lective bargaining. The employer will prefer the non-union to the union man because he is cheaper. Those who are in the union will be tempted to leave it, because their chances of employment will be greater outside than in. The final result of the process, if permitted to work itself out freely, will be, it is declared, the destruction of the organization itself. "The intelligent and conscientious unionist accepts this argument the more readily because he looks beyond his personal interest to the interest of his trade and of the whole working class. The elevation, first of his immediate fellow-workmen, and afterwards of all wage-earners, is the ideal which he sets before him. He believes that no other change, no increase of scientific knowledge, no ennoblement of art, no multiplication of material wealth, can be compared to this in its importance to the social body. He may or may not believe that it is necessary to look for radical improvement to changes of the laws. In any case the thing that seems to his mind to give the best promise of immediate results is the organization of labor. It follows that it is every man's duty, in his view, and in particular the duty of every wage-earner, to strengthen the labor organizations. The workingman who stands aloof is often felt to be a recreant to his social obligations, and a traitor to his fellow-workmen and to his class. "There is beyond question much force in the argument of the union men in defence of their attempt to exclude others from employment. The union can exercise little control over the conditions of labor if there is a large body of unorganized men in the trade who do not join in collective bargaining, but who are willing to accept inferior conditions. If workingmen, perhaps through misunderstanding of the advantages which organization may bring them, are unwilling to join in the collective cause, there is much excuse for the endeavor to make their conditions such as to alter that determination. So long as the actions of labor organizations in this direction are peaceful, without intimidation or physical violence, it is not easy to see why they should be placed under the ban of the law. "The attempt to compel employers to hire only union men may evidently be poor policy for labor organizations which have not yet strength enough to enforce the demand. The animosity of employers is likely to be aroused by what seems to them dictation. It must not be forgotten, however, that, in a very large number of establishments, in many trades, employers apparently with little objection-enter into agreements for the exclusive employment of union men. Yet it is obviously desirable that the unions should rely, so far as possible, upon persuading their fellow-workmen of the advantages of organization, and upon persuading employers of the superior efficiency and regularity of union labor, rather than upon more coercive methods. "The attempt of labor organizations to make their membership as comprehensive as possible is materially different in character from the attempt, less frequently made, to exclude persons altogether from the trade. If the union is willing to receive any competent person into its ranks, no man can complain of being absolutely deprived of work because union men refuse to work with him so long as he fails to join the organization. When, however, a union has established a substantial control of its special kind of labor, the temptation arises to restrict the number of members. This is occasionally done by an absolute refusal to receive new candidates. Such action is, however, rare; the forms in which this tendency more commonly appears are restriction on apprenticeship and high initiation fees."1 APPENDIX B The following table, showing the duties of factory inspectors in the United States, indicates the nature of the protective factory legislation in the United States, and the progress which has thus far been made. It is true that the entire protective labor legislation cannot be placed under the head of "duties of factory inspectors," but, nevertheless, this table gives the more important points: 1 Final Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. XIX, pp. 815-817 |