F Publishers Preface ROM time to time the preface to these volumes has taken on the form of an intimate talk between the publishers and the reader about the ideals and the organization of The Lakeside Press. Apropos of the extended strike for shortening an already short work week which has recently disrupted the printing industry throughout the country, a statement of its labor policy may not be amiss at this time. It is the ambition of the publishers that The Lakeside Press shall become a peculiar institution in the printing industry; one in which its work shall be carried on in the spirit of the highest traditions of the art and, by a contented and permanent organization of executives and workmen. The Lakeside Press is neither a union nor an open shop; it is honestly non-union. The management of a great industry occupies the position of a trustee both to the public and to its employees. The public should receive its commodities uninterruptedly and at a price as low as is consistent with fair wages, good working conditions, and reasonable profit. The employees should be guaranteed as continuous employment as possible, an opportu nity to earn high wages in return for increased production, and protection in their rights as American citizens. The officers of The Lakeside Press believe that this trusteeship can only be fulfilled when the relations between the management and the employees are unhampered by the arbitrary dictation of union officials who have no direct interest in the welfare either of the establishment or its employees. Whatever may have been the necessities in the past for labor unions as a protection against abuse, today the demand of modern industry for contented, smooth-working organizations, and the revelation through factory accounting that high skill at high wages means lower unit costs, are labor's greatest protection. Labor unions to a great extent have become the tools of ambitious leaders in labor union politics and are kept in existence only for their personal aggrandizement and profit, and by the apathy and weakness of the employers. Most unions lay an unfair burden on the public, stifle advancement in the art of increasing production and lowering costs, and are a millstone around the necks of the workmen themselves. Of the two thousand odd employees of The Lakeside Press, not one is a member of any labor organization, and in spite of the repeated attempts of the labor unions to entice away its employees, the organization has been successfully maintained on this basis for sixteen years, through the application of the principle of fair play, and the fact that, untrammeled with union restrictions, the men have been able to earn more money than elsewhere. During the war, when labor was scarce, the employees did not leave for other jobs; of the 205 men and boys who went to war, four were killed and 196 came back to the plant as "home," and during the many strikes that have disturbed the printing industry in Chicago during the last sixteen years, not one man has gone out on strike. These facts seem satisfactory evidence that The Lakeside Press is "a good place to work." The Apprenticeship School, the Taylor system of scientific management and weekly bonuses for increased efficiency, and the quick settlement of all differences and grievances by frank discussion between the officers and the employees are all contrary to union rules, but are the very foundations upon which the organization has been built up. Should the national unions in the printing industry accept the principle of the open shop and recognize the right of every man to work regardless of his union affiliations, comfortably and without molestation, an open shop would be practical and the only one that would be fair. But the national unions do not recognize the open shop except under compulsion and accept it only as a temporary |