The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1902-12-05
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
UniOnfsm Contains Much That lis Good
and Some Bad.

and Some Bad.
How to secure fair treatment alike for
labor and for capital, how to hold in
check the INSCRIPTIONS man, whether
employer or employee, without weakening
individual initiative, without hampering
and cramping the industrial development
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 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
1t 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 i'm
portant factors of modern industrial life
Both kinds of federation, capitalistic and
labor, can do much good. and as a nee
essary corrollary 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 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-
frain from arbitrary or tyrannous inter
ganized capital and organized labor alike
should remember that in the long run
the interest of each must be brought
n5o with the the Of the
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 gem
erous ideals. Every employer, every
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. It is of the highest impor-
fqnHQ that anon1nvor oliI
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
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
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
founded and judge each man not as
part of a class. but upon his individual
merits. All that we have a 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 man as
such; we are for the upright man, rich
or poor. So far as 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.
Recommends Department. of Com
merce.
It is earnestly hoped that a secretary of
commerce may be created with seat in
the cabinet. The rapid multiplication of
questions affecting labor and capital, the
growth and complexity of the organizations
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
this country toward leadership in the in
ternational business world justify an ur-
gent demand for the creation of such a DO
sition. Substantially all the leading COM
mercial bodies in this country have united
in requesting it's creation. 1t 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 an 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 paf1 p.