Labor Unions Benefit Men

Labor Unions Benefit Men

By C. T. YERKES,

International Street Railway Magnate

American labor unions have a tendency to raise the mental standard of the men. THEY TRAIN A MAN'S INTELLIGENCE. THE MAN WHO IS MOST FIT GETS AHEAD. I believe in the survival of the fittest. What is in a man will come out if he has a chance.

     THE BRAINIEST MECHANICS, THE MEN WHO THINK AND HAVE A CHANCE TO SHOW THE RESULTS OF THEIR THINKING, ARE THE MEN WHO MAKE THE BEST CAPITALISTS.

     I believe every mechanic should have a chance to train himself to be a capitalist. By this I mean that he should have the opportunity to train his mind so that he could, so far as his mental equipment is concerned, be in a position to guide and direct as well as execute the orders of others. I tell you THERE IS NOTHING SO GRAND IN THE WORLD AS AN INTELLIGENT MECHANIC. He is of use in the world.

     I believe in labor unions. I do not believe in trusts as they are today understood. Labor unions have the same right to organize that capital has. The interests of the one are in a parallel degree the interests of the other.

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     In the United States today we have some splendid labor unions, managed in a way to challenge admiration, and we have some of the worst. But the tendency has been forward.

     The day will come when American labor unions will have reached such a point of excellence in organization, under competent management, with logical minds at the head, that capital will have to recognize them. Arbitration will then be the rule to settle differences. Strikes will be known only in history.

     But the battle for labor is not yet won. IT WILL NOT BE UNTIL ALL OF THE UNIONS HAVE RID THEMSELVES OF THE MINORITY OF RANTERS WHO NOE RULE SOME OF THEM. These men are good talkers; they are eloquent on the platform, yet if you sift all they say you will not find a single practical idea. Yet in some of the labor unions in this country today these men, even now in the minority, rule the others.

LABOR UNIONS. TO SUCCEED, MUST BE LOGICAL.