The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-12-03
Labor and Capital

How to secure fair treatment alike
for labor and for capital. how to hold
in check the unscrupulous man.
whether employer or employed, With
out weakening individual initiative.
without hampering and cramping the
Industrial development of the country
is a problem fraught with great diff
culties and one which it is of the high
est Importance to solve on lines OF
sanity and far-sighted common sense
as we'll as of devotion to the right.
This is an era Of federation and COM
bination. Exactly as business men
find they must often work through
corporations, and as 1t Is a constant
tendency Of these corporations 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, cap
italistic and labor. can do much good
and as necessary corollary they
can both do evil. Opposition to each
kind Of organization should take the
form of opposition to whatever is
bad in the conduct of any given cor
poration or union-not of attacks
upon corporations as such nor upon
unions as such; for some of the most
far-reaching beneficent work for our
people has been accomplished
through both corporations and
unions. Each must refrain from
arbitrary or tyrannous interference
with the rights or others. Organic
ed capital and organized labor alike
should remember that in the long
run the interest of each must be
brought into harmony with the in
terest Of the general public; and the
conduct Of each must conform to the
fundamental rules of obedience 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 employ
er, every 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 others.
1t is of the highest Importance that
employer and employe alike should
endeavor to appreciate each the view-
point of the other and the sure dis
aster that will come upon both in the
long run II either grows to take as
ilabitual an attitude of sour hostility
and distrust toward the other. Few
people deserve better of the country
than those representatives both Of
capital and labor-and there are many
sucf--who work continually to bring
about a good understanding of this
kind, based upon wisdom and upon a
broad and kindly sympathy between
employers and employed. Above all, we
reed 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 ami
mostly. 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 a part of a class,
but upon his individual merits. All
that we have a right to ask of any
creed, his occupation, his birthplace,
or his residence, is that he shall act
we'll and honorably by his neighbor
and by his country. We are neither
for the rich man as such nor for the
poor man as such; we are for the up
right man, rich OF poor. So far as
the constitutional powers of the ma
tional government touch these matters
of general and vital moment to the
nation, they should be exercised in
with the principles above
set forth.