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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 24, 1904)
Talk with David M. Parry on Organized Labor (Copyrlsht, 19 4, by Frank CI. Carpenter.) EW YOKK. Jan. 12 (Sih.-cIhI Cor- I respondence of I'm Dee.) The I trades union me. f. th United Htutes look uiKn Ci1.' M Parry, the president of the National Association of Manufacturers, as nn enor mous hull, on overgrown golden calf, Which Im dashing about In the china shop of the labor organizations, shattering the Images. They call him a bloated cap italist with horns, and think he In seven teen feet high and weighs a ton. The rcul David M. Parry measures 6 feet 6 Inches and he tips the beam at Just 125 pound. If lie has horns I have not discovered litem. Kin Muck hair Is well brushed back from a high forehead, his dark face l smooth haven and his eyes are as gentle and his voice as suave as that of any business man I know. Mr. I'arry has made himself noted as the chief antagonist of organized labor In the United States. lie has no use for labor Unions In any shape, and ho docs not hesi tate to say so. lie not only opposes them himself, but he Is now the president of the Manufacturers' association, which has a membership of 3,000 of the leading fac tories and corporations of this country, covering every part of the United States, lie tells mo that they represent capital runnitig high Into the billions of dollars and that each pays '0 a year to the asso ciation as membership dues. The asso ciation largely represents the anti-union sentiment of the country, although I ven ture many of its members would not en dorse views so radical as those of Mr, I'arry. It was In the oflloes of the association that I met Mr. I'arry. 1 had come for an Interview, and ho answered my questions j at once. Bald he: "You ask me why I oppose organized , labor. I do It because as It exists in the United States It Is revolutionary. It makes the Declaration of Independence and the constitution obsolete documents and de clares all of us who aro so old-fashioned as to believe In Individual liberty the op pressors of labor and the enemies of the race. I believe many of the labor leaders would guillotine us If they could." "That Is rather strong language, Mr. I'arry," said I. "Yes, but I believe In calling things by their right names. Organized labor as it now Is Is a standing mob engaged In acts Of open rebellion against the government. It drliei the constituted authorities and tries to nullify Individual and property rights. Such rebellion Is worse than that which had the secession of the states for Its object, and I think It Is high time the country was waking up to the fact. "Why, look at It," Mr. Tarry went cn. "We have had a series of labor insurrec tions during the past year known as Strikes, In which the unions have tried to force their authority by mob law. They denounce the government officials who try to restrain them, they are keeping their members nut of the militia, and they hive even attempted to make the president of the United States violate tils oath of office to please them. In their crusade against the exercise of Individual rights they have blustered, threatened, arsaulted and mur dered. They even threaten help'ess women and children. I know the leaders of the labor unions will disclaim responsibility for Such crimes, but they are nevertheless the accomplices of the brutal and Ignorant men whom they have Incited to commit Such outrages." "What right have you to rpeak ogilnst labor, Mr. I'arry?" said I. "Have you ever been a worklngman yourself?" "I have the right of both a worklngman and an employer," was the reply. "I have worked all my life, and I work now. I be gan to work on the farm as a boy and I know all nbout farm work, from the dig ging of post holes to hauling manure. I have clerked In a store, sold goods on the road and had a hardware store of my own. I am now an employer of labor, having several thousand hands; I am also a con sumer, and every man has a right to dis cuss matters In which he Is so vitally In terested." "How about working at a trade? Do you know anything of mechanics?" "I make buggies and I understand every thing connected with my business and have worked at every branch of It." "Could you set a wagon tire?" "I have set thousands of them. I have worked with my men, and I think I know Something of the worklngmen of the United States. It Is not right to look upon th; unions as representing American labor, for 86 per cent of our workmen do not belong to them. I am a friend of the worklngman, but not of him as a trades unionist." "Have you had any personal experiences with unions In your work?" "If you meen lit my factory I have not. X have always run an open shop, and so far the unions have refrained from making any demands upon me. In my capacity as an employer. Since I have been denouncing their methods, however, I have had one little experience which shows that the agi tators were looking for an excuse to ruin rny business. It Is a little matter and hardly worth mentioning. "A painter one day asked m for a Job. 1 Mv - rj - DAVID M'I,F!AN PARRY OP INDIANAPOLIS, ASSOCIATION OF MANUFACTURERS. PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL I had nothing for him In the factory and told him that he might paint