333.87 H742g GIANT WE-THE-PEOPLE AND JUDGE LANDIS' AWARD by HENRY K.HOLSMAN and RALPH PARLETTE Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. University of Illinois Library MflY -5 1945 27214 Giant We -The - People and Judge Landis' Award By HENRY K. HOLSMAN and RALPH PARLETTE Published by PARLETTE-PADGET COMPANY 122 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUE CHICAGO Copyright 1922 by PARLETTE-PADGET COMPANY CHICAGO Copyrighted in Great Britain All Rights Reserved I ^a, V THE MAJORITY MUST RULE We Need More Law What of the Unions? The Snake and the Giant Battle Today 40-45 r k 46211 Giant We -The -People and Judge Landis' Award THE SNAKE is always taking the joy out of life. We read in the Bible how the Snake took the joy out of the lives of Adam and Eve. We read in the papers every day how the Snake is taking the joy out of our lives. You remember how the Snake took the joy out of life in Aesop's time, two thousand years ago. In any bookstore you will find a book of Aesop's Fables with this fable in it. THE STOMACH AND THE MEMBERS One day some of the Members of the Body got to thinking that they were doing all the work while the Stomach was getting all the food. So they held a meeting and agreed to quit work and starve the Stomach 6 Giant We-The-People until he would do his share. On a certain day they all walked out. The Hands refused to carry food to the Mouth. The Mouth refused to open up Jor business. The Teeth refused to chew if the Mouth did open up. At first the strike was a great success. But after a few days of success, the Mem- bers got so weak they could hardly cele- brate their success. The Hands could hardly move. The Mouth was "bone dry." The Teeth could hardly chatter. And finally the Stomach said, "Don't you see if you dont feed me, none of us can live? You cant do without me and I cant do without you." Then the Members saw that the Stomach was just as important as they were. They saw they must keep the Body in good condition, then all would prosper. They must all work together, each at his own job, for the common good of all. They filled the Stomach. The Snake of selfishness and greed took the joy out of that Body. But all the Members swatted the Snake, agreed to work together for the Body and "they all lived happily ever after." Working for the Giant, We Gain THE BIBLE lives and Aesop's Fables live because they are as true today as they were thousands of years ago. All the people in the land are the Members of that Aesop's Fable Man. His name is Giant We-The-People. All the heads make his great Head to think and direct. All the eyes make his great Eyes to look ahead. All the hands make his great Hands to do the handiwork. All the feet make his great Feet to fetch and carry. All the money circulates in his great veins to distribute nourishment as needed to every member. All the land and buildings are his property to use and to improve for the next generation. For thousands of years the people were scat- tered in Snake-ridden savagery over the land. It was "every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost." And the devil took them all. It was the cave-man age. Every man had what he could grab or keep the rest from grabbing. Nobody made progress. He hadn't time! Then one day two men discovered that "two heads are better than one." They got together 8 Giant We-The-People and each man had two men working for him. They got along so much better, that more men joined them. Soon there was a great group that had quit fighting each other and were working together. Each man worked for all and all work- ed for each man. There was a division of indus- try. The ones that could think and plan best for all became the Head. The ones that could work and fashion best became the Hands, and the ones that could serve best as common carriers became the Feet. Each began to develop ability in his job. No matter what anybody else did, each did what he could do best, and each got the service of all the rest. The Heads planned, the Hands did the skilled work, the Feet fetched and carried, the Money circulated to all. Giant We-The-People Rises Finally all the people of this country united in Giant We-The-People The United States of America and "Uncle Sam" arose and began to achieve. All the people united in a great working agreement. This working agreement is the Con- stitution of the United States. It binds the mem- bers of Giant We-The-People together and makes him strong and vigorous. The principles of this Giant We-The-People 9 working agreement are all in the following Pre- amble that tells why it was made. "We, the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union; establish justice; insure domestic tranquil- ity; provide for the common defense; pro- mote the general welfare; and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." For one hundred and thirty-five years Giant We- The- People has been making world-strides, held together by our Constitution. The Preamble tells it all. The rest of the Constitution just tells how to do those six things. Gladstone said, "It is the most wonderful work ever struck off at one time by the brain and purpose of man. " It is a working agreement that protects and encourages every man to do his best. Just six things and the greatest of these is the sixth to secure liberty to ourselves. It gives every man his best chance. It has developed more statesmen, philosophers, inventors and captains of industry than all other kinds of government combined. It has brought about more progress in its one hundred and thirty- five