The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1902-12-12
Relations of Labor and Capital.

How to secure fair treatmen allke IoI
labor and for capital, how to hold IN
check the unscrupulous man, Whetner
EMPLOYER or employe, without weakening
individual initiative, without hampering
and crampfng the industrial development
Of the country, is a problem fraught with
great difficulties and one which Ii is OF
the highest Importance to solve on INES
of sanity and far-Sighted common sense
as well 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
fedora tiOnS and these have become i'm
portant factors of modern industrial life.
Both kinds of federation, capitalistic and
labor, can do much good. and as neces-
sary corrollary they can both do evil
Opposition to each kind of organiza ton
should take the form of opposition to
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-rea ching beneficent work for our peO
pie has been accomplished through both
corporal tions and unions. Each must re-
frain from arbitrary or tyrannous inter-
ference with the rights of others. Organ
lied 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 obe-
dience to the law, of individual freedom,
and of justice and fair dealing toward all.
Each should remember that in addition to
power, it must strive after the realization
Of healthy. lofty and generous ideals.
Every employed. every wage worker must
be guaranteed his liberty and his right to
do as he likes with his property or his Ia
Dor so long as he does not infringe upon
the right of others. 1t is of the highest i'm
portancc 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-
serve better of the country than those
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 animosity in the political world
is if possible. even more wicked even
more destructive to national welfare
than sectional, race or religious animos-
ity We can get good government only
upon condition that we keep true TO the
principles upon which this nation was
founded, and judge each man not as
part of a class. but upon his individual
merits. All that We have q right to ask
of any man. rich or poor, whatever his
creed. his occupation. his birthplace or
his residence. is that he shall act well
and honorably by his neighbor and by
his country. We are neither for the rich
man as such nor for the poor ma. as
such; we are for the upright man. rich
or poor So far as the constitu lonaI
powers of the national government buch
these matters of general and vital mo-
ment to the nation, they should be ker.