Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-12-06
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
UnfOnism ontains Much That Its Good
and Some Bad.

How to secure fair treatment alike for
labor and for capital, how to hold in
check the unscrupulous man, whether
employer or employee, without weakening
individual initiative, without hampering
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-s!ghted common sense
is an era of federation and combination.
Exactly as business men find they must
it 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:
should take the form of opposition to
whatever is bad in the conduct of any
given corporation or union-r,ot of at
unions as such: for some. of the most
far-reaching beneficent work for our peo-
Pile has been accomplished through both
corporations and unions Each must re-
frain from arbitrary or tyrannous inter-
ference with the rights of others Or
ganized capital and organized labor alike
the interest Of each must be brought
general public; and the conduct Of each
of obedience to the law, Of individual
freedom, and of Justice and. fair dealing
toward all. Each should remember that
the to 90 It ama
wage Worker, must be ' eaapanteed isi his
Wes his and his rsn to DO abo1 he a a
Of others. It is Of the highest tmpor-
, lance that employer and employe alike
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
! trust toward the other. Few people de-
! serve better of the country than those
representatives both of capital and labor
continually to bring about a good unG HaH
standing of this kind. based upon wisdom
and upon broad and kindly sympathy be-
to s any Rna
| of class luminosity in the political world
is, If possible; even more wicked, even
ity. We, can get good government only
upon condition that we keep true to the
principles upon which this nation was
part of class, but upon his individual
merits. All that we have right to ask
of any man, rich or poor. whatever his
heT residence: is that he shah act Wen ii
and honorably by his nejghbor 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 Door. So far as the constitutional
powers Of the national government atouch
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.
1t is earnestly hoped that secretary OF
| ~, 49, xr,($l III 4.
the cabinet The rapid multiplication of
questions affecting labor and capital, the
| growth and completely of the organiZa lions
through which both labor and capital now
find expression, the steady tendency to-
ward the employment of capital in huge
| corporations, and the wond erful strides OF
this, country toward leadership in the in
ternational business world justify an .ur-
gent demand for the creation of such po-
sition. Substantially all the leading com
mercial bodies In this country have united
in requesting Its creation. It Is Gesira bic
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
i the who're subject Of the great corporations
doing an Interstate business; and with this
end in view, the congress should endov
the department with large powers, which
could be increased as experience nigh
show the need. -. s