years than in all the world before since time began. It has enabled multitudes like Emerson, io Giant We-The-People Carnegie, Edison, McCormick, Garfield, and Lincoln to go from humble obscurity to world fame. Had Abraham Lincoln lived in the old Snake days of despotism, he would never have been per- mitted to leave his Kentucky cabin. But Giant We-The-People enabled him to go to the highest place. He said this is a country " of the people, for the people, by the people "a Giant We-The- People. This working agreement protects our property, too. Lincoln said: "Property is the fruit of labor. Property is desirable. It is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, hence it is a just encouragement to enterprise. Let not him that is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for him- self, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." So this Constitution makes us a free people. So many people think they want a "free country" when they want a free-lunch country. They want something for nothing. And they can't get something for nothing without taking it from somebody who did give something for it. When they try to get something for nothing they head right back for the cave-man age when they up and took it. The free-Iunchers and grafters tear Giant We-The-People 11 apart Giant We-The-People and throw him into the ditch. A "free country" is where all rules are made on the principles of freedom, not force, where every- body keeps the working agreement of Giant We- The-People and swats the Snake. See! Three Kinds of Pay! And so as we all work day by day at the things we can do best or the things we get to do some as Hands, some as Feet, some as Heads we all get paid. We all get three kinds of pay God's pay, Man's pay and Money pay. God's pay is all the wonderful things of life sunshine, health, life, love. Man's pay is the privilege of being a part of Giant We-The-People so we can get the most out of God's pay. Money pay is the dollar we get to command food, clothing, shelter and service. All the rest of the money we get must go back into circulation. When the millionaire makes money, it goes back to the banks and circu- lates. He can't eat any more than others often not as much. John D. Rockefeller couldn't buy the stomach he advertised for. Millionaires merely gather up millions and build skyscrapers, museums and railroads for the rest of us to use. Being a Member of Giant We-The-People is 12 Giant We-The-People the big man's pay. The bigger and finer we make Giant We-The-People the more he gives us back. The members talk a lot about working for each other as "party of the first part" and "party of the second part," but they all work with each other for the party of the third part Giant We- The- People! He feeds and protects them all. The man who doesn't see that would better go to some tropic land where God's pay is every- where, sunshine, fruits, and wonderful soil; where there are no working agreements; where a man wears a weed apron, but his scalp isn't safe on his head. That's why those tropic lands have never progressed, and the finest farm isn't worth a dollar. There's no Giant We-The-People to protect the scalp. How Our Wages Have Gone Up A hundred years ago John and Nelly Kinzie settled in a cabin near the mouth of the Chicago River. They were the only white settlers in that region. They were on duty twenty-four hours a day to save their scalps. They worked all the day and night shifts, and got no double-time or time-and-a-half pay. The Indians therefore put them on the unfair list and picketed them. John Giant We-The-People 13 and Nelly lived in a swamp and fought Indians, malaria and mosquitoes. They got a bare living. They had a canoe to paddle across the river. They had only the protection of a door-hasp and a gun. A hundred years have passed and three million of Giant We-The-People have settled around John and Nelly's cabin. They have made a city of Chicago, and they pay every man, whether he be a millionaire, a laborer or a beggar, the big pay of citizenship. Giant We-The- People has filled in and drained that swamp, has paved hundreds of miles of streets, has built a wonder-bridge across the river and a five-million-dollar Municipal Pier. Giant We-The- People has made lights, water- works and fire protection. He has made parks, libraries, schools, and churches. Instead of the door-hasp and the gun he now has five thousand policemen and the Army and Navy for protection. None of us work half so hard as John and Nelly did, but we get a thousand times more pay. The dollar we get is just the tip just the little certifi- cate we wave in the face of Giant We-The-People and say, "Feed me! Clothe me! Shelter me! Amuse me!" And if we haven't the dollar, Giant We-The-People won't let us starve. We have that dollar and command millions to print a news- paper and sell it to us for a penny or two. We 14 Giant We-The-People command other millions and billions to make us telephones, telegraphs, railroads, department stores, and movies, and we command it all for our dollar. Napoleon in the palmiest days of his empire could not command as luxuries a tenth of the things we demand as necessities! That's the way our wages have gone up in a hundred years. God's pay, man's pay and money pay. Everything we have that John and Nelly didn't have is our raise. Everything we do to help Giant We-The-People gives us another raise. Everything we do to cripple Giant We-The-People cuts our pay, no matter how much we slip into our pockets. For if the country goes down, all our property is