeeded in maintaining the strong organizations we still see about us. Only a few days ago the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., prior to selling its big station WEAF to the General Electric Co., announced that it had perfected a process whereby one central orchestra can in the near future radio its program to a great number of moving picture houses within a given area. What such a new departure will do to the Musicians, a well-organized and comparatively well-paid group, can readily be seen. Unless something is done to meet this, the musicians will find themselves faced with the cigarmakers' dilemma. The problem is, undoubtedly, to face the invention before it comes widely into the field. To attempt to destroy it, on the whole, may be worse than futile. We also note that in the textile field, another revolution is in the making in the process of weaving. A German, Herr Gabler, has produced a new powerloom, already in some use in German mills. The new loom works without a shuttle, and simplifies the art of weaving in a number of ways, it is claimed. It has even been calculated that whereas one worker might be able to look after from 12 to 16 looms with automatic change of shuttle, the A. F. of L. in blocking some ventures of U. S. imperialism, and can be sure of such aid only on condition that they allow the views of the A. F. of L. of ficial circle to prevail in the international federation. The upshot of the whole period since 1913 is that the American labor movement is still committed to the support of nationalism, capitalism, and associated in he can look after 24 of the new looms just as easily. We do not vouch for any of the miraculous claims of any of these new machines or developments. What we can vouch for is, that the Union Movement must be on its toes to study them. If it does not understand them and what they hold in store for it, rather rough waves are sure to be ahead. The Employing Interests themselves have been tripped up at times, in not figuring out the signi ficance of new ideas and new steps forward. A signal example of this fact can be seen in the long struggle of the street railway companies with the competing bus lines. Short-sightedly thinking that their old control of legislatures and commissions could help them against economic progress, they sought to stifle the buses rather than get into the bus business themselves. The inevitable outcome was, a long expensive war-for which the "public" paid largely; because it is stupid, too, and the street railways are monopolies. Now, after years of tussling, the American Electric Railways Association has commissioned one of its officials, a Mr. Storrs of Connecticut, to study this and kindred problems continuously, in order that they may be met and solved. If the private interests do this in the utility field, how much more so should Labor do it? So much more is at stake for the workers! The A. F. of L. might consider the creation of a bureau to study inventions, with a board of strategy of international union officials to decide upon the value of its recommendations. If the item of expenses stands in the way, such a bureau might be combined in the beginning with a similar bureau studying company unionism and other employers' schemes. At the present moment, it is thoroughly evident that haphazard calculation frequently is the prevailing tactic in Labor's detailed program. The problem of oncoming invention, displacing men and changing industries, is with us. How it is met is as much a test of Labor's intelligence as the battle against company unionism is a test of our zeal. terests, and that in so far as it thinks in terms of the future of Labor it continues to acquiesce in the subor dination of Labor and labor interests to the powers that rule the established social order. In other words, the American labor movement in its official attitudes is at bulwark of conservatism and the property system, not merely at home but also in world relations. COME-BACKS. Is there no comeback to Brother Calhoun's statements above? Is American Labor so hopelessly entangled in the Employers' Big Business net? We think a come-back might be in order. Has any member of Organized Labor any additions or criticisms to make to the above? Brother Calhoun will welcome them, we are sure. AGAIN: WE ARE ATTACKED NE great advantage is ours in the tussle with the Employing Interests: that they understand so little of the motives of the man or movement fighting for an ideal. So sordid and mean are their own methods that they suspect all others of the same degraded ideas. Ghosts and shadows of fear thereby become their specialty. ONE great advantage is ours in the tussle with the Witness the NEW YORK COMMERCIAL of July 29th. Ordinarily, we pay but small heed to its ravings. So far-fetched are they and so ill-informed that even the corner grocer must see partly through them. And yet this organ is an accredited publication for businessmen and employers. And its editorial of July 