Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1902-12-06
THE LABOR PROBLEM.
UniOntsm Contains Much That Is Coos
and Some Bad.

UniOntsm Contains Much That Is Good
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 employe, without weakening
lndlViduel initiative without hamperinE
and cramping the Industrial DEVELOPMENT
OF the country, is problem fraught with
the highest Importance to solve on lines
or sanity and far-sighted common sense
as Wen 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
porations to grow larger, so it is often
necessary for laboring men to work in
decorations, 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
Opposition to each kind OF organization
should take the form of opposition to
given corporation or union-not of at
tacks upon corporations as such nor upon
unions as such: for some of the most
tar-reaching benef1cent work for our peo-
pie has been accomplished through both
corporations and unions. Each must re-
ference with the rights of others Or
ganiZed capital and organized labor alike
the interest of each must be brought
into harmony with the interest of the
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
in addition to power it must strive after
the realization of healthy, lofty and gen.
erous ideals. Every employer, every
wage worker. must be guaranteed his
liberty and his right to do as he likes
with his property or his labor so long
of others. 1t is of the highest impor-
lance that employer and employee alike
viewpoint of the other and the sure dis
aster that will come upon both in the
ual an attitude of sour hostility and dis
trust toward the other. Few people de-
serve better of the country than those
representatives both of capital and labor
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
is. if possible. even more wicked, even
more destructive to national welfare.
ity. We can get good government only
upon condition that we keep true to the
founded, and judge each man not as a
part of class. but upon his individual
merits, All that we have right to ask
of any man, rich or poor, whatever his
his residence. is that he shall act well
his country. We are neither for the rich
man as such nor for the poor man as
o ocH oo we se f f9r tne 9h
powers of the national government touch
these matters of general and vital
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 secretary of
commerce may be created, with seat in
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 wonderful 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. 1t is 6esirabl
that some such measure as that which has
already passed the senate be enacted into
law. The creation of such 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
emo in view, the congress should en6ow
the department with large powers, which
could be increased experience might
show the need