so much junk. II Working for the Snake, We Lose ALL this in spite of the Snake. The Snake is everybody's enemy, but he is such a liar that he makes a lot of people think he is their best friend. The Snake is a great inventor, he invented lying. The Snake has just one job to disrupt Giant We-The- People like he did the Aesop's Fable Man and send him back into the cave-man age of barbarity. You know that Snake. There are millions of him Snakes of Selfishness, Greed, Ignorance, Jealousy, Thievery, Graft. That Snake wriggled into Eden and Adam and Eve lost their paradise. No man and woman ever tried to set up a home and make it a paradise but what that Snake tried to wriggle in and wreck it. No man ever went to work or went into business but what that Snake wriggled after him. No government was ever set up that the Snake didn't try to run it. Our 15 1 6 Giant We-The-People daily business is swatting that Snake and saving Giant We-The-People. This Snake says to the Feet, "Boys, you have all the traveling to do. Why don't you junk all this excess baggage and go faster?" And some- times the Feet do take that lie and try to go by themselves. But they haven't any Eyes to see which way to go and they land in the ditch ! This Snake says to the Hands, "Boys, you do all the work. Strike out for yourselves. " Some- times the Hands do try to strike out for them- selves. But they haven't any Head to show them where to strike, and O, my! how they do skin their knuckles as they hit the rocks! If an Arm or a Leg goes lame, the Head goes lame. A race-riot on the South Side, and the whole city suffers. A strike in any industry, and every industry is struck. A war across the ocean, and the whole world is demoralized. Capital and Labor Can't Beat Each Other And then the Snake works to get Head and Hands and reet to hating each other and trying to get even with each other. That's a bully way for all to commit suicide! You hear so much about Capital trying to beat Labor and Labor Giant We-The-People 17 * trying to beat Capital. That's the Snaky notion all over again that the Head can beat the Hands or the Hands can beat the Stomach. When one starves the other, it starves itself. Capital is what the Head-worker or the Hand-worker has left over from industry. The worker who saves a dollar and banks it, or invests it in any property, is a capitalist. All savings become Capital or common-wealth for all to use for the benefit of all. All Capital is what somebod}' saved from some- body's Labor of Hand or brain. Capital and Labor are a great team at work for We-The-People. Both must share in the prod- ucts of industry. Both must have their pay. Labor's pay for handling property is wages, and Capital's pay for managing property is interest or profits. Labor takes its pay first and is sure of its share, which should be'enough to pay all its expenses while working and save a balance. It takes its pay before the job is fully paid for, every Saturday or whenever the paying is done. Capital waits and takes what is left when the job is done, if there is any left, or pays the deficit. Now if Labor gets too much pay, so that there isn't enough left to pay Capital, Capital sustains a loss and in order to go on must borrow from the bank-savings, or common-wealth. If the losses 1 8 Giant We-The-People prove to be too great, the result is bankruptcy. Failures are a great waste of common property. They waste the savings of both Capital and Labor. To keep on wasting by such mismanagement of Capital and Labor would send us back into the caves, and the Snake of Selfishness and Greed knows that, but he lies to us when we listen to him. It is said that the Russian people wasted in three years what it took three hundred years to gain, and poor old Russia nearly caved in before she learned that Labor can't get pay if Capital is killed. So wages must be adjusted as prices go up or down, or Giant We-The-People must either break up or break down. Within one year cotton dropped so low that the wages paid to grow cotton were more than cotton would bring in the market. In that case Capital's share was lost before the process was complete. To pick cotton would only add to the loss from Capital-savings or common-wealth, so hundreds of square miles of cotton were never picked. The industry came to a standstill and everybody suffered. Capital and Labor both lost more by losing their jobs. With falling prices, Labor must take falling wages or increase output, or pretty soon be out Giant We-The-People 19 of a job. Nobody can milk a cow very long if he doesn't feed her! Heads Listen to the Snake But the star Snake stunt is getting Heads, Hands and Feet to damming up the money circu- lation of Giant We-The-People by monopolies, trusts, combines, and bulldozing. The old cave-man did it with a club. The new cave-man also does it with a club a club of men. And whenever they attempt it, it is just like binding the arms or choking the neck. The Members involved get so inflamed, gorged, swollen, dropsical, clumsy, numb, inefficient, apoplectic, blind, drunk, that Giant We-The-People suffers, too, and rises up and roars. It is an old story with the Heads. Big business got Snaky quite often. Trusts, combines, mo- nopolies multiplied to control commodities and force up the price. Snaky financiers watered the stock of corporations and unloaded it on unsuspecting buyers. Railroads here and there pooled competing interests to hold up Giant We- The-People. And the Giant got mad. "Get the axe!" he shouted in his wrath. But Roose- velt said, "No! Get the Snake!" And