A LABOR-CAPITAL ALLIANCE

Evening Star, Issue 12027, 27 October 1903, Page 2

A LABOR-CAPITAL ALLIANCE

THE PUBLIC THE VICTOR,

In 'M'Clnre's Magazine' for October Mr Ray Stannard Baker states the case against industrial organisation-.in a manner that if true affords a complicated problem for thfe political economist. He calls iti the new industrial conspiracy, and he confines himself largely to Chicago, which city appears to have been the principal victim so far. —The Chicago Coal Trade,—

Not so long ago the Chicago teamster and the coal team owner' were busily breaking each other's heads. " Now," say 3 the writer, "on one side stand the men who drive the coal waggons, each with his little button in his cap, organised in an impregnable union, and over against them, aiaa marshalled in close order, stand tilt men who own the teams and the waggons and oftentimes the coal," Both sides have crashed independent competition. Thero is no longer such a thing as a 'scab' teamster, r.or any competing team-owner. The fundamental industry of a great} manufacturing city—coal—lies" absolutely at the will of those two unions." Under former conditions the teamster wanted more wages and the owner more profits, and Chicago got its coal delivered promptly at reasonable prices. Then some genius suggested that teamster and employer stop shedding each other's blood and ■*:nite. This is exactly what they did ; la stead of fighting each other to the pmfit ;;ad peace of the onlooking public, they turned, united, and attacked that public. The defenceless, unorganised public paid the bill, Jwith groanings and threatenmgs, huo without any effective resistance. —The New Monopoly.— The Coal Teamsters and the Coal Team Owners' Association, says Mr Baker, "furisii'h an excellent example of the practical working of this new species of monopoly. Other combinations in Chicago are closer, even more extraordinary in tile extent of their power, than this, but none has been mora open in its campaign, none hag left a siiarj.-er sting in the memory of the pubik".." The coal teamsters, under the leadership of Albert Young, became so strong tinwigh energetic organisation that they ''crowded" their employers into a defen.vivs organisation. Many of the team owners were separate teaming companies, others were retail coal dealers, whose interests were almost identic;!! Anyhow, the union and the association, to avoid warfare, entered into an agreement as to wages, holidays, •vnd so on. This was nothing ant of the w-.iy, but the agreement itself was unique. It ran as follows: "Party of the first part (the Coal Team Owners' Association) agrees to emplov none i>ut members of the Coal Teamsters' Union, Local No. 4, in good standing and carrying the regular working card of the organisation."

•' We (the Coal Teamsters' Union) further agree that we will not work for any firm that does not belong to the Coal "Team Owners' Association."

This agreement was signed May 21, 1902 In December, 1902, for fear of a prosecufor conspiracy, the second clause was changed to read: "We agree that we will u'-w our best endeavors to hare all employers of ceil teamsters become members of the Coal Team Owners' Association," whkh meant the same thing in different words. —Putting Up the Price.— '"Having now a complcfco monopoly, this coal-delivery combination gathered the rich fruitage of their power. In the first place the partners in tho monopoly, in a manner not uncharacteristic of monopolies, granted themselves a substantial morale in pay and profite. The coal teamsters put up their T:-ages from 11 to 15 per cent, when the agreement wag signed ; they had had the equivalent of some 20 per cent, increase curing the two previous years. The hours were regulated, special pay was granted for overtime, and the union was given abso-lrrt-3 power over their members, it being £gr:;*d 'bat no employer should hire a c.-amstar without first notifying the officers of th» uni.cn. If the teamster was behind jti his dues he bad to pay up or go without Tr ° r ~' : ". J 1 " " e .'^ ( i no ' ; happen to be a member of tho union he was compelled to pav Todol to join and Idol a month thereafter m av.es ; if it should please the union pot to take him in, ho would have to go mto Foico other trade or leave Chicago. teamster in Chicago now earns as much a? 25d0l to 30dol a week in wintf weather; the Coal Teamsters' Local hast 13,C00d0l in its treasury." On tho other side "the 300 owners or dealers who paid an initiation fee »f 25d01 get into the organisation immediately j raised the price of coal cartage nearlv 40 i T>er cent., so That a load of coal which had formerly cost the people of Chicago Idol A-Oc for delivery now cost 2dol. No citizen could draw his own coal with his own waggon to his own cellar. The Salvation ArmV were compelled last winter to get special permission to draw a few loads of coal for ■he suffering poor." —Shutting Off Natural Gas.—

