My informant goes on to tell about his own position. You remember the immortal utterance of President Eliot of Harvard, that the true “American hero” of our time is the “scab.” How does this true “American hero” feel about himself? Listen:
And I? Well, old man, I somewhat shamefully admit that I am at present guarding my bread and butter, and looking to the future with one eye on the boss’s and my own opportunities, and in my heart damning the conditions that make me an undoubted renegade. I am drawing a little better than forty per, am in the best of standing, being now —— and with the possibility of being its head shortly, and with certain advancement coming in both pay and rating. Now what the deuce? Shall I tell Polly to support us and get in on the big game, or shall I eat my bitter bread?...
I do know this, that there is going to be no present big success of the union movement, that whoever joins it too prominently is going to fight the owners for the rest of his life, and that the union can do me myself no good at all from any standpoint.
You will remember that in my story of the “Los Angeles Times” I mentioned a young reporter, Bob Harwood, who had told me of the “Times” knaveries. Harwood is now in San Francisco, where you may have another glimpse of him.
Bob told ’em all to go to hell, and is now organizing actively. There is an addition coming to the Harwood family shortly. Why comment further?
And then, let us see what is happening on the other side of the continent. In New Haven the “News-Writers’ Union” goes on strike, and while they are on strike, they publish a paper of their own! In Boston the “News-Writers’ Union” declares a strike, and wins all demands. Incidentally they learn—if they do not know it already—that the newspapers of Boston do not publish the news! They do not publish the news about the News-Writers’ strike; when the strike is settled, on the basis of recognition of the union, not a single Boston newspaper publishes the terms of the settlement!
In every union there is always a little group of radicals, occupied with pointing out to the men the social significance of their labor, the duty they owe to the working-class, and to society as a whole. So before long we shall see the News-Writers’ Union of Boston taking up the task of forcing the Boston newspapers to print the truth. We shall see the News-Writers’ Union taking up the question: Shall the “Boston Evening Transcript” permit its news-columns to be edited by the gas company, and by “Harvard Beer, 1,000 Pure”? We shall see the union at least bringing these facts to public attention, so that the “Transcript” can no longer pose as a respectable newspaper.
I quote one paragraph more from my San Francisco letter:
All three evening papers, I am told, are one hundred per cent organized; a charter is on the way from the I. T. U. and the movement has the full backing—or is promised the full backing—of the A. F. of L. and the local labor organizations. Just what that is worth is yet to be learned.
This man, you see, is groping his way. He doesn’t know what the backing of organized labor is worth. But the newspaper-men of Boston found out; they won because the type-setters and the pressmen stood by them. And the New York actors won because the musicians and the stage-hands stood by them. And this is the biggest thing about the whole movement—the fact that workers of hand and brain are uniting and preparing to take possession of the world. One purpose of this book is to urge a hand-and-brain union in the newspaper field; to urge that the news-writers shall combine with the pressmen and type-setters and the truckmen—one organization of all men and women who write, print and distribute news, to take control of their own labor, and see to it that the newspapers serve public interests and not private interests.