THE HARDWOOD RECORD. 



II 



NOT SO BAD AS IT MIGHT BE. 



Tlu' ilispusitiuii uf mail tu (.■xaji.mrate the 

 present evil and exalt it above all previous 

 evils w.'irps his jnclgment out oi line at 

 thiii's. 



Almost any business man you meet in 

 the lumber line will shake his head omi- 

 nously over the gro^ying power of the labor 

 unions, and tell you that the business of 

 the country is coming to a pretty pass; 

 that, in fact, it is growins; almost impos- 

 sible to do business at all. From there 

 it is easy for the talk to drift to militia, 

 standing armies, etc. 



Now, such a state of mind is not war- 

 ranted by the facts. There are always 

 difficulties to be encountered in doing busi- 

 ness, and we venture the assertion that it 

 was never easier to do business than it is 

 to-day. The labor unions are an aggrava- 

 tion, no doubt, but not nearly so great an 

 aggravation as hard times would be. It 

 is easier to deal with your men when they 

 are broke and hungry than when they are 

 prosperous and independent, but it is the 

 net results you are after and you are mak- 

 ing more money now than you probably 

 ever made. Anyhow, you aro making 

 enough. 



A lumberman was in our office the other 

 day in a tremendouslj' pessimistic frame 

 of mind over the labor unions, strikes, etc., 

 and to our positive knowledge he made 50 

 per cent on his investment last year and 

 will make at least that much this. What 

 does the man want? 



"But," a man will say. "it isn't that I"m 

 not making money. It isn't the increase 

 of pay that I object to. The thing I resent 

 is being dictated to by the unions. I don't 

 want to be told whom I shall hire and 

 what I shall pay." 



Of course, it is natural for a man to feel 

 resentment when he can't have his own 

 way. We all feel that, but of course every- 

 body can't have his own way, and we've 

 got to compromise here and compromise 

 there to get through the world. 



The ruling classes have ever been loth 

 to surrender any of their rights. When 

 the people fir.st arose and denied to their 

 sovereigns the right of life and death over 

 their subjects we doubt not that the ruler.s 

 felt aggrieved. 



"Why!" we seem to hear some old-time 

 monarch say: "I've always been good to 

 my people, haven't I? I never had a man 

 executed unless he deserved it, did I? Then 

 what are you talking about'.'" 



The people might well have answered 

 him that if what he said were true he 

 would suffer no loss to have the power of 

 life and death vested in a representative 

 tribunal; but the monarch would still have 

 resented it. It was the power he loved; 

 the power to make or mar, to confer hap- 

 piness or misery at will. And the people 

 at this day are well agreed that no man 

 is good enough to have su<'h power. 



It affords keen pleasure to a man, we 

 know, to go out among his men and view 



them at their work, and feel that he has 

 the power, if not of life and death, at least 

 of good or evil, over all those people; that 

 with a wave of his hand he can cut this 

 man off from the source of livelihood for 

 himself and family, or exalt him to a 

 higher position. A'ery few employers oi 

 labor abuse that power, but all like to feel 

 that they have it, and it is the efforts of 

 the labor unions to curtail that power 

 which, more than anything else, we be- 

 lieve, causes such deep resentment on the 

 part of many business men toward the 

 unions. Under present conditions there are 

 few men who object to paying a reason- 

 able advance of wages. The thing which, 

 in almost every instance, delays settlement, 

 is the "recognition of the union." 



To our way of thinking the employers 

 and the unions are making rapid ijrogress 

 toward getting together on a practical 

 working basis. The mere fael that they 

 are getting together at all. and consulting 

 over matters of mutual interest, is a long 

 step forward. Any hardwood lumberman 

 who has been familiar with the work of 

 the National association for the past five 

 .years, and remembers the bitterness and 

 prejudice which animated the different fae- 

 tions of the trade before they came to- 

 gether, and how those differences disap- 

 peared when they were talked over, should 

 appreciate the value of "getting together." 



