It was in this discussion that the question of
the closed shop and the open shop came before the conference.
Though the Union leaders had agreed to eliminate the discussion of the
closed shop before they entered into negotiations, it was almost
impossible for them to refrain from suggesting it as a means of enforcing
agreements. As one of the cloak makers, one of the old leaders of the
labor movement in America, said: "This organization of cloak makers in
the city of New York can only control the situation where Union people
are employed. They have absolutely no control of the situation where
non-union people are employed. They cannot enforce any rules, nor any
discipline of any kind, shape, or description, and if we are to cooeperate
in any way that will be absolutely effective, then the ... Manufacturers'
Association, ... it seems to me, should see that the necessary first step
is that they shall run Union shops."[28]
The Union shop the speaker had in mind, the Union shop advocated by the
_Vorwaerts_ and desired, as it proved, by a majority of the workers, was a
different matter from the closed shop, which constitutes a trade monopoly
by limiting the membership of a trade to a certain comparatively small
number of workers.
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