Then monopoly looked abroad for uosli fields to conquer, and, finding thai tlie use of natural gas—used largelv iu the sum.. mer mouths for heating and" poorer purposee—<nit Largely into the .sales of coal, it calmly decided to drive it out of themarket, and compel Chicago to use coal exclusively. Nothing seem? to have hem simpler. The people who U:..ed the gas were ]x>litely informed that unless they discontinued it and removed the fittings do coal would he supplied to them iu the winter. ■'ln vain owners argued that the teamsters nad no right to interfere with the gas busings; in vain they asserted that gas was *e&\ dirty than coal, in some cases cheaper. and that it, wa,<? raore easily handled by the of.the teamsters—the firemen ; that the removal of the gas fixtures would involve large losses. The teamsters ;iad made up their minds, and nothing could rtir them; they knew they had the gasu;;ers on the hip, because, the gas company, though they had a surplus supplv in the rammer, could not furnish fuel to" the exclusion of coal m the winter. Some of the owners signed the agreements at once; orners endeavored to fiVht it out. The reta;l department of Marshall. Field, and Co. reached the point in the simsrgle where the firemen had only coal enougli to run the l»ilers a few hours. Loaded waggons stood st the kerb, but the drivers would not deliver the coal. And Marshall, Field, and Co. surrendered-" —The Next. Move.— But whore is this to end? Mr Baker asked a teamster what would be the next step in the campaign. "We're going to" stop delivering coal in tags, ' he said; "if s too hard work for the men. The dirty water runs down the back of their necks." '" But how, if I lived in Chicago, should I get coal into my basement?" he asked. "Why, you'd have to hire a coal-hustler to pack it in. The coal-hustlers have a union of their own.*' "Oh, I see. You are doing this to help a new fellow-union. Make work for more men."

"isso, sir; we are doing it for our own ."reives." Bub what if we still want onr coal t'elivered in'bags, and a.re willing to pay for it? Wha.t if wo object to having the loose coal dumped on our sidewalks?" "The coal teamsters have decided that ihflT won't handle no more bags." " But what if the public objects?" "They'll have to like it." Under mch. conditions as these the public sf Chicago get their coal to-day. —Man's Inhumanity to Man.— But perhaps the most cold-blooded attack npon the public, made under cover of this new power, is that which has resulted from ' a combination between the Milk Drivers' Union and the Milk Dealers' Association—the employers. They decided between themssiyes that one delivery of milk per day was quite sufficient for the people of Chicago, who were the havers. All Chicago was therefore restricted to one delivery. Mr Baker says:—" Dr Arthur R. Reynolds, Commissioner of Health, wrote a letter to the Milk Shippers' Union, the Milk Dealers] Association, and the Milk Waggon Drivers' Union, the three organisations which control absolutely the milk business ox Chicago, protesting that a single delivery of milk in the poorer districte of tho oitj threatened an increased mortality among the little children. "If the present conditions of the

warm, ■weather," lie ■wrote, "they will have a most serious effect on the child life of the city."

** No attention -whatever was paid to this letter, and just a month later the weekly bulletin of the Chicago Board of Health had this to say:—'ln the last week of June the deaths among infants aud young children wero 123; this week 172 such deaths were reported, an increase of 40 per cent.; and deaths from. " convulsions " and the acute intestinal diseases of children increased 90 per cent, over those of the previous week. The I " one daily delivery" of millr has begun to reap its harvest'. Even in well-to-do families this thirty-six to sixty-hours' old milk cannot,'be kept from souring from one delivery to the next. Herod "was more merciful in the method he used in his "slaughter of the innocents."' But the milk dealers and the milk waggon drivers are so much the more comfortable. In the words of one of them, they tre ' standing pat.'" And while they " stand pat" the babies of their brother coal teamsters, then- brother van teamstere, and all their brother unionists, who are part of the great third partv—the public—are suffering. ''And this," says the writer, " will serve to clinch the point I ■wish, particularly to make: that with the growth of these new monopolies the warfare of labor on capital ceases; the day comes when all the workmen of any trade wiUhave their knives out for the workmen of everv other trade, each industry against the world, labor against labor."

