Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
It is certainly true that many of the em-
ployers of labor who have worked in an
altruistic spirit have been little appreciated
by those whose conditions they have sought
to advance.
Let us take the recent troubles at the
works of the National Cash Register Co.,
at Dayton, O. This plant is famous the
world over for the efforts which have been
made by its management to improve factory
conditions. This plant has been frequently
pointed out as a model for all industrial in-
stitutions. Its work has been the theme
of magazine articles, and writers of all kinds
have used the plant at Dayton as an illus-
tration of what could be done to make the
conditions of workmen pleasant.
Let us see what were the causes which
led up to a recent strike at this model in-
stitution. The labor union men in the shops
complained that the towels (which, by the
way, were supplied free of charge) were
washed by women not connected with any
union. They demanded that this work be
done by a union laundry. The manage-
ment simply stopped the supply of towels.
Later it was discovered that the compressed
air springs on the doors of the polishing
department were manufactured by a non-
union shop in Connecticut. They were re-
moved.
The very grave questions of towels and
springs had hardly been well disposed of
before another and more difficult problem
arose. It was a question about three car-
penters, and the urrions themselves were un-
able to determine just in what particular
schedule these carpenters should go. This
led up to serious difficulties and unjust de-
mands were made upon the general man-
agement of the company. Ultimatums were
made which were not acceded to, and, as
a final result, the company posted a notice
to the effect that certain employees of the*
company having quit work, it would be
necessary for the entire factory to shut down
indefinitely. Thus we see one of the model
plants of the world closed by the arbitrary
demands of union men—a question of towels,
springs and unions.
The history of strikes proves that strikers
are benefited least of all. Labor unions,
as they exist to-day, are a serious menace
to prosperity and progress. England is be-
ing slowly strangled by them, and the loss
of her supremacy as a manufacturing na-
tion has its origin largely in the throttling
hands of the English labor unions whose
demands have been carried to such extreme
points as prohibiting the use of machinery,
and unwarrantable dictation as to how bus-
iness affairs of institutions should be con-
ducted.
The United States must meet and solve
this problem, or, in the end, suffer the same
fate as England.
Occasionally a labor strike accomplishes
results that are useful, and are so in ac-
cordance with enlightened public opinion, as
to warrant the strike itself as an orderly
step in social progress.
These cases, however, are rare, and the
average strike is a reckless, selfish and ig-
norant disturbance of the swing and rhythm
of industry, and gives a serious setback to
general prosperity. We are rather of a
practical people with an admittedly well-
developed sense of humor, and the absur-
dity of allowing our industrial march to be
thrown into confusion at frequent inter-
vals, because free towels were not washed
by union women, strikes us quite as forci-
bly as the injustice of it.
The right of a man to join a union is
unquestionable; the right of a union to fix
its hours, and wages for which its members
shall work is unquestionable; and the gen-
eral right of a man to work or not as he
pleases is quite beyond discussion; but the
right of any set of men to say that a man
not in that set shall not work excepting
by their permission cannot be permitted for
a moment, and the attempt to exercise it
should not be permitted for an hour. Once
put interference with non-union workers
on the same basis as other felonies, and the
principle inducement for the ordering of
strikes would be done away with.
These are matters which should interest
every music trade employer of labor—great
and small—for it is known that there is a
general effort being made to nationalize all
piano forces of this country. The report
has already reached us that, in order to
strengthen this organization, the piano
makers' union will be associated with one or
two others of similar lines of work, thus aug-
menting its membership as well as its
strength.
TRADE CHANGES SUGGESTED.
T" HE National Asso-
Reciprocity recog-
nized — T h e Review
ciation of Manu-
suggests appointment
facturers
is an impor-
of permanent t a r i f f
commission and con-
tant organization, and
sular college—Ameri-
can business abroad.
the recent utterances of
its members at the National Convention held
recently in Detroit is of more than usual
interest. There are a number of well known
members of our own industry who main-
tain membership in this organization. This
association, through its president, endorsed
the policy of protection as necessary to the
building up of American industries, yet it
recognizes that a new era and a different
order of things has come upon us within
this new century. "The time has gone by,"
said President Theodore C. Search in his
animal repprt, "when it matters not what
other nations thought or said of the Amer-
ican protective policy. Formerly the fact
that they considered selfish what we
deemed patriotic, did not concern us, but
to-day, having crossed the seas with goods
to sell, and having secured a business that
has amazed foreign competitors, we find that
the outer view of our economic policy dif-
fers somewhat from its appearance on -this
side." The expressions of this important or-
ganization show that it is committed not only
to reciprocity, but it recognizes the fact that
the maintenance of a protective tariff is to-
day less important in the prosperity of this
country than our cordial trade relations with
foreign countries.
It occurs to us that the tariff should be
forever removed from politics by the appoint-
ment of a Tariff Commission. This com-
mission should be non-partisan and made
up of men who have won important posi-
tions in the various industries. Like the mem-
bers of the Supreme Court, they should be
appointed for life, and selected on account
of their individual fitness. It should be their
duty to listen to and to weigh all recipro-
city arguments, and their decision regard-
ing tariff adjustments between countries
should be final. In this way the business
interests of the country would never be
threatened as they have been during the
past three presidential campaigns by the
fear of free trade. There would be no dis-
turbing tariff elements injected into our fu-
ture political struggles for supremacy.
Another suggestion in line with this:
American interests would be materially ad-
vanced abroad by the removal of consular
appointments as a reward for political ser-
vices.
We should have a national consular and
diplomatic institution supported by the Gov-
ernment on similar lines to Annapolis and
West Point, which educate men for naval
and military service, an institution where
young men would be trained for consular
service in all parts of the world. They
would then be fitted by education to ad-
vance the commercial interests of this coun-
try. They would be familiar with the
languages and customs and productions of
the different countries and the possibilities
of American trade relations with those vari-
ous governments. They could tell in what
manner the interests of our country could
be best advanced by our dealings with them.
By this course American industry can be
materially benefited, and good men would
not be removed from consular service who
are doing splendid work for America at
certain posts abroad, even if a- president of
an opposite political faith were elected to
office. A National Tariff Commission and a
National Consular College would not be