WHAT THE COMMISSION COULD Do-by F. C. Schwedtman.. 533 540 FEATURES OF PEACE PROTOCOL PLAN-by Julius Henry Cohen 545 550 The American Employer A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE BUSINESS MEN OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA WHO HIRE LABOR Published by The American Employer Publishing Co., 404 Chamber of Commerce Building, Cleveland, O. J. H. SMITH, Pres. and Treas. J.W.EBERHARDT, Vice Pres. JOHN WEBER, Sec. A. S. VAN DUZER, Ed. and Man. Price $2 a year. Single copy 20 cents. Vol. I April, 1913 Editorial The Rubber Workers' Strike at Akron, O. No. 9 Many thousands of words have been printed in the daily papers of the country about the rubber workers' strike at Akron, O., and probably not one word has been printed, until now, of the real reasons which led up to and culminated in this industrial conflict. Conditions in the rubber industry at Akron have been such that nearly a year ago the Industrial Workers of the World in Akron, and those in Cleveland, saw that the time was ripe for imbuing the rubber workers with their falacious, unpatriotic and illegal notions. As long ago as last summer, I. W. W. speakers were addressing Akron workingmen and undertaking to insert an entering wedge of organization among them. Two elements contributed to the state of mind of the rubber workers which led to their striking. In the first place, the rubber factories have been undergoing a change from making tires by hand to manufacturing them by machinery. New scales of wages have been from time to time prepared, and we think we may safely say that the intention of most of them was to permit the tiremakers to earn about the same amounts while making, of course, many more tires. These changes in scales of wages led to some dissatisfaction on the part of the workers, and indeed it was one of these that precipitated the strike. The second element involved a more complicated state of affairs. Its basis is simply that the rubber industry, a new industry, has been emerging from a booming state into a normal business condition. A large part of the rubber industry at Akron is the making of rubber tires for automobiles. The automobile industry is by no means an old industry and it started in an inflated way. The demand for automobiles was tremendous; prices were unduly inflated. An automobile manufacturer wanted tires and he ordered them at any price and in great quantities. The rubber tire manufacturer, in his turn, obliged to turn out his tires, hired labor at inflated prices. Of course, everybody was finally paid by the purchaser of the automobile, who paid a big price for his machine. Of late years the automobile industry has been seeking its level. Automobiles, as everybody knows, do not cost as much as they did. The business of making and selling machines is getting to where it ought to be; indeed, it is almost at rock bottom and very little, if any, reduction in the price of automobiles may hereafter be expected. The result of this seeking the normal has been that the automobile manufacturers, instead of rushing orders to the rubber tire makers for big quantities of tires at any price, have been asking the tire makers to figure on given quantities in competition with other tire makers. This natural business change has affected the labor market in very much the same way that the steel industry became affected in the years following the days when the steel industry was a new thing, when Andrew Carnegie was amassing his big fortune. It is well within the remembrance of men, not old, in Pittsburg, Cleveland, Youngstown and other iron centers, that rollers and puddlers in rolling mills received wages ranging all the way from $15 to $40 a day, out of which they paid their helpers, but received a net wage that enabled such of them as saved money to be comfortably off in a very few years. Then time went by and the steel industry passed the stage of mere production and found itself on a conservative business basis. The same thing is happening in the rubber industry. The changed conditions which the rubber manufacturers have had to meet have necessitated changing the basis upon which the employes are paid and have resulted, in some instances, in cuts, which have been displeasing to the men. It is a fact, however, that the rubber workers are still well paid and that their wage compares so favorably with that of other industries, that there never was a time, until the moment of the strike, when the rubber manufacturer could not get all the help they wanted, and as a matter of fact some forms of common labor in the rubber works have been receiving as high as $3.00 and $3.50. This figure, compared with the $2.00 rate a day prevailing elsewhere, seems like good wages. The time came when the Firestone Co. put in a machine rate scale in place of a hand made scale in its tire finishing department. The men in the tire finishing department objected, but at the request of the foreman, undertook a try-out for a day or two. At noon of the first day they quit, saying that the one-half day's work showed them that they could not make what they had been used to making. Leaving at one side the question whether they did their best, it is not to be expected that their first half day's work on the machine would be at all representative of what they could do in the course of a very few days. In any event, they struck. A member of the Industrial Workers of the World who lived in Akron was the first to take advantage of the situation. In spite of the organizing work that had been attempted by the Industrial Workers of the