we've 20 Giant We-The-People been getting him, from the poor peanut profiteer clear up to the giant corporation. Away back in 1890 we got the Sherman Anti-Trust law. The de-snaking of the Head has been going merrily on, and the very corporations that used to say, "The public be damned!" are now saying, "The public be served!" for they see their prosperity lies in making the greatest prosperity for Giant We-The-People. It was the Snake that hurt them all, and they are all out gunning for him now. Whenever we have hard times, it means we have been listening to the Snake. Roger Bab- son, the great financial expert, put it this way the other day: "When w r e have hard times, we have either been monkeying with the Ten Commandments or the multiplication tables." Hands Listen to the Snake Next the Hands and Feet got snaky. They had done a very fine thing they had been getting together in the various trades and had organized unions, just as the Heads had organ- ized associations. Herbert Hoover says the unions should have great credit for the abolition of sweat-shops, fairer hours of work and other reforms. But Giant We-The-People 21 A as soon as power came to the unions, the Snake said, "Dam up the money circulation. Corner your labor market and force up the prices. Form a workingman's trust. Water your stock. Get even with the Head. Grab while the grabbing is good." Labor leaders are just as human as employers and they fell for the same Snake. Little by little all kinds of Snake-rules began to wriggle into the union books. These rules overcharged Giant We-The-People. Some of the rules were so funny the Snake laughed as he wrote them. The leaders made rules that their men should not ride bicycles or autos on their employers' time, but should walk from shop to job, as that would string the job out longer. Jurisdictions were created with boundaries no two could some- times agree on, so they stopped work to argue it out. It used to take only one man in the railroad yards to change a certain part on a locomotive, but union leaders, when sufficiently Snaked, discovered that this job was in the field of steam-fitting, sheet-metal, electrical and ma- chinist:' trades. So the rules required four men to change the part. But Giant We-The- People had to pay four men for the job one could do. That takes the fun out of it I 11 Giant We-The-People Labor Waste the Greatest Waste An overcharge on a man's wages for a day doesn't seem like much, and we are apt to say, "O, well, he's our neighbor and we're glad he's getting it." But multiply that overcharge by maybe 300 days in a year, and you have a good sized overcharge! Then multiply that over- charge by eleven millions of workmen over- charging, and you get a staggering total. The labor bill today is the greatest in the land. Notice the circle diagram of any business or rail- road expenditures and you will see that the biggest piece of the circle is wages. Labor's piece of pie is the largest. The union rules got so Snake-ridden in Chicago that one-fifth to one-fourth of all the millions paid for building was wasted by these overcharges! And the Hands got swollen and inefficient. So it was that Giant We-The-People rose in his wrath at the Hands and Feet as he had risen at the Heads when they overcharged him. "Get the axe!" shouted the Giant. But Judge Landis said, "No, get the Snake!" It is interesting to note that the same judge that fined many big corporation leaders for dis- Giant We-The-People 23 * regarding the rights of We-The-People was called upon to prescribe for the union leaders for similar offenses. The Unions are going to rise in public favor just as much after they are de-Snaked as the corporations did. The fight is now on. It is not against unions but to save unions. The building trades industry is the battle- ground now in Chicago. The records show that for twenty-five years as the building trades worked with no wasteful rules, wages doubled while the cost of building did not rise, but in some cases fell, due to improved methods, appliances and management. That is, when all parties worked for Giant We-The-People, costs did not rise, but all gained and Labor's pay went up. Now as the Snake has wriggled in, wasteful rules have multiplied, costs have soared, the building industry has become discredited, has become uncertain, has come almost to a standstill, and all have lost, doing the things the Snake told them would make them gain! A FAR REACHING DECISION Copyright 1921, The Chicago Tribunt Cartoon by John T. McCutcheon Reprinted by Permission of The Chicago Tribune Ill The Chicago Building Battlefield THE battle with the Snake in the Chicago building trades that began in 1921 has drawn the eyes of the world. Monopolistic rules and overcharges had multiplied the costs until the world's most essential industry had well-nigh stopped. The population went right on increasing. Homes and offices were over- crowded. Families crowded into one room and sometimes seven people slept in one bed. That's a rather populous bed! Misery and crime in- creased. Rents soared. There weren't enough houses at any price. "Hurry us more new houses!" shouted Giant We-The-People day by day. "All right," replied the builders, "here is what they will cost." "No, the war is over. We can't pay such prices. Make them lower." "We can't make them lower without lower wages," said the builders. "Wages must not come down," said the union leaders. "We cannot live on less the way things 26 Giant We-The-People 27 are. And, moreover, Capital has been beating us, now it is our chance to