29th, reprinted in full, is a fair sample of the mode of thinking of the "other side." We allude to it here, largely with that in mind. Through its lines we can see exactly what our opponents are thinking. Cutting down its verbiage, here are its indictments in brief against LABOR AGE: 1. That we are backed by "international unions”— the poor dub editor not knowing that such has been the official title of our national unions for years. For him the word "international" is so horrid that it conjures up shadows of Moscow and God knows what else. 2. That the Managing Editor "lauds the activities of Communists in the United States." Any reader of this publication knows this to be the pure fabrication of a diseased brain. For the employers, anything progressive—even urgent requests to organize must necessarily be "red." 3. That our leading article in July incites workers to violence. This is the most absurd attack of all. Our good friends, the enemy, are so accustomed to employing violence to suppress opposition that they know nothing of the A-B-C's of passive resistance. Defiance of courts and police, such as was urged in the New Jersey article, is to be shown by ignoring these chosen vessels of the employers. We know that the judges and the military, represented locally by the police, are in 9 cases out of 10 with the employers. It is only when the union attains great economic power, as in the anthracite region, that they begin to become reasonable. The answer given in the New Jersey article was: "The answer to suppression is more agitation." That is the answer of all great minds, down through the pages of history. If you have a great cause, those in power will always be against it. Be not concerned with their puny motions of suppression; but defy them by your continued action for the right. Even for that, two thousand years ago, was One crucified in Palestine. The indictment against Him: "He stirreth up the people." Even for that were the champions of negro freedom hounded from town to town, with bloodhounds and the hose, attacked by mobs and killed at the doors of their anti-slavery printing shops. Our employing brethren might read some good American literature on that subject: Ralph Waldo Emerson's statement that "the highest morality is always. against the Law." Henry David Thoreau's plea for “civil disobedience. James Russell Lowell's attacks on the Cotton Power," wrapping the cotton flag about it. We need not be concerned with such statements as the by our great American writers, to understand that th breath of freedom is supposed to be the breath America; that freedom is only won and has always bee won by its assertion. We know full well that our courts have been prostituted by a corrupt judiciary, that ou police forces seep with rottenness. Buying your wa out is the favorite means of escaping the law amon those-who-have, from the tourists on the highway caugh by the traffic cop to the highest officials caught wit frauds, and the utility companies caught with the de frauding of the public. Such buying may be of the crude sort, resorted to by Fall at Teapot Dome or b the detective who protects the dope fiend in order tha the latter may steal for him. Or it may be refined, a the bribery of commissioners and governors and judges with corporation jobs, after they descend from th high and mighty offices which they have held. To fight these corruptionists is the highest duty for the workers: intelligently but firmly defying them. through non-resistance. It is these "decent" gentleme who are breaking down the Constitution and cheating vof the liberities guaranteed therein. We will uphol that beautiful higher law embodied in direct words in the Bill of Rights, when we assert that we will meet and publish and discuss whenever and whatever we please despite these puny autocrats. That is the spirit t union victory. MARK WELL THEN: What the employers' organ pro poses as a means to shut us up, and all those who think combat this propaganda with the facts as we see them. of Freedom with us. It does not say: "Let us go out and No; it cannot understand that sort of thing. It indicts itself more brutally than we could ever do. What does it propose? That LABOR AGE be suppressed! That the privileges of the mails be taken from us, so that we cannot circulate. It can think of nothing but in terms of force. "Those who do not agree with us we will put down by Force," it says in effect, calling on the business men to get busy. That in itself is a sufficien answer to its excitement over us. It leers at us in anger through its own red-tinted glasses. ours: GET THE FORCE OF THIS Within the past six or seven weeks the police, not only of New York but of many other cities, have been forced to use drastic methods to prevent rioting in connection with strikes. Inducing the necessity for this char acter of action on the part of the agents of law, those so engaged then turn their mud batteries loose and denounce. with all the vileness they can command-or they can get