The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1904-02-12

oebpeIl1 lighting IS last dllU 1uI1OuS, OuI
not enough SO to please the war fans"
1t begins to look as if American inter-
vention in San Domingo is not far off.
DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES
President Eliot of Harvard Says They
Will Solve the Labor Problem.
President Charles w. Eliot Of Harvard
university delivered an interesting address
last Sunday afternoon in Faneuil hall to
the representatives of Boston organized
labor. He frankly discussed the problem
of labor organization. The concluding
part Of this interesting address follows:
democratic society believes funda-
mentally in seeking the greatest good of
the greatest number, and in seeking this
greatest good thru freedom, order, justice
and good will. During the first half Of
the nineteenth century it believed that
the greatest good Of the greatest number
was consistent with the greatest good and
largest freedom of the individual During
the last half Of the century it seems to
have experienced some revulsions of feel
ing with regard to personal liberty. 1t
has seemed willing to sacrifice the well
fare Of the individual to the supposed well
fare of the mass, to abridge the liberty
lective benefit Of his class
1.-THE labor unions and the employers
associations both illustrate this tendency.
They are both fighting organizations; and
all fighting abridges individual liberty-in-
deed, puts an end to it for the time being.
Armies and navies are not concerned with
personal liberty, but with implicit obedi-
ence and the complete subordination of
the Individual to the efficiency Of the or
ganization to which he belongs.
In the same way labor unions and en-
ployers' associations, SO far as they are
fighting bodies. abridge personal liberty;
and so far forth they are in conflict with
the democratic IDEAL They are also in
conflict with the democratic ideal when
they destroy free competition. In this
respect one kind of association is just as
bad as the other, A monopoly has always
been an object Of detestation in democra
cies, and such it ought always to remain;
for competition is the native air Of human
progress and improvement.
How else can the new and better thing
get chance to demonstrate its superior
ity to the established but inferior thing?
How else can rising genius win it's way
against intrenched dullness? How else
can new inventions in industry or trade
demonstrate their superiority? The rising
generation should be free to compete with
the generation in possession. The young
AASS ONAAAfo>>
with the old one, and surpass him If he
can. The department store should be free
to prove that it serves the community bet
ter than a large number OF separate
stores. A young departnl ent store should
be free to prove itself better than the older
ones. Competition in industries, trades
and the professions provides the indls-
pensable opportunity for progress. 1t is
the friend and servant of liberty, and this
is the reason why democracy has always
feared and protested against monopoly"
No Caste.
Again, democracy believes to its very
core in the modern mobility Of industrial
and commercial society, that mobility or
fluiditv which permits the capable and
promising individual to rise thru its var
ious layers. It believes with all its might
that every young American of remarkable
capacity should find it easy to rise thru
all the grades of his trade till he becomes
himself an employer and leader. 1t be-
lieves with all its soul that every child
should be able to get the best education 1t
is capable Of receiving. and that society
suffers grave injury if the upward prog
ress of a promising child is checked or
prevented.
Democratic society, therefore, sees with
great CONCERN that in the joint agreements
now made between labor unions and en-
ployers' associations there are many pro-
visions which tend to make rigid and high
the barriers between the common laborer,
the helper, the journeyman, the employer
and the capitalist and the fences between
one trade and another. It sees with alarm
these great combinations Of men &C ting
on principles which tend strongly to, divide
American society into classes, and to per-
petuate those classes.
Moreover, since the fundamental object
of the labor union or the employers asso-
citation is always the pecuniary benefit Of
it's class. these organizations are providing
democratic society with exhibitions of
class selfshness which, in other countries,
society and government have seen mani
tested by classes quite different from
these great combinations Of men acting
pie. by nobility. priesthoods and soldieries
The world has had bitter experience Of
the evils resulting from the class selfish
ness Of these aristocratic, ecclesiastical
and military combinations; and democracy
does well to dstrust the new developments
of class se1fishness, different tho the
classes be that now manifest this danger
Gus quality.
Let Every Man Do His Best.
Again. a bold. alert and vigorous de-
mocracy will always believe in every mans
doing his best and being free to do his
best. whatever his station Or function in
society. Real dem ocracv thinks Of an op-
erative or a mechanic who does not do his
1t would feel toward fireman who did not
work his hardest at fire. or nurse
who took care Of a patient nearly as well
as she could, Or surgeon who cut out a
tumor with a slow. languid inexact hand,
Or teacher who regulated his own work
for his pupils by the accomplishment Of
the slow and dull teacher in the next room,
or the dairyman who kept his milk and
cream only as clean as his dirty neighbours
or the steersman who kept his vessel
somewhere near her course when the only
| safety lay in keeping her exactly on her
| course.
! Democracy knows that the main object
of being free is precisely the freedom to
do ones best and win ones best. to-day,
tomorrow, at home, abroad at work, at
play, alone, in society, in labor and in love-
Democracy knows that the only way to do
better tomorrow Is to do ones best to-day
and that doing better and being better
should be the fundamental object Of every
free mans life. That way lies increasing
usefulness and happiness as life goes on
That way lies public prosperity and hap
piness.
! Therefore democracy must profoundly
distrust the labor unions too frequent
| effort to restrict the efficiency and the
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