the steps of my house, although they hardly i. ceded It. Wncn he got through I paid him what he asukd, but a few days later a walking dele gate of the Talnters' union called upon me and said that my steps had been painted at a rate less than the union scale. I told lilm I knew nothing about his union scale and cared less and showed him out of my office. Then the Painters' union applied foe a national boycott on my factory. Tho application passed through the Central Labor Union of Indianapolis and was sent up to President Oompers of the American Federation of Labor. Mr. Gompers came out to Indianapolis to see my front door st'ps, aid in a speech there gave forth the startling Information that the boycott had been granted upon the petition of the painters. Thua the I'arry Manufacturing compe.ny was to be sacrificed for my personal act, a good example of the sense of Justice which animates the strike bosses. Well, I was boycotted. The boy cott vus an advertisement and my busi ness has never been larger than since It was declared." "How about strikes. Mr. Parry? Do they pay the laboring man?" "No," was the reply. "They do not benefit the employer, the employe nor the consumer. They lessen our respect for the law and they shako our fulth In the perpetuity of our government. Take the anthracite strike. The mob dominated the mining regions for months and the whole military power of Pennsylvania could not or did not maintain law and order. In that strike It is estimated that $25,000,000 were lost in wages. I am' not certain as to the figures. I know thit the operators lost enormously, but the loss of both Is as nothing In comparison to that of the consumers. Every house holder had his coal bills almost doubled by that strike, and even now the prices have not come down to the normal figures of before the strike. The public has al ready paid millions and It Is still paying Its tribute to the organization of United Mine Workers." "Have you ever estimated the money cost to the consumers, Mr. Parry?" "I have tried to," was the reply. "Wo know that It caused a shortage of 25. COO, -000 tons of hard coul. That much coal was not mined on account of the 150,0(10 men who were Idle during the four or five months of the strike. The loss would have been Just the same if the coal had been mined and dumped Into the sea, and putting the price of the coal at 5 per ton it was $125,000.000 almost enough to com plete the Punnnia canal. That shortage raised the prices of all kinds of fuel and the people had to pay the bill. The mat ter was submitted to at U.t ration, nnd In its settlement the national arbitration board stated that the miners were already re ceiving wages that compared favorably with those of men In other industries. Nevertheless, they gave them an advance) of 10 per cent on their wages, and every laboring man of the United States now has to help pay that 10 per cent when he light his kitchen fire. He also pays for It in t-very bit of manufactured goods made with steam. The whole public Is taxed by tho men working In those mines. That is one of the beauties of arbitration." "Then you don't believe in the law of ar bitration, Mr. Parry?" "I do not. The constitution of the United States Is a good enough law for me. Either a man has a right to run his own business or he has not. If he bus not we ought to strike the clause referring to our property lights cut of the constitution. The Idea of arbitrating the question whether an em ployer can employ a man who does not be long to a union is absurd. It Is revolution ary. It means that Individual liberty Is destroyed and that wc must bargain wl h a lot of irresponsible blatherskites for such liberties as we may be allowed to posse -s. How public men can lend their voices and Influence to arbitration Is beyond my com prehension. I can only account for it on the theory that they ore afraid of th?lr shadows or are willing to sell their pa triotism for the sake of money and polit ical power." "What do you think of the charge that the present business depression is caused by the demands of organized labor?" "I think It is largely so," said Mr. Parry. "The unions have caused the strikes thit we have had, and the losses arising from them have become a national disaster. I believe that 1903 will go down In hUtory as the year when the labor agitators put a chock to a period of unparalle'ed pros perity. The strikes they originated have caused an enormous loss In our aggregate production, and you must nlways remem ber that the consumption Is regulated by the amount produced. You cannot divide more than you have to divide, and anyone with a thimbleful of brains can see that cutting down the production is not the way to make the people rich. In times like this it is tl'.e masses who Buffer most. The capitalist can shut down his business and still have enough for his personal wants. The laborer has only his work, and he who Is roorcFt suiters most nnd longest." "But you do not deny labor the right to strike, do you?" "No. I do not. They have that right as Individuals or collectively, but they have no right to Interfere with the business of their employers or with the men hired to take lhir places. Many of the demands for strikes are so unreasonable that they cannot be granted and tho business go on. The labor organizations