He pleaded that "if it
(Congress) had not the power, it shall assume the power; and, if
necessary, amend the constitution to do it." Adolph Strasser of the
cigar makers raised the point of protection for union funds and gave as
a second reason that it "will give our organization more stability, and
in that manner we shall be able to avoid strikes by perhaps settling
with our employers, when otherwise we should be unable to do so, because
when our employers know that we are to be legally recognized that will
exercise such moral force upon them that they cannot avoid recognizing
us themselves." W.H. Foster, the secretary of the Legislative Committee
of the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, stated that in
Ohio the law provided for incorporation at a slight cost, but he wanted
a national law to "legalize arbitration," by which he meant that "when a
question of dispute arose between the employers and the employed,
instead of having it as now, when the one often refuses to even
acknowledge or discuss the question with the other, if they were
required to submit the question to arbitration, or to meet on the same
level before an impartial tribunal, there is no doubt but what the
result would be more in our favor than it is now, when very often public
opinion cannot hear our cause.
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