beat Capital." So the builder-Heads and the builder-Hands- and-Feet deadlocked. Building was tied up right when the season was fine for building, when many buildings were to be erected, and when thousands of men needed work and thousands of families needed homes! "More houses! Hurry! Hurry!" shouted the Giant. Finally both sides agreed to leave it to Judge Kenesaw M. Landis to decide the wage scale. And when he had looked into the situation he discovered that to cut the wages twenty percent would only cut the building costs six percent. Some other way must be found to reduce costs. Then Judge Landis saw the wriggling trail. "I cannot fix wages until I see the employers' agreements and workmen's rules," he said. So they brought all the agreements and rule-books into his court, and here he saw the masses of crooked rules to overcharge Giant We-The- People. "I'm going to give up my summer vacation and go Snake-hunting," he said. "Verily, the build- ing industry is in a bad way. There is a general disposition to avoid it as a thing diseased. The 28 Giant We-The-People wise dollar prefers most any other form of activity or no activity. This has brought about a virtual famine in homes and the idleness of many thou- sands of men willing to work." Now when the price of ordinary commodities becomes too high, the people may stop buying them, or substitute something else. But there is no substitute for buildings. And if buildings cost too much, the high cost is added on to rents and paid by the people over and over again in everything they buy. Why Buildings Cost So Much The real evil lurks in the mass of "make- work" rules, that arbitrarily require skilled men to do unskilled labor at skilled men's wages, rules that give unscrupulous business agents pretexts for calling strikes to be settled by payment to them for peace and progress, and, most of all, rules cunningly designed, by that self-same Snake, to reduce the skill and productivity of the worker, thus injuring the self-respect and man- hood of the worker himself, and making it un- desirable for the self-respecting and freedom- loving citizens to join such crafts. Such practices are absolutely opposed to the principles of the great working agreement the Giant We-The-People 29 Constitution of We-The-People. You see, if we all work against each other instead of with each other for the Party of the Third Part, Giant We- The-People, we shall all suffer, and most of all will that member suffer that becomes most dominated by the Snake. Back to the Constitution! So the Judge could not fix wages until he had fixed the working rules. And he therefore formulated the following Principles founded upon the great working agreement that has made Giant We-The-People so successful the Con- stitution of the United States. PRINCIPLES GOVERNING THE CONSIDERATION OF AGREEMENTS AND WORKING RULES AFFECTING A JUST WAGE SCALE ARTICLE I. Monopolistic elen^ents of associations or unions are intolerable unless, i . The public is served more economically with them than without them. 2. Lnless any one qualified may join them without hindrance or discrimination. 3. Unless they serve any one on demand without discrimination. 30 Giant We-The-People 4. Unless sufficient apprentices be taught to supply enough skillful managers and workers. 5. Unless working rules and conditions eliminate waste of time, effort and material; increase quality and quantity of product; encourage improved methods, ma- terials and appliances; produce increased skill and con- tentment of the workers, and help to preserve peace in the community. ARTICLE II. Other things being equal, trades should have higher wages, or wages above the average, I. If the work is more hazardous. 2. If greater skill is required. 3. If a longer term of apprenticeship is required to become proficient. 4. If the work is intermittent or unsteady due to weather or seasonable demand. ARTICLE III. Other things being equal, trades having rules or conditions that produce or permit waste should have a lower wage, or a wage lower than the average rate. i. Rules that limit or curtail in any way the amount of work per man, consistent with reasonable comfort and well-being. 2. Rules that require ordinary travel to or from the job to be on employers' time, or otherwise waste time paid for. 3. Rules requiring skilled men or high-rate men to do work that less skilled or lower-rate men could do, or that other trades could do more economically. Giant We-The-People 31 4. Rules that expressly or by inference interfere with the manager or foreman in the dispatch of the work or the use of new or improved methods, materials or appliances. 5. Rules that require work to be done by hand that could be done better or more economically by machinery, tools or other improved methods. 6. Rules that require work to be done on the building that could be done better or more economically in the shop. 7. Rules requiring excessive rates for overtime, or overtime rates for shift work. 8. Rules requiring unnecessary foremen, shop or job stewards or pay for men or the time of men who do not render corresponding services. 9. Rules requiring unnecessary helpers or assistants. 