do not eons der that. They act as though labor had no in terest whatever in the business, and if op postd they try to attack their employer through the consumers of his goods, and by boycott dog him from one end of the country to the other. They prevent o.h?ra from di Irg the work they will not do them selves, and I? they succeed In destroying him, as they sometimes do, a chorus of glee got s up from the labor agitators nnd their followers throughout the whole coun try. They think they have won a great victory, when they have actually kill d the goose which has been laying their golden eggs. They remind me of the man who tried to Improve his personal appear anco by cutting off his own nose." "How about the working day, Mr. ParryT Can the United States be run on an eight hour basis?" "I think not The majority of men work ten hours, and that Is an Indication that It requires a ten-hour day to produce enough to satisfy the needs of humanity. If you cut the working day to eight hours, you cut off one-fifth of the total production, and this means that the people will have to be satisfied with four-fifths of the com modities that they now get. Organized labor does not look upon it in that way. It Insists upon more of the necessities and comforts of life for its own peculiar class and therefore demands that it shall have ten hours' pay for eight hours' work. This Is practically a 25 per cent Increase of wages, nnd If granted It must come out of the consumers. So, you see, organized labor is bound to have a good bargain even if that bnrgaln is rather hard on the rest of the population." "Rut, Mr. Parry, John Mitchell and Sam uel Gompers say that a man can do as much work In eight hours as he can in ten." "Yes, I know that, but upon the same logic he can do as much In six hours as he can In right, and ns much In four as he can In six. Indeed, you might go on and prove that a man can do as much by not working at all as ho can by working ten hours, which in ridiculous. I am es pecially opposed to granting the eight-hour day ns to government work. I see no reason why the government should give ten hours' py for eight hours' labor, any more than an Individual should be com pelled to do so, nnd think that those who favor that law are In favor of robbing the public treasury." "But, Mr. Parry, speaking of wages. Is not labor capital's partner? And if so, does it get Its share of the profits?" "It gets n big share," replied Mr. Parry, "and far more, proportionately, than the capitalist. What are the average divi dends of our big industrial organizations? Those which do a safe, steady business do not pay more than 4 per cent. That is, 4 cents on every dollar. That Is the profit of the capitalist. The balance of the earnings are spent for raw materials, rent and labor. As time goes on and capi tal accumulates, It comes Into competition with other capital, and Its profits decrease, while at the same time the real wages that Is, the amount that a man can pur chase from a day's work tend to rise. Labor gets more and more and capital less and less every year." "What do you think of giving the work lngman a share In the business?" "I don't believe In It. He will never be lieve that he Is fairly treated, and If money Is lost he will not be willing to take his share of the losses. He looks upon it as a matter of charity, and it Is a bad thing all around. We had a manufacturer at Indianapolis who called his men together a year or so ago and told them that his profits had been such during the past twelve months that he could afford to make them a present of 5 per cent of his earn ings in addition to their wages and at the end of the speech each man was given an envelope containing his share. After the employer left the men held a meeting and one of them got up and said: " 'How do we know the old man is telling the truth, and that we are getting our full 6 per cent? I think we ought to have a committee appointed to go and look at his books. "This was done, and a committee called on the employer and asked for the books. "The employer looked up In surprise, say ing: 'I don't understand.' " 'Well,' replied the committee, 'you say we are partners and that you have given us 5 per cent of the profits of the business. How do we know that we got our full S per cent? We should like to see the books.' "This almost paralysed the employer," continued Mr. Parry. "He waited a mo ment nnd then said: 'Why, men, that money was a present from me. You are not entitled to any more than your wages, and I need not have given you a cent." He thereupon dismissed them, and that was the last time he took his men into partner ship." FRANK Q. CARPENTER. Had the Label A Joke on D. M. Parry, the Indiana man ufacturer who lias become widely known for his Invectives against organized labor, was perpetrated recently In tho law office of Senator Beverldge, at Indianapolis. Mr. Parry entered there wearing a new suit of clothes. &tt Whltcomb, who Is in Mr. Bevcrldge's law office and knows Mr. Parry intimately, chaffed the manufac turer about his new clothes and suggested that they were made by organised labor. "No," said Mr. Parry, "I think not this time." But Whltcomb pushed back the lapel of his friend's coat, and on the inside, sewed In a conspicuous place, was th urdoa label. Washington Post.