Page:William Zebulon Foster - The Railroaders' Next Step, Amalgamation (1922).djvu/62

Rh out of the fire for the weaker ones. Because the skilled workers have been unable to pierce its seeming truth, this pitiable sophistry has served to wreck many a promising get-together movement. Always contrary to fact, even when some of the trades were entirely unorganized, it no longer has a semblance of verity. Today every branch of the railroad service is so thoroughly organized that even the blindest cannot help seeing, if they only will, that each of the sixteen unions would add great strength to a railroad industrial union. Indeed, some of the trades long considered weaker sisters, are now in a position, if it came to a struggle, to give a better account of themselves, than many other crafts who take great pride in their skill, organization and stragetic position in the industry. There is no longer even a pretense of a reason for the trades not to join each other in closest alliance. All would be gainers from such co-operation.

A favorite argument against every improvement in the unions is the contention that the trade unions in this country are the most effective of any in the world, coupled with citations of the higher wages prevailing in the United States to prove it. That wages are higher here than almost anywhere else is incontestable; but to say that the superior efficiency of our organizations is responsible for them is ridiculous. Anyone acquainted with the facts knows that in many respects our movement lags behind that of Europe. Rather the credit for our higher wages is due to the unprecedented development of America's marvelous resources, which has made our fight easier than in other countries. But in any event the more we improve our unions the better results we will get, and amalgamation is always a great improvement.

Old-time craft unionists also object that the great size of the proposed amalgamation would make it unwieldly and unworkable. But there is no bottom to that contention either. The fact is there are many such gigantic combinations already afoot and functioning successfully, and