The Wichita daily eagle., 1904-01-28
CROSSCUp's ADDRESS
Chicago Jurists Discusses
Phases of Labor Question
SAYS WAR is PREVAILING
Capital and Labor Are Not
Friendly at Present

springfeld IL. Jan. 27.-The principal
kneaker of the annual meeting of the
lIllinois county and probate judges as
Aocistion today was Judge Peter S. Gross
cphp. of the United States circuit court
ak Chicago. His subject was THE Next
Qsreat Step in American Politics, the Re
1Peoplizing of Our Country Industries" "
4 After expressing his confidence in the
continuance of prosperity. and his friend
Illness TO honest corporations as civil
ization's way of welding large masses
of capital" and his friendliness to law
abiding labor unions as the embodiment
in organization Of the natural law of self
preservation the speaker sketched the
present conditions and complaints of en-
ployer, enploye and the general public;
and upon the relations of employers and
4 employees, said:
lit has come to pass that instead of
peace the standing relation between them
is that of war. They look upon each
other not as neighbors or copsrtners, but
upon their arms
Turning to the relation of the public
at large TO this situation and its con-
sequences, the speaker proceeded: I'm
war between nations, the victor lays in
demnity for his losses upon the van
quished. But in wars between employer
and employe the losses fail neither on
victor nor upon vanquished. When a
- truse comes and Indemnity is laid il
falls, not on the belligerents. but on the
outside public-the great neutral who UP
to that time supposed it had only
moral interest in the conflict.
The employer deals in this day, not
with men, but with republics of men; not
with individuals. but with governments,
self constituted governments inside the
greater government called the STATE En-
pioyment OF labor is no longer a matter
OF bargain and contract; it is a matter
Tor treaty, for diplomacy or for war"
Ths speaker then addressed himself to
the tcauses Of present conditions. Our
early industrial life, when everything was
made at home, and when men of all oc-
: -cuYpations commingled as neighbors. was
oescribed; then the growth cf the fac
TORY system, of corporations. and OF Ia
tpor unions; after which the feeling Of
lseparation and estrangement that such
conditions naturally produce between the
tseveral interests was brought out.
we nave a common system of educa
tlon,' said the speaker. but orr chill
oren no longer sit in The same sebools
We have comon religion. but we wor-
snip IN separate church buildings. W.
nave patriotism in common. and 1ac.
but the occasions that call it out come
only at long intervals. 40 distance prov-
en- so great, as the difference between
men living in the same city but INFER
ested in different occupations and mov-
ing in different circles.
The Indifference of laborine men To
the owning of property. even their
homes. was then referred to. and the
underlying causes for this change. chier
of which is the drift toward paternalism
inspired by labor unions Calling atlen
tion TO what he called the most recent
phenomena in industrial evolution the
rapid withdrawal OF the great middle
body of our citizenship from ownership
in the industrial properties of the coun-
try, the speaker said:
During the last twenty-three years
the capital denositcd in the banks of
fhe country has increased nearly ten
!, ,'llions of dollars. This capital largely
IS come from men in the ordinary cir
instances of life It measures the cap (
al detached during this period by this
lass of our citizenship from active pro-
rietorship in the Industries of the coun /
y. 1T makes tremendous SHIFT in the /
ersonnei Of active proprietorship-a 1
hift as significant as If in that shor;
eriod nearly onc-haif the farmers OF /
-,