printed-the police as "brutal" and "cowardly." This sort of a campaign has been waged with a vengeance in the New Jersey "lesson in revolution." The press has been filled to overflow with abuse of constituted authority. The other night subway strikers-or more largely, Communists seeking to make this outlaw affair a medium for their activities-came in contact with the police sent to the meeting place of the agitators to preserve order. At once it was charged in the press that the police were "brutal"; that they attacked men without provocation and used their night clubs in a reckless manner. The American Civil Liberties Union had its story for the press almost before the affair took place. It has many times made similar charges against the police of New Jersey towns when they were compelled to use force to preserve order. The fact that in all these cases the officers of the law were protecting the public against possible injury has never been mentioned. Recalling to your mind the large numbers of stories maligning police organizations turn to Labor Age for July, printed in New York City. This publication is "co-operatively owned and published by a group of international, state and local unions." Note well the word "international." The first article is, "New Jersey Awaken!" The author is Louis France Budenz. His name appears as managing editor of the magazine. He lauds the activities of the Communists in the United States. Mark well this quotation at the bottom of page two and top of page three: Not so long ago four men and twelve "agitators" were arrested by the company guards of the plant (Durant Automobile Works). They were charged with technical violations of city ordinances, but their real crime was the dissemination of literature antiDurant in tone. Meetings of protest were held against their arrest, and the same advice as that given in Perth Amboy was given here. "The answer to suppression is more agitation. Thumb your noses at cops and courts." That is the message that should be heard everywhere. It works miracles. As soon as the workers learn that policemen and judges are largely lazy loafers, unfit for honest work, and that much of their power is as flimsy as their uniforms and robes of office, the path to rapid organization becomes a comparatively easy one. Again, with that in mind go back to the newspaper accounts of the "brutality" of the police. It doesn't take any reasoning or logic to get the connection. Here is a specific statement of the system to be used to bring police officers and courts into contempt. Here is a rule those seeking to use force to attain their ends must follow. And they have been following it. "Thumb your noses at cops and courts!" Isn't that what the entire criminal class of this country are doing, and have been doing? Can one conceive of any command more un-American or anti-American than that? "Cops and courts" stand for law and order; therefore create the belief in the minds of the people that they are made up of "lazy loafers" and that their authority means nothing. This sort of thing has gone on for some time. It will continue to go on until there is an awakened consciousness in this country. Disrespect for law and authority is being taught-mind you, actually taught many of the children and youths of today. They are told that all Well, it's taken from the esteemed NEW YORK COM. MERCIAL, whose love for us is displayed upon this page, It's right-in brazenly exposing the viewpoint of the "Open Shoppers": their thirst for Militarism and War. The two things go hand in hand: Anti-unionism and Militarism. The COMMERCIAL and many of its brother-sheets are openly promoting the military machine, and attacking for. eign nations. They do not want the American eagle to become an ostrich, as the cartoon indicates. And there is just what's wrong with the danged thing. The ostrich, as a matter of fact, is not such a fool as he is cracked up to be. Scientists now know that he does not stick his head in the sand at all. The employers' organ was as badly informed on that as on LABOR AGE. t American institutions are to be destroyed; that our laws are made only for a certain favored few; that the wealth of this country has been "wrung from the poor workers"; that to urge and teach revolution is to be admired; that police officers and judges are to be denounced, and the former physically attacked when superior numbers are available, and the latter derided on every occasion. Papers, magazines, booklets that teach this damnable doctrine circulate through the mails. They are to be found at every corner newsstand. They are generously supplied those who have not the money to buy them. Many of them are printed in foreign languages but others, such as Labor Age, are printed in the English language and enjoy second class mailing privileges. You are aiding, through the tax you pay each year to uphold the Government, in the circulation of this sort of thing. It's up to you to put a stop to it. Can man control his own inventions? We