Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/186

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

1/2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

laws in Wisconsin forbid both boycotting and blacklisting. Denied the boycott, the label loses at once a large part of its power, for it has more success in boycotting an "unfair" merchant than in building up a "fair" one.

Success of the label would affect four kinds of labor at which it is professedly aimed : convict labor, child labor, union labor, and non-union labor. Convict labor would be forced into indus- tries competing little or not at all with organized labor. Child labor would be abolished in sweat-shop and factory. Union labor would be triumphant with its short hours, fair wages, and good sanitary conditions. The non-union man, now known as "traitor" and "scab," would certainly find himself in a precarious condition if he refused to ally himself with any labor organi- zation.

Will the public accept the union label as a necessary part of the industrial situation, or will they reject it as an unwelcome and undesirable interference with the normal course of business ?

JAMES E. BOYLE. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, Madison, Wis.