—"lnside" the Ring.— Some typically flagrant instances of the manner in which the unions mado thenpower felt are recorded. They are mainly cases of "slugging"—hi the corresponding Australian vernacular, "stoushing." The other side resorts to more diplomatic moves, which are disguised under the name of "busines-5 methods." An interesting historical sketch of the careers of a man who was actually broken—financially— on the wheel of this gigantic monopolv, gives a very clear idea of these methods. EL A. Rysdou was a contractor for sheet metal work; he began as a journeyman, and worked his way up. He joined the Employers' Association, but soon leamt that there was a second ring within the main combination, and by dint of pertinacity he managed to get "inside," There he leamt something of the way in which the thing was worked. He was bound to secrecy, and signed the inner ring compact. he was supplied with a little book containing the names of all the architects ai Chicago, and opposite each name were set the initials of some member of the ring, who was the " chairman" of that particular architect's office. The methods of doing business were briefly these:— Whenever a contractor wished to tender for a particular job he called up the " chairman" of the architect's office; all the rest i who wished to tender did the same. Then, instead uf undercutting one another, thev met together and decided (1) what the work would actually cost, (2) what it was worth at the ordinary margin of profit, (3) to what extent it would be'safe to " touch" the. architect, and (4) finally, as a mere matter of minor who should do the work. The person so selected put in the lowest offer and got the contract; the difference between his price and the real value of the work was divided equally among members of the ring. 2\* contractor cutside the Association could tender ■with any success, because he would not be able to get the unions to work on his contract. —Broken on the Wheel— Rysdon stood in with the rest for some time, but finally one day, in a fit of anger at finding that he had missed a particularly fine contract through not being in the confidence of his fellows, he went out to the general contractor who had charge of the building, underbid the ring, and got the contract Then, on reflection, knowing the kind of power with which he would come into conflict, he went humbly back and ottered to "take his medicine."" From this out he was a marked man. He was fined heavily for his temerity, and finally, over some minor disagreements, the ring decided to put on the screw.

And here the union were called in to aid the ring The latter organisation called in the "walking delegate "—the representative of the union—and next day. in the .midst of his thriving work, everv one of Rysdons men suddenly walked out. The walking delegate ordered them to stop, and stop they did. Rysdon was again iined. this time in the aim of 2.000d0l and l.OOOdol surety to be of good behaviour for twelve months. Further fines were imposed by an arbitration committee, to which (he dispute was referred, and Rysdon, finding that he was to be broken any May, refused to pay, and began a suit for conspiracy. Unless he can collect damages he will have to leave Chicago. Tins story is repeated in varying form by Mr Baker. A. particularly cruel instance is recorded of a widow who was building a house with bricks bought from an outsider, and who had a brother-in-law in charge of the work, who did not belong to the combination. Thi whole of tho me?i were called out. and she was not only forced to employ a contractor named by tho ring, but made to pay the ring for having bought "unauthorised" bricks. —Chicago in Revolt.—

"Do not imagine," says Mr Baker, "that Chicago lies quiet under its yoke. It struggles and strikes out, knowing tliat it is hurt, but not knowing exactly whom to punish. Various actions for conspiracy have been instituted in the courts. Only a few days ago Judge Horton handed down a decision in the Criminal Court t>f Cook County —an action begun by the State's Attorney Deneen—in which eighteen members of the Northern Illinois Soft Coal Dealers' Association were found guilty of conspiracy to restrain public trade, and were fined 500dol each. Another decision fined nine officers of the Retail Coal Dealers' A.ssociation of Illinois and Wisconsin lOOdol each on a charge of conspiracy to ' suppress, prevent, and destroy competition among retail dealers in coaL' These two associations controlled only a small part of the coal consumed by Chicago, and the decision did not reach down to the gigantic combination who deliver coal; but it registers the blind and angry—perhaps futile—protest of Chicago against the conspiracies which regulate its fuel supply and which have enormously raised the price of coal within the last year or two. Chicago knows perfectly well that its coal prices are being manipulated by a circle of connected monopolies, but nobody sees a way to stop this process. As a prominent Chicagoan put it to me: 'lt i? like trying to fight the circumambient atmosphere.' "Apparently the innocent party of the third part, who is chiefly damaged, has no remedy. Apparently in all the chaos of the legal discussion of the rights of organised bodies, whether trusts or unions—legal rights, moral rights, rights under the Constitution—the fact that the public also have rights disappears in obscurity. We hear much of arbitration between capital and labor, but who has suggested the need of arbitration between the monopoly and the consumer who must buy its goods!"

An American gentleman has been the first to drive j* motor car within the Arctic circle. Ho is"-pushing northwards towards the Pole.