use our greatest chemicals and machine improvements for self-destruction. We waste carelessly the fruits won by Progress. These are problems confronting Labor-War, Waste, Wealth-inequality. Bethlehem Bunk at Lackawanna Charlie Schwab's "Holy Hell" and the Graceful Mr. Grace IT CAN BE DONE! That era of organization is here. We predicted it in our June issue. Already we see it all about us. Lackawanna is one more evidence thereof. Men are waking up to the Company Union fakery. They are coming out of the "long sleep." Fighting's ahead, brothers! Let us be alert! of the great Buddah of Bunk which sits in the mills of DIRTY, tawdry cafes Dr Ridge Roads and Hag of the scheme. Its opening statement gives its supposed reason for being: ing houses. Crowded on Ridge Road and Hamburg Turnpike and slopping over into the neighboring by-ways. Card-boarded and curtained, to shut out the keen eyes of the critical. Beyond, stretches of waste land, sprouting weeds and debris. Long rows of smoke-blackened houses, untouched by paint. Towering prevention and adjustment of any future differences, and and dominant in the background, the open hearth stacks and the huge cranes of the Bethlehem-lord of this bleak and depressing region. That is Lackawanna, in the State of New York, as I saw it the other day. A pre-war industrial community to all appearances, one of those running sores which were supposed to have been dried up through the miraculous touch of the "corporations with a soul". "In order to give the employees of the Company a voice in regard to the conditions under which they labor, and to provide an orderly and expeditious procedure for the to anticipate the problem of continuous employment as it will present itself through trade fluctuations and other conditions, a method of representation of employees is hereby established." A "voice" in wages is conspicuously omitted, and the "voice" that is allowed concerning conditions will be analyzed hereafter. With a smile of some cynicism, when the state of mind revealed by Stanley and the other men is recalled, we read the following: "The representation of employees, as hereinafter provided, shall in no way discriminate against any employee because of race, sex or creed, or abridge or conflict with his or her right to belong or not to belong to any lawful society, fraternity, union or other organization." We were sitting in the "soft drink" rear room of a Ridge Road pool parlor. Stanley had asked me in. My acquaintance with Poles in general, and with Poles in Bethlehem, Pa., in particular, had touched a soft spot in his heart. It overcame the suspicion with which he had viewed me. "You no company dick?" he had blurted out, upon my casual reference to the Bethlehem Company and its Grace-given "company union". An That little word "lawful" must cover a multitude of invitation ot "look me over" had had the desired effect; worker sins. A union of steel workers, under the comand I thanked the Creator for the garb of innocence pany's interpretation, would certainly not be desired; with which he had clothed me. The "company dick" would certainly be fought with the whole system of loomed large in every conversation thereafter. It is spies and undercover men who cover the plant, is cerlike a sinister shadow, which the men expect to dog tainly being opposed tooth and nail at the present hour. their steps at any moment, as they constantly peer over their shoulders in secret dread. The proprietor of the poolroom gazed at me furtively, as he drew the "soft drinks" from the spigot. Some twenty Mexicans, Negroes and Slavs were in the room, imbibing. "Poolroom boss often dick," Stanley whispered. "Tell everything to mill boss. Call up; say men say this and that. We get wise-now." They are "wise", too, to the "company union", it appears. "Company union, no good. Everybody afraid to say to boss. We kid him, though. Other day: put red flag on crane. We stop and tip hat. Bolshevik flag, we say, for fun. Boss, him take it down. Too many boys looking at flag." The Workers' "Voice" And so, starting with Stanley and lounging up and down Lackawanna's eyesore highways, the full account Representation is by departments, on the basis of one representative for each two hundred employees or major fraction thereof. At the present time, the representatives are about 40 in number, out of a total of something around 6700 employees. The detailed work is handled by five committees, which report at the meetings of the general body of representatives once a month. Is it necessary to say that no wage increases have come out of the plan? Its four years of operation have produced none such. Wages at the Lackawanna are among the lowest in the entire steel industry. The men have no way of being sure of this, from outside technical help. The company, under the plan, necessarily does all the compilations on financial matters. But workers going from one district to another bring word of what the wages and conditions are-in Cleveland, Youngstown, |