10. Rules that limit the number of members in the associations or unions, or unreasonably limit apprentice- ships. Judge Landis asked all the unions of all the trades to revise their working rules according to these Principles. IV Back to Work for Giant We-The-People DE-SNAKING the union rules according to the foregoing Principles resulted in the now nationally famous Landis Uniform Agreement. Oftentimes thirty or forty trades have to take a hand in one new building. If any one trade, the teamsters for example, having rules differing from others should stop work, the whole business would stop. The several trades had a time trying to adjust their rules to the Principles, but finally agreed on a Uniform Agreement that would apply to all trades. Here are some of the rules: Rules of Uniform Agreement ARBITRATION INSTEAD OF STRIKES The first swat knocked out the Strike Snake. Heretofore leaders with power or influence enough could call a strike. A strike isn't merely quitting work. A strike is quitting work in a way to try to prevent anybody else from going on with the job. Now the Constitution of We- The-People gives everybody liberty to work or 32 Giant We-The-People 33 quit work, but requires that he give the same liberty to the other fellow to work or quit work. So all the employers and employees put in the Uniform Agreement that they would not stop work by strike or lockout, but that they would refer any grievances to a board of arbitration composed of equal numbers of employers and employees. Their decision would be binding, subject to appeal to a national board or an umpire. And they all agreed to continue working on the old basis until the final decision was made, and then abide by that. What a lot of grief that saves for all! TRADE TOOLS INTERCHANGEABLE It used to be the custom to consider that tools belonging to one trade should not be used by men of another trade. This stirred up disputes and strikes. New kinds of materials in some trades could best be worked with tools of another trade. They agreed that any tools could be used any- where needed. A BIG "MAKE- WORK" SNAKE Some union business agents could find easy work to do only because the employers agreed with them to enforce a monopoly and create 34 Giant We-The-People that kind of work. Thus the glaziers had a rule requiring all glass to be set in its sash at the building instead of at the shop. This made much extra work. That work, too, is manifestly easier done in a shop where the tools and appliances are handy than out in the field or on a building exposed to the weather. And when the glaziers' union leaders told the judge-umpire that if that rule be knocked out, "ninety-five per cent of their men would be thrown on the street without any means of making a living for their families," Judge Landis replied, "If the life of your union depends upon such a 'make- work* rule, you should disband before sundown," and find some other work to do. NO EMPLOYERS' ASSOCIATION MONOPOLY Some employers had an agreement with their union chiefs that the men would not work for anyone not belonging to the employers' asso- ciation. This kind of a rule would make a monopoly for the employers' association, and make it easy for them to charge We-The-People an unfair price. So the Uniform Agreement pro- vides that any employer may join the associa- tion, and if he does not want to join he may have all the benefits of the agreement with the unions Giant We-The-People 35 by paying the same dues and fees the members pay. NO UNION MONOPOLY Some union leaders also tried to make a monopoly by limiting the number of members that might join the union. One wanted an agree- ment stating, "No more journeymen shall be created without the sanction of the arbitration committee." Now such an attempt to limit the number of men that may belong to the union, when the employers agree to employ only union men, would be a great injustice to other members of We-The-People who might want to work. So they gave up that rule. They also agreed that the use of apprentices shall not be prohibited. NO LIMIT ON WORK Some union rules placed limits on the amount of work a man would be permitted to do in a dayl Some did this in one way and some another. This type of rule stifles skill and puts ability to sleep. It is like tying hands up in bandages when they work. It makes the work cost We-The-People more than necessary. It kills enthusiasm. Limiting a man's work to so many pieces or so many radiators or so many 36 Giant We-The-People yards, etc., regardless of how well the work had been planned to save labor, prevents the adoption of many improved methods and appliances to save labor and reduce costs. The unions landed on that Snake, and agreed that there should be no restriction on the amount of work a man may do, and no restriction against any machinery or appliances, or any raw or manu- factured material, except prison-made. LETTING THE BOSS WORK Another Snaky idea that was bleeding We- The-People was that rule that the employer must not work on his own job! If he picked up a tool and did a two or three-minute emergency job, he was in danger of being fined or his men taken away from him. Now in many cases the employer could work as much as two-thirds of the time, and there is an average of one employer to four or five employees. Under this waste- making rule Giant We-The-People had to pay for the full time of a skilled employer and yet not get the work he could do. So the Judge ruled that the unions that required this should get lower pay to make up for the waste. Twenty unions agreed to let the employer, or one member of a firm of employers, work on his own job. Giant We-The-People 37 KILLING JURISDICTIONAL STRIKES One Snake-rule designed especially to gum up the works of We-The-People was that rule of each trade's claiming and enumerating the various and minute kinds of work that they thought must be done by their members and by no others. The trouble with this form of greed