One fact which is very noticeable and 

 significant is that the old unions are hav- 

 ing no trouble with their employers. All 

 the recent strikes of importance have been 

 the strikes of recently organized unions. 

 In Chicago they have been such a class 

 of unions as those among the teamsters, 

 the tally men, the laundry girls, etc. The 

 older unions have come together with their 

 employers and have reached a practical 

 working basis which carries business for- 

 ward year after year. Jloreover, both the 

 older unions and their employers have 

 learned the cost of strikes. 



The first labor unionized was the high- 

 priced labor in the iron and stone working 

 trade, the railroad men, etc. When their 

 organizations were young you heard of 

 such labor striking, but you don't hear of 

 it now. In the matter of the railroads 

 alone wo have a striking example of the 

 fact that well-organized unions and their 

 employers can and do get along on a basis 

 satisfactory and profitable to botli. When 

 it is remembered that almost every engi- 

 neer, fireman and conductor on every rail- 

 road in the United States is a member of 

 a union, working under union direction, 

 the fact that through all the good and bad 

 times since the Debs riots there has not 

 been a strike or labor disturbance of any 

 kind worth mentioning among railroad em- 

 ployes is significant. There would cer- 

 tainly not have been so peaceful and profit- 

 able a time for both employers and em- 

 ployed without unions. 



When the labor in any line of industry 

 is first organized both the employer and 



employes have a lot to learn, and usually 

 it takes a strike to teach them. After they 

 have fought each other to a stanustill and 

 learned the cost of war, they get together. 



The new union is green and "cocky." 

 It doesn't know how to run itself, and 

 about the first thing it does is to butt into 

 a strike. 



But the employer, called upon to deal 

 with union labor for the first time, is also 

 green in such matters, and also apt to 

 be "cocky." His first feeling is one of 

 surprised resentment. He has always 

 treated his men well, hasn't he? When 

 Brown was sick didn't he pay his wages 

 right along? And when Smulski's baby 

 died— well, no use to talk about such 

 things, but he won't have it. He won't 

 sign anything nor do anything, and lik- 

 enough will order the business agent out of 

 the office. 



Now, the union isn't denying that he is 

 a good man and a generous man. The 

 union is simply trying to put its members 

 where they will not be dependent ou any 

 man's goodness or generosity. It is ask- 

 ing what seems to them justice. But ten 

 chances to one they ask too much and the 

 views of the employers and employes be- 

 ing so far apart, at it they go. 



Well, well! It'll all work out all right 

 The railroads, the iron founders and hun- 

 dreds of the biggest and best employers 

 of labor are getting along swimmingly 

 with the unions, and we will all come to 

 it in time, no doubt. As N. Waldstein 

 once said, "We've got to recognize the 

 unions or close the public schools." 



There is talk among some of the manu- 

 facturers of Chicago that they are going 

 to move out of Chicago to avoid labor 

 troubles. That reminds us of the story of 

 the Illinois farmer. He was a red-hot 

 republican in politics, one of the Kind 

 which you only find in country communi- 

 ties, who wouldn't vote for a democrat to^ 

 save his life. When, at the election when- 

 Cleveland was elected president the first 

 time, and the farmer's township, county 

 and state all went democratic for the first 

 time since the war, he was terrifically an- 

 gry about it and told his wife he was .going 

 to move out of the township, out of the 

 county and out of the .state. 



He drove to town in the meantime, how- 

 ever, to hear fm'ther returns. He returned 

 at night sad and dejected. 



"I reckon we won't move, JIarier," ho 

 said, "fer they ain't no place to move to. 

 The whole durned country has gone demo- 

 cratic." 



The Dennis I,ninber Company is a new 

 corporation at Detroit, Mich. The organi- 

 zation is due to Mr. Arthur S. Dennis, for- 

 merly lumber purchasing agent of tho 

 .\merican Car & Foundry Co. at Detroit, 

 and more recently identified with the De- 

 troit Lumber Company. Their office is iu 

 the Chamber of ("oniinerce. and they wil? 

 do a wholesale hardwood lumber business- 