World, the organization did not number many men when the strike broke out. This Akron man had been secretary and treasurer of the local Akron lodge of the I. W. W. At the last election of the lodge, held less than a month ago, this man was not only not re-elected secretary and treasurer, but was refused election to any office in the gift of his lodge; in fact was absolutely discredited by the Akron I. W. W. organization. He had, however, a commission from the Chicago branch of the I. W. W. to organize. He and a Mr. and Mrs. Peevey, of Akron, the latter Socialists, got these men into the I. W. W.'s hall and induced them all to sign I. W. W. cards. Subsequently the American Federation of Labor sent Organizer Cal Wyatt to Akron and he has a story to tell of the meeting, of which more later. The sixty, more or less, from the Firestone works, now full-fledged I. W. W.'s, and most of them not knowing what the I. W. W. is and means, began to parade the streets of Akron and to line up in front of other rubber works, and the Firestone works for that matter, and to coax and jeer at the other workers, so that by the Monday morning of the next week some people were out in all the factories. It was estimated on the night of the Monday following the strike, that these out numbered 6,000. Of these, however, all were not strik ers, because there were a few who were at leisure since their work depended upon the work of those who were striking, and there were some also who, disliking to work, and yet not wanting to strike, simply went home to stay there until the trouble should be over. Of course, how many more would come out was problematical. Not more than half of those out joined the I. W. W. These strikers resorted to "peaceful picketing", and "peaceful picketing" in this instance meant to bunch a crowd of 2,000 men and women outside of the rubber works, making a dense throng through which a workingman could. hardly pass, if he dared to do so. The strikers paraded the streets of Akron, two by two, in order to make their procession long, and they wore red ribbons, and some of them were profusely decorated in red with the letters "I. W. W." appearing in many instances on the badges. The strikers averaged young. Of course, the bulk of them know nothing whatever about industrial unionism, or sabotage, or direct action, or striking repeatedly in order to gain control of the products of industry for themselves, or any of the other I. W. W. propaganda; some of them appeared to think that it was more or less of a picnic. Cal Wyatt, organizer for the A. F. of L., declared that at the initial meeting Mr. and Mrs. Peevey choked off the three or four members of the Akron Central Labor Union, who were present, and made them leave the meeting without speaking, getting a motion passed that the crowd be limited to the strikers, and then got the men to sign the I. W. W. cards without giving them the alternative to joining the A. F. of L. Wyatt was due at Akron shortly to organize the rubber workers after the manner Mr. Gompers contemplates organizing the steel workers, namely, in one big union; at first, at all events. He complained that the Peeveys told the working people that the A. F. of L. would not give them one big union which, he said, was not a veracious statement. However, the Akron Central Labor Union, which is an A. F. of L. sub-division, voted to get into the game and organize, but not to try and do anything to the I. W. W. It will be interesting to watch how this works out, for it is about as easy to mix oil and water as it is to mix the A. F. of L. and the I. W. W. Meanwhile, the strikers have no organization worth while speaking of. Nobody knows who is in charge of the I. W. W. campaign, whether the Peeveys or the discredited ex-secretary-treasurer, or Walter Glover, of Cleveland, or any one of the three or four other I. W. W. leaders who are on the ground. Arturo Giovanetti was expected at last accounts. According to the A. F. of L. leaders at Akron, there is no regularity in the selection and control of the strike funds, which are not even banked. Indeed, it is said that the rush of strikers to quit work at first made it impossible for the I. W. W. organizers on the ground to handle their cards. Up to this writing, the strike was being conducted in a very good natured way and differed very materially from the Lawrence and other I. W. W. strikes in the past in that respect. The citizens of Akron, however, are apprehensive that there may be rioting before long. It is not to be expected that the citizenship of Akron when it is aroused to the situation will be passive under any I. W. W. domination in their city. Akron, owing to the rubber industry, has grown by leaps and bounds until it is now a city of very likely 100,000 inhabitants. City control has been maintained in Akron by an orderly, God-fearing, lawful element, which is bound to discredit every unlawful tenet of the I. W. W. Akron will not tolerate the destruction of property nor unsettled strikes ostensibly settled for paving the way to another strike, nor the red flag of anarchy disguised as the blood red flag of Socialism, nor the derision of religion and God, nor any of the things that have been taught and preached by the chief disciples of the I. W. W. The very worst things that the strikers can do in that particular city would be to resort to any of these things. The more closely they stick to an orderly, proper conduct of their strike, the better show for a hearing and for public support they will have and the better will be their position now and in the future. |