The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1902-12-02
THE LABOR PRoRLEm.
Combinations of Workingmen and OF
Capital Should Be Treated Alike.

How to secure fair treatment alike for
labor and for capital, how to hold in
check the INSCRIPTIONS man, whether
employer or employee without weaken
ing individual initiative. without ham,
pering and cramping the industrial de-
Veiopment 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 sight
ed common sense as well as of devotion
to the right. This is an era of federa-
ton and combination. Exactly as bust
ness men find they must often work
through corporations, and as it 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 important
factors of modern industrial life Both
kinds of federation, capitalist1c and la
Dor. can do much good, and as a neceS-
sary corollary 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 reaching benefcent work for
our people has been accomplished
through both corporations and unions.
Each must refrain from arbitrary
tyrannouS interference with the rights
of others. Organized capital and organ
lied 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 freedom, and of JUS
tice and fair dealing toward all. Eacn
should remember that in addition to
ton of healthy, lofty, and generous
ideals. Every employer, every wage
worker, must be guaranteed his liberty
and his right to do as he likes with his
/ Y nrs Ia hff ca Ion nc he doc
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 disaster
that will come upon both in the long
run if either grows to take as habitual
an attitude of sour hostility and dis
trust toward the other. Few people de-
representatives both of capital and la
bor-and there are many such-who
work continually to bring about a good
understanding of this kind, based upon
wisdom and upon broad and kindly
sympathy between employers and en-
ployed. Above all, we need to remem-
Der 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 luminosity. We can get good
j government only upon condition that
we keep true to the principle upon
N~AAN.
1 judge each man not as a part of class,
/ but upon his individual merits. All that
we have a right to ask of any man,
rich or poor, whatever his creed, his Oc-
I cupation. his birthplace, or his residence,
I 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 man as such: we are
for the upright man. rich or poor. SO
far as the constitutional powers of the
national government touch these mat
tiers of general and vital moment to the
nation, they should be exercised in con-
formity with the principles above set
forth
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE.
It is earnestly hoped that a secretary
of commerce may be created, with seat
in the cabinet The rapid multiplied
ton of questions affecting labor and
capital. the growth and compleXity OF
the organizations through which botn
labor and capital now find expression,
the steady tendency toward the en-
ployment of capital in huge corpora
tons, and the wonderful strides of this
country toward leadership in the inter-
national business world justify an urg-
ent demand for the creation of such a
position. Substantially all the leading
commercial bodies in this country have
united in requesting its creation 1t is
deSira Bile that some such measure as
that which has already passed the SEN
ate be enacted into law The creation
of such a department would in itself be
an advance toward dealing with and ex-
ercising supervision over the whole SUBJ
ject Of the great corporations doing an
/ interstate business; and with this end in
view, the congress should endow the DC
par1ment with large powers, which could
I be increased as experience might show
the -cn1
RECIPROCITY WITH CUBA.
I hcpe soon to submit to the senate
reciprocity treaty with Cuba. On May
20 last the United States kept it's promise
f-1r Inv forty a Y re-
Cuban soil and turning Cuba over TO