is that other trades would claim some of the same things, and after the building starts a dispute over these claims would arise and pro- voke a young war, known as a jurisdictional strike. Such a war often grew to such proportions that it blocked the work of other departments and caused much loss of time and wages to many innocent brother craftsmen, as well as to We- The-People. All trades, therefore, agreed to avoid this wasteful condition by a clause in the Uniform Agreement providing that all work undertaken by the employer-Heads shall be done by their employee-Hands. This leaves it to the employer when taking orders from the people to take only that kind of work his craftsmen can do economically, leaving the other kinds of work for other employers. ANYBODY MAY DO SMALL JOBS Another wasteful jurisdictional rule was wiped out. When union leaders claimed that certain 38 Giant We-The-People materials and tools could only be handled by their members, it often happened that a few minutes' work of repair or adjustment would involve the handling of tools or material belong- ing to three or four different trades, though one man of any of the trades could easily do the whole job alone. Giant We-The-People shouldn't be charged with four or five men called to do what one could do. So the Uniform Agreement pro- vides that work of not to exceed thirty min- utes, belonging to any trade, may be done by any other trade at the discretion of the employer, in the interest of public economy. SOME STUCK TO THE SNAKE In some trades the leaders had organized a separate helpers' union and wanted a rule that there should be one helper to each craftsman on every job whether needed or not. Other trades wanted no helpers' union and few apprentices. They demanded that all the work of carrying and distributing materials and assisting the crafts- men should be done by skilled men at high wages. Other leaders wanted work to be done in the field or on the building that might be more easily and cheaply done in the shop. Such rules over- charged We-The-People and the wages of such Giant We-The-People 39 trades would have to be fixed lower because of the lower value of the service rendered. Such leaders and a few others stuck to the Snake and would not line up with the majority that accepted the Uniform Agreement, to help get building costs down and end the building tie-up. BUT SOME PROPOSE PROGRESS Two trades in the Landis arbitration proposed rules to guarantee good workmanship! They proposed that the workman be required to do any work over that he hadn't done properly and do it on his own time, at his own expense! Such a rule would tend to make better workmen and make their wages higher because they would be worth more to the public than poor workmen who do their work over at the employer's ex- pense. Hurrah for these two trades! So the rules of the Uniform Agreement tended to give a full day's work and get a full day's pay for it. Where ten men charge for five men's work, then they should receive only five men's pay and divide it among them. The greater the waste and overcharge, the lower the wages for the workers responsible for the waste. V The Majority Must Rule WE HAVE told in detail of the Chicago Building Industry battle for two reasons: Because the country at large may not know the true inwardness of it, and because it is one of the deciding battles between the Giant and the Snake. Its outcome affects the nation. The Snake that tied up the Chicago building industry wriggles over the nation. His trail leads into every industry. Where he goes he carries the same systems of graft, waste and despotism, that produce high costs, inefficiency and unrest. This Snake injures most the very workers he claims to benefit. When some part of a city is not well lighted at night, the citizens lose the way, stumble, go into the gutter and are held up by bandits. We fix it by putting more lights there. Chicago and all America have had their industrial sec- tions fogged and darkened by the Snake's dishonest doctrines. Millions of honest workers 40 Giant We-The-People 41 have lost the way, fallen into the gutter and have been held up by industrial bandits. Judge Landis came with his Principles and Uniform Agreements to let the light of the great American working agreement, the Constitution of Giant We-The-People, into the building industry. It was stumbling into the ditch and being robbed. Only as these Principles and Agreements light the way can we make fair pay for both Labor and Capital. Only as these Principles and Agree- ments light the way can each one get all his pay God's pay, Man's pay and Money pay. The majority must rule in America. The minority must follow. The interests of the majority must rule in the building trades or they cannot be American. The Constitution espe- cially declares freedom from autocrats. When autocratic leaders oppose the majority by force when the majority go to work on a building and one trade, the teamsters, for illustration, strike and stop everything, what shall we do? The man who will not follow the majority agreement in a nation is disloyal. The man who will not act in the interest of the majority in industry is an obstructionist. We must find a just way to enable industry to proceed without him. 42 Giant We-The-People We Need More Law Organizations are right and worthy so long as they do not injure Giant We-The- People. We make laws to keep them from injuring Giant We-The- People. We have laws to keep capitalists from injuring him. We have laws to keep cap- tains of industry from injuring