Following Honor's Path
It is gratifying to The Times-Dispatch that its view of the sanctity of labor contracts has received the approval of the head of a great labor organization with which this newspaper maintains constant and pleasant relations. Marsden G. Scott, president of the International Typographical Union, has refused to sanction a sympathetic strike in aid of the New York carmen, and has directed that contracts with employers be observed to the letter.
Discussing this matter a few days ago, The Times-Dispatch said that "to transform a solemn agreement into a scrap of paper would not increase public liking or respect" for those so offending. Mr. Scott and the executive committee of the International Typographical Union have the same feeling exactly. Collective bargaining is a right invaluable to trades unionism, but it is worthless, clearly, if the agreements in which it results are not binding on those who make them. He who advises unionists to violate such a contract is striking at a principle without which, the labor movement, in its present form, can make no progress.
When organized labor gets ready to follow the chauvinists and wage guerilla warfare on capital, the sort of morals that govern that sort of warfare may be justified, along with sabotage and other principles of the I.W.W. Nowadays, however, unions make business contracts with employers, to which honor and good faith are pledged. It is to the employer's advantage to enter into these agreements, because thereby he is freed from the danger of strikes, whether original or sympathetic, while the agreements continue in  Force. If. 