ORGANIZED LABOR NOT A MENACE, BALDWIN THINKS

Mr. Roger N. Baldwin '05, Director of the American Civil Liberties Union, who spoke recently at the Liberal Club, in reply to a question about labor unions said to a CRIMSON reporter:

"Any action to keep workers from organizing into unions if they so desire is manifestly unjust. I believe that the idea of the menace of a one hundred percent organized labor unit is vastly over-emphasized, and will create no greater disturbing element than a partly union and partly non-union working body. An ultimate organization of the producers is inevitable in the economic struggle which we are facing, and I believe it is equally inevitable that such an organization will win out. The power thus thrown into the hands of the workingman will necessarily create some difficulties, but none comparable to those we are now striving against. Prices would certainly not soar upwards as has been claimed--it is the middle man that controls that.

Feeling Against Picketing

"A great deal of the bitterness against the unions is caused by the popular feeling against picketing and interfering with non-union workers. This is, of course, a great mistake on the part of such unions as allow it, and it is fortunate that its instances are rare. Most of the trouble between strikers and scabs is not with the honest workman desiring only his day's wages, but with professional strike breakers--men who are transported from one strike area to another, and who are paid enormously increased wages to take a sporting chance in a picketed district.

"The government has recently shown a regrettable tendency to resort to force and compulsion in dealing with refractory labor units. Such a policy will create nothing but discontent and will never bring a strained industrial system any nearer to an ultimate and highly necessary solution."