him. We have laws even to keep natural monopolies like railways and gas companies from overcharging him. But we have no law as yet to keep misguided labor leaders from hurting him. We haven't yet had time to make them. We're only one hundred and thirty-five years old. The United States just began in 1787. Egypt began thousands of years before. We- The-People must find a way to save the unions. When we adopted the Constitution, the great working agreement of We-The-People, we each agreed to give to every other man the same liberty we ask for ourselves and no man can withdraw from that agreement and live under the protection of the Stars and Stripes. Not even a state can withdraw from that agreement. We fought the Civil War to decide that. The Build- ing Industry Civil War is being fought over the same principles. There can be only one result. Giant We-The-People 43 What of the Unions? Unions have done great good working for the Giant. They have done great wrong working for the Snake. Samuel Untermeyer says that capitalism is more despotic and lawless than labor when it listens to the Snake. We have capitalism pretty well controlled by law today. We must protect labor the same way. Justice Brandeis says the unions have rendered immense service, and the employers need them quite as much as the employees. We should fight to save the unions. It is not desirable and not right to suppress them. There is need of the steady upward pressure of the unions to counteract the steady downward pressure of competition. But what kind of unions? Unions that ob- struct or that construct? Unions that see how little they can give for the money or unions that see how much they can give for the money? Architects, engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, and other professions have their associations to see how much they can give how they can improve and set higher standards for themselves. Bankers, manufacturers, merchants and farm- ers have their associations to promote their 4 | Giant We-The-People progress. Should not labor unions do likewise? Should they not endeavor to increase skill and set higher standards of workmanship? Why not make membership in a union a badge of the artist workman, denying membership to those who cannot qualify? Why not encourage higher levels of skill and productivity? They should set their standards by the efficient and pull the others up to them, rather than set their standards by the inefficient and pull the others down to them. Then union labor can be quoted on the market and the public will bid for it over other kinds of labor. Then the wage ques- tion will take care of itself. The Snake and the Giant Battle To-day So the battle is between the Snake and the Giant. Strip off all the camouflage. Go where you will and you'll hear that it is a battle for this or a battle for that it is a battle between the Snake and the Giant. If the Snake wins, it means a boa constrictor squeezing the Hands still tighter. It means clumsy Hands; bloated, inefficient Hands; Hands managed by the Snake and not by the Giant. It Giant We-The-People 45 means dishonest unions that honest men will leave. It means industrial despotism. It means a premium on waste, inefficiency and dishonesty. It means a sick Giant. It means building strangu- lation, higher rents and seven in a bed. It means depression in industrial centers, and half- time for workers. It means stagnation, unrest, bread-lines, misery for families.. It means higher costs on clothing, shoes, food and freight. It means progress halted and the land headed back for the caves. It means everybody losing out on God's pay, Man's pay, and Money pay. It means taking the joy out of life. If the Giant wins, it means free Hands, a clear Head and a prosperous people. It means good buildings, more homes, lower rents, happy families. It means cheaper clothing, shoes, : ood, freight. It means another log jamb cleared out for the flow of good times and back to "nor- malcy." It means better citizens, better cities, setter country, better America. // means putting the joy back into life. Books by Ralph Parlette THE UNIVERSITY OF HARD KNOCKS The School That Completes Our Education "'The University of Hard Knocks' is a great big boost for every- body who will read it and everybody ought to read it." Judge Ben B. Lindsey. Library Edition, Price $1.50. Art Leather Edition, $2.00 THE BIG BUSINESS OF LIFE Turning Work Into Play Finding happiness in our work rather than a reward tomorrow for our work; finding the work or calling that calls us and dis- covering the joy of it. Library Edition, Price $1.50. Art Leather Edition, $2.00 IT'S UP TO YOU! Are You Shaking Vp Or Rattling DownT "Just as good as the Message to Garcia. Would rather be author of it than President of the Bank. " John A. Carroll, Pres., Hyde Park State Bank, Chicago, III. (Booklet) Price 3c Postpaid. Gift Edition in Art Leather, foe. THE BEST IS YET TO COME Go On South With rare good humor and homely philosophy the lives of men are paralleled to the great Mississippi River. "We are impressed with Mr. Parlette's style of writing and want 400 copies." Fred W. Stone, Review of Reviews. (Another Booklet.) Price jfc Postpaid. THE SALVATION OF A SUCKER "We gave this booklet, to our people not only to inculcate in them the principles of true thrift, but to place them upon their guard against salesmen of questionable propositions." National Cash Register Co., Dayton, Ohio. (Another Booklet) Price 35C Postpaid. Parlette-Padget Company 122 So. 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