Permanent Labor Temple Needed

Front Page

Labor Clarion Vol 9-9

April 15th, 1910

Arrangements have been made for a meeting of the executive officers of unions affiliated with the San Francisco Labor Council to discuss ways and means for the erection of a structure that shall house organizations as soon as the lease expires for the present Labor Temple. The date selected is Sunday afternoon, May 8th. The place is 316 Fourteenth street. The Labor Council Hall Association will have plans to submit to the meeting, and i communication to unions will be sent out by the secretary's office a short time before the end of the present month.

The present home of the central body is inadequate in many respects. At the time the building was erected, shortly after the disaster of 1906, it was considered a worthy place for the work then in hand, but it was not long until the city resumed former shape, and then it was realized that larger quarters were necessary.

Practically all the large cities of the United States have Labor Temples that are a credit to organized labor. Some of them have .been built under adverse circumstances. Los Angeles, for instance, deserves a special credit in the column of cities that have "made good." Surely, then, San Francisco, with the large number of trade unionists in her midst, and the admitted strength of the labor movement, should be able to repeat the success of the sister city of the south. Sacramento is surely doing her duty in providing a union home.

The artisans of the building trades have two permanent Labor Temples that are a credit to them and the city in which they stand.

Next in order comes a Labor Temple for the central body, one that can be used for headquarters for the officials, a center of activity, possessing capacious halls and an auditorium, and able to supply all needs of offices for unions.

It will take careful planning and considerable thought to gain the desired end. The financial need is apparent, and it is the problem facing the meeting on the Sth of May to raise sufficient money to buy a piece of land in a central location and prepare for the building to be erected thereon.

Unions should see that their executive offi­cers respond to the call of the Labor Council. From numbers there will come a variety of suggestions as to the best method or methods to adopt. In the days to come, when an addition to the city's best buildings proudly rears its head upward, it will be well that each affiliated union shall be able to refer with pleasure to the support rendered the Labor Temple that will place San Francisco where she belongs in the field of organized labor.