The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1902-03-06


hour when the wizard of tricks sat in
world of money was comprised by his
eye-sight, was struck yesterday, and
that hour is no more forever. Today
the capitalist can no longer indulge
in the legerdemain of mere stock spec
ulation. He must build machinery;
he must erect mills; he must con-
struct railroads; he must buy steam
ship lines. Therefore he must un-
derstand the people, he must consider
the people. The financial rashness of
the Black Fridays Of our history was
as much a manifestation of our I'M
disciplined and capricious mode of
undevelopment as was the burning Of
railroad properties at Pittsburg in the
req days now almost forgotten.
Capitalists Must Consider the People.
And so we see capitalists have got
to understand that the opinion of the
people is as definite a factor in their
great plans as the quantity of coal
remaining in the mine or the produc-
ing capacity of a mill. AS much
factor? Yes, infinitely more of a fac
tor. For, after all, it is the consuming
and producing capacity of the people
upon which all industries are built
It is the thought and settled resolve
of the people which is the most i'm
portant element in the mosaic of
our national economy. Thus have
the constructive capitalists of Ameri-
ca come to understand that public
opinion must be taken into account as
much as the amount of cash on hand
or bills receivable. They have been
forced to this, let us say, or they have
learned it. No matter, they have
come to understand it; and so we see
that voluntarily the greatest corpor-
alton of the world has published to all
the people a statement of its business
and its operations, of its assets and
its liabilities. of its products and its
sales, of it's history and it's prospects.
That is the thing which the financier
of ten years ago would have called
chimerical, foolish, the unwise pan
dering of the theorist to the curiosity
of the crowd. But the financier of the
goth century no longer calls it so.
He knows it is not so. He knows that
it is a necessity of his business-a
thing essential to the popular support
of his enterprise. mother great cor
poration of Illinois whose managing
mind appears to be a statesman as
we'll as a financier, began some three
or four years ago to distribute the
stock of his railroad among its en-
ployes, and to sell shares at lowest
terms to the people living along it's
line. Ten years ago that would have
been called socialism-today it is bus
mess. 1t is conservatism. 1t is the
realization of things as they are and
the adjustment of the measures of
wisdom and humanity to existing con-
ditions, in order that the best of exist
ing conditions may be preserved, and
from them still better conditions may
be evolved. All this is sanity; all
this is calm and gentle and consider
ate thought; all this is the beginning
of that discipline which comes from
self-restraint and the respect for the
rights and opinions of our fellows.
Labor Trusts.
Organizations of labor are cognate
to the organizations of capital. Each
is the outgrowth of that principle OF
cooperation which is the Gerry spirit
of civilized society. The family is CO
operation; a partnership is co-opera-
ton: the simplest form of state is
co-operation which is the very spirit
more perfect, it's citizens more and
more cooperate each with all ard all
with each. Neither labor orsaniza-
lions, therefore, nor those OF capital
are unnatural or harmful. But the
tyranny of greed may pervert the one;
the tyranny of passion may ruin the
other. Considerable moderation is the safe
ty of both. and IL each were to adopt Ii.
IT would he their glory as we'll And If
capital will not be reasonable, IL labor will
not be reasonable, the people will be rea-
sonable for them. There is no place in
this country for the absolutist Of capital
There is no place in this country for the
absolutist of riot The bully of wealth
shaking his cenched fist IF gold. is
wealth's worst enemy The bully of labor
shouting denunciation Is labor's worst en-
his company him of the flaming uterance
and untruthful tongue. Let the wiser cap
ltallsts suppress their would-be cars. Out
with the element of unreason in both
camps, and the divided hosts will be one.
Out with unreason everywhere in the re-
public. Let the spirit of Washington be
monarch OF the hearts and minds of men
everywhere beneath the flag which Wash
ington established
AS the Goth century financier must be a
statesman, SO the 10th century labor leader
must be "A statesman, too. He too must
consider the peoples thought. He too must
measure popular tendencies. He too must
counsel no act without weighing the effect
that act will have throughout the whole
complicated machinery of related and in
terdependent industries. And such states
manship is being evolved. a man cannot
long remain the head of one of the great
armies OF organized workers without de-
veloplng powers of conservatism. NeceS-
sity teaches him the value of moderation.
When he feels his hand upon the lever
that directs the movements of hundred
thousand toilers, his awful responsibility
inStructS him in the value of Self-restraint.
The events of the last two years have
proved that the directing heads of two of
the greatest labor trusts are conservative
counsellors. Their number will increase.
More and more the organizations Of labor
Will insist that their leaders shall be men
OF thought, slow to wrath, steady in ac-
ton. More and more they will come to
appreciate that a leader is none the less
loyal because he is WISE
How majestic Is the majesty Of modera-
ton!
times when the calm Of Washington cour
ellis prudence, self-restraint the holding
well IN hand Of the peoples thought and
fSere by tire
to which the spirit Of Washington equally
applies The fanaticism of existing con
ditions is the reverse of the shield. 1t is
as unreasoning to say that an outgrowD
law shall NOT no modified as IL is TO saw