Clergyman gives his view of Unions

“Labor is capital. Their ability to labor is the only capital most Americans have. People whose capital is their working ability have a partnership with management and financial capital.

“The true union member wants to help, not hinder his employer. The more successful the business, the more successful the employee- if he receives the full value of his labor, a fair share of the profits he has helped produce.

“A working mans life is valuable. Every time the clock ticks, there goes a second off that life. When he sells the hours of his life to make a profit for someone, he is entitled to all he can get for those precious hours. As the Bible says, ‘The laborer is worthy of his hire’.

“Humanity being what it is, it is to the advantage of the fellow who exploits others to get a maximum of work out of his employee while paying a minimum of wages. He will buy his worker’s life as cheaply as possible.

“To protect himself, the worker tries to get as much as possible for his life. By himself this is difficult with employers organized. He can be broken like a stick. But breaking a bundle of sticks is not so easy.

“That is why working people organize unions to help make a success of a business and to protect themselves in getting their fair share of that success. Union men are forced by circumstances to organize, for as Franklin said, ‘It is better to hang together than to hang separately’.

“Unionism has brought about better working conditions, more leisure for the worker to enjoy his life, reasonable pay, more job security, vacations, pensions and other benefits. It is an ignorant man who values his life cheaply, sells it cheaply and works long weeks to make his exploiter rich to the extent that he keeps himself poor.

“And in all the world there is no cheaper, less self respecting person than the ‘scab’, who will take advantage of what others have helped to bring about, without in any way contributing to it but rather betraying it.

“Well paid organized labor is good business in any town or city. The more the worker earns, the more he has to spend on his needs. The more he has to spend, the better for the merchant, the farmer and everyone else.”

-Dr. David Baxter, Minister of the Evangelical Church in Arkansas