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About Portland labor press. (Portland, Oregon) 1900-1915 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 1900)
PORTLAND LABOR PRESS 6 GARMENT WORKERS’ LABEL. “Our union label claims distinction among all others as standing for the reformation of a great industry, the standards of labor of which had be come so degraded that society has been obliged to do something for its amelio ration,” writes Henry White, general secretary of the United Garment Work ers. “Economic students have given the label a great deal of attention, and it has been the subject of a number of magazine articles and editorials. It is commanding much public attention and is now looked upon as the means by which those wishing the abolition of the infamous sweating slavery may co-operate for that end through the power of their patronage. “Through the increasing demand for the label we have every reason to hope that it will eventually become the guarantee, not only of fair and san itary conditions, but that garments which bear it come from a model workshop conducted directly by the firm. In the manufacture of work men’s garments, such as overalls, jack ets, working pants and shirts, our label has been notably successful, as all the leading manufacturers in that large branch of the trade are now us ing it, and make their goods under the most approved conditions. “The standard scale of prices adopt ed at the Philadelphia convention has been conformed to in all these shops, and has resulted in the raising of prices in a number of them from 10 to 20 per cent. We have found it neces sary also to restrict our label to firms making the better grade of goods, and refuse it to such manufacturers whose methods of business are questionable. In this way the respect for our label is increased and its power for good strengthened. “The label is now used by 80 firms, employing about 5,000 members, a gain of 26 firms. In the past year 7,744,000 labels have been used, an increase of 3,244,000 over the previous term. “The United Garment Workers of America take this opportunity of ac knowledging the valuable services rendered to the national union by the American Federation of Labor organ izers and the strong support given our label by the affiliated unions.” THE NEW ZEALAND WAY. The labor organizations are not the only people who strike, but they are the only ones who are condemned for using this means of defense. One rea son is that it is their most effective weapon and the one the employer most fears. Strikes have been deprecated by workingmen in America as much (probably more) than by employers, and it has been the constant aim of the men to avoid the use of the strike when possible. Hence the general ten- dncy toward arbitration for the set tlement of questions of wages and con ditions of employment. We have no knowledge of any case in late years where employers have not been solicited to settle labor matters by mutual and amicable arrangements with the unions, and it seems to us that this is the proper course. In this country the same conditions do not exist as in some other nations where arbitration Is enforced by law. In the first place, the workingmen do not hold the position of executors of the law, nor do they have much to say in the framing of law, and in their ex perience with the courts they seem to have some grounds for the claim that they are nearly always worsted, how ever just their cause may appear to them. Even in voluntary arbitration the same results seem to occur, yet voluntary arbitration is much prefer able to the strike. If the same laws and the same inter pretation and execution of the law3 prevailed here as in New Zealand, for instance, the workingmen of the United States would without exception be falling over themselves in the rush to secure compulsory arbitration, says k ■ the Union Guide. In that coun ry they have strikes, but they are entirely dif ferent from those occurring here. There the strike is in the courtroom, all the workers remaining at their post of labor except those necessary to rep resent their case in court. There is no starvation or suffering from lack of necessaries nor is the public incan- venienced on account of the demands of the workers. The New Zealand court of arbitra tion is composed of on equal number of persons chosen by the organization of labor and capital, with a judge of the supreme court for presiding officer. Experts may be called in to assist the court on technical points, but no paid advocate can be admitted except by consent of both sides. Questions af fecting large industries, like coal min ing, are settled on a basis of two-year contracts. The court considers there are three parties to labor disputes, the public being the third. After years of experience, the system is, with rare exception, approved by the who’e people. THE DEADLIEST INSTRUMENT. The second most deadly instrument of destruction is the dynamite gun; the first was the human tongue. The gun merely kills bodies; the tongue kills reputations, and, oft-times, ruins character. Each gun works alone; each loaded tongue has a hundred ac complices. The havoc of the gun is visible at once. The full evil of the tongue lives through all the years. The crimes of the tongue are words of unkindness, of anger, of malice, of envy, of bitterness, of harsh criticism, gossip, lying and scandal. Theft and murder are awful crimes, yet in a sin gle year the aggregate sorrow, pain, and suffering they cause in a nation are microscopic when compared With the sorrow that came from the crimes of the tongue. Place in one of the scale-pans of justice the evils resulting from the acts of criminals, and in the other the grief and tears and suffering resulting from the crimes of respecta bility, and you will start back in amazement as you see the scale you thought the heavier shoot high in air. At the hands of thief or murderer few of us suffer, even indirectly. But from the careless tongue of enemy, who is free? No human being can live a life so true, so fair, so pure as to be beyond the reach of malice, or im mune from the poisonous emanations of envy. The insidious attacks against one’s reputation, the loathsome innu endoes, slurs, half-lies, by which jeal ous mediocricy seeks to ruin its su periors, are like those insect parasites that kill the heart and life of a mighty oak. So cowardly is the method, so stealthy the shooting of the poisoned arrows, so insignificant the separate acts in their seeming, that one is not on guard against them. It is easier to dodge an elephant than a microbe.— William George Jordan. THE LABOR PRESS. Extract from address of Martin F. Murphy, president of the New York State Workingmen’s Federation: “The pathway of the labor editors of The country is not generally one strewn with roses, and that of the editor of our official paper is no exception to the rule. No class of workers in the movement should be entitled to more consideration than those who devote their lives to this phase of it. We should each of us do what we can to insure their publications’ success. Where as individuals we may carry our views to scores, the labor paper reaches thousands. It finds its way into places we can never reach by any other method. The effect that it has in creating healthy public opinion Is Immeasureable. Their efforts to further the interests of organized labor in general should be appreciated and sup ported. Every union man should sub scribe for at least one labor paper.” The ice trust has gobbled 90 per cent of the output in the East. Smoke the “ Multnomah,” “ Mt. Hood” “ Mozart 99 CIGARS Manufactured by P H IL HARRIS ’Phone, clay 623 2 02 À Washington St. Lodging per night, 20c Meals, 20c Board and Lodging, $4.00 Board per week $3.25 Oregon Telephone, North 981 Hotel zur Rheinphalz JOHN MATTHIESEN, Prop. Portland, Oregon 253-255 Front Street Corner of Madison HENRY WEINHARD PROPRIETOR OF THE CITY BREWERY Established in 1 8 6 2 . Largest and most complete Brewery in the Northwest BOTTLED BEER A SPECIALTY Office: Thirteenth and Burnside Streets.... BB - ---- P O R T L A N D , OREGON S m o k e t h e S C H IL L E R a n d STA TE S E A L C igars Schiller Cigar Factors Manufacturer, Wholesale and Retail Dealer in hub a n a m w iE s n ii n s 281 WASHINGTON STREET X . W . C or. F o u r th . . P o r tla n d , O re. Telephone No. 1831 Black Oregon Phone, Oak 81 Columbia Phone 382 2 6 4 Alder Street, Near Third E X C L U S IV E A G E N T S White Glover Greamery gutter EG G S, C H EESE, TEA S, LUNCH CO FFEES, S P IC E S GOODS ALL OUR CLOTHING ALL OUR HATS ARE UNION MADE AND BEAR THE UNION LABEL MOYER CLOTHING CO. BEN SELLING, Manager sw Third and Oak StS.
