Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-12-04
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
UniOnism Contains Much That LIS G o ID
and Some Bad.

UniOnism Contain Much That LIS O ID
and Some Bad.
How to secure fair treatment alike for
labor and for capital, how to hold in
check the ,unscrupulous man, whether
employer or employe, without weakening
individual initiative, without hampering
of the country, is a problem fraught with
great difficulties and one which it is of
the highest Importance to solve on lines
of sanity and far-sghted common sense
as we'll as of devotion to the right This
is an era of federation and combination.
Exactly as business men find they must
often work through corporations, and as
it is a constant tendency of these cor
porationS to grow larger, SO it is often
necessary for laboring men to work in
federations and these have become inn
portant factors of modern industrial life.
Both kinds of federation, capitalistic and
labor can do much good, and as nee
essary corrollary they can both do evil.
Opposition to each kind of organization
whatever is bad in the conduct of any
given corporation or union-not of at
tackS upon corporations as such nor upon
unions as such; for some of the most
far-reaching beneficent work for our peo-
pie has been accomplished through both
corporations and unions. Each must re-
ference with the rights of others. Or
ganized- capital and organized labor alike
should remember that in the long run
the interest of each must be brought
into harmony with the interest of the
general public; and the conduct of each
must conform to the fundamental rules
of obedience to the. law. of individual
toward all. Each should remember that
in addition to power it must strive after
the realization of healthy, lofty and gen.
wage worker, must be guaranteed his
liberty and his right to do as he likes
with his property or his labor so long
as he does not infringe upon the rights
of ofh &c IF q INN
lance that employer and employe. alike
should endeavor to appreciate each the
viewpoint of the other and the sure dis
aster that will come upon both in the
long run if either grows to take as habit
ual an attitude of sour hostility and dis
trust toward the other. Few people. de-
representatives both of capital and labor
and there are many such-who work
continually to bring about a good under
standing Of this kind. based upon wisdom
and upon broad and kindly sympathy be-
tween employers and employed. above
ALL we need to remember that any kind
of class luminosity in the political world
is, If possible, even more wicked even
more destructive to national welfare,
than sectional, race or religious anfmos-
ity. We can get good government only
principles upon which this nation was
founded and judge each man not as a
part of a class. but upon MS individual
merits All that we have a right to ask
creed his occupation, his birthplace, or
his residence. is that he shall act well
and honorablv by his neighbor and by
his country. We are neither for the rich
man as such nor for the Door man as
such; we are for the upright man. rich
or moor. So far the constitutional
powers of the national government touch
these matters of general and vital mo-
ment to the nation. they should be exer-
cised in conformity with the principles
above set forth.
Recommend s Department of Com
It IS earnestly hoped that a. secretary of
commerce may be created, with a seat in
the cabinet The rapid multiplication of
questions affecting labor and capital the
growth and complexity of the orgarizat tons
through which both labor and capital now
find expression, the steady tendency to-
ward the employment of capital in huge
corporations, and the wonderful strides Of
ternational business world justify an ur-
gent demand for the creation of such a DO
sition. Substantially all the leading com
nercial bodies in this country have united
in. requesting it's creation. It is desirable
that some such measure as that which has
already passed the senate be enacted into
law The creation of such a department
would in itself be IN advance toward deal
ing with and exercising supervision over
the whole subject of the great corporations
doing an interstate business; and with this
end in view, the congress should endow
the department with large powers, which
could be increased as experience might
show the need.