A History of Organized Felony and Folly - The Clarence Darrow ...

A History of Organized Felony and Folly
In the latter part of 1920, and following a long campaign
to that end, about half the cliief industries of Buffalo were
open shops, the industries including clothing, tailoring, knit-
ting, neclavear and corset manufacturing. Following the
partial success of the open-shop fight, new industries, rep-
resenting an investment of $100,000,000 and requiring 20,000
employes, moved to Buffalo.
The Survey, a supporter of the closed shop, in reviewing
the progress of Grand Rapids, in November, 1920, attributed
the city's prosperity to the adoption of local prohibition in
April, 1918. But Grand Rapids had no comer on prohibition
in November, 1920, while it is an open-shop city. The Survey
said: "Grand Rapids has never had a large class of desperately
poor families." Again, it says: "Is the second American city
in per cent, of home o\\Tiership." It further says: "No serious
labor disturbances since 1912." Wages have "advanced faster
than prices," and "freedom from serious strikes or lockouts
* * * has reinforced the result of higher wages."
Of the twenty principal cities in the country, Detroit,
open-shop, is fifth from lowest in gross debt, third from lowest
in tax rate per $1,000 of assessed valuation and fifth from
lowest in gross debt per capita.
Restricted building operations, higher costs and
higher rents are results that might be expected to
follow in cities where the closed shop exists in the building
industry, and these results will be considered later; but the
closed shop, which is alleged by its proponents to benefit the
wage earner, certainly has subtracted from his sa%dngs-bank
account. It is a well-known fact that w^age earners form a
great majority of savings-bank depositors, and mechanics in
the building trades, by reason of their high wages, may be
reasonably expected to exert a marked influence on the totals.
A compilation made from 24 cities—12 where the open
shop prevails to the extent of 75% or more in the building
trades and 12 where the closed shop prevails to the extent of
75% or m.ore in the same trades—shows that the per capita
savings deposits at the end of 1921 were $206 in the open-shop
cities and $175 in the closed-shop cities. The table follows:
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