The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-06

| and to solve it we need ample data. gath
 cred in a sane and scientific spirit In the
 course of an exhaustive investigation.
 In any great labor disturbance not only
 are employer and employe interested, but
 also third party-the general public.
 Every considerable labor difficulty in
 which interstate commerce Is involved
 should be investigated by the govern
 ment and the facts officially reported to
 the public.
 The question of securing a healthy. self respecting, and mutually sympathetic att titude as between employer and employee,
 capitalist and wage-worker, Is difficult
 once. All phases of the labor problem prove difficult when approached But the uilder- lying principles, the root principles, in
 accordance with which the problem must be solved are entirely simple We can get justice and right dealing only If we put as of paramount importance the prin- ciple of treating a man on his worth as n
 man rather than with reference to his social position, his occupation or the class to which he belongs. There are selfish and brutal men in all ranks of life. If they are capitalists their selfishness and brutality may take the form of hard indifference to suffering, greedy disregard
 of every moral restraint which interferes with the accumulation of wealth. and eold-blooded exploitation of the weak; or. If they are laborers, the form of laziness,
 of sullen envy of the more fortunate. and of willingness to perform deeds of mur- derous violence Such conduct Is just as reprehensible in one case in the | other, and all honest and farseeing men should join in warning against it wherever i, 1t becomes manifest. Individual capital- | ist and individual wage-worker, corpora | ton and union, are alike entitled to the protection of the law, and must alike obey the law. Moreover in addition to l xl.. ..It. tl.. l,x .oh he be really a good citizen, must show broad sympathy for his neighbor and i genuine desire to look at any question
 arising between them from the standpoint
 of that neighbor less than from his
 own; and to this end it is essential that 1 capitalist and wage-worker should con
 suit freely one with the other. should each strive to bring closer the day when i both shall realize that they are properly l partners and not enemies. To approach
 the questions which inevitably arise be-
 tween them solely from the standpoint
 which treats each side in the mass as | the enemy of the other side in the mass 1 is both wicked and folish. In the past the
 most direful among the influences which
 have brought about the downfall of re- publics has ever been the growth of the class spirit the growth of the spirit which l tends to make man subordinate the well l fare of the public as q whole to the wal l fare of the particular class to which he belongs, the substitution of loyalty to a i class for loyalty to the nation This in- evitaby brings about tendency to 1 treat each man not on his merits as an l individual, but on his position as belonging to a certain class in the community. If
 such spirit grows up in this republic | it will ultimately prove fatal to us, as in the past it has proved fatal to every com
 munity in which it has become dominant. | xyp n a an l lively sense of the great fundamental l truth that our concern is with the indi- | vidual worth of the individual man, this
 government can not permanently hold the 1 place which 1t has achieved among the
 nations. The vital lines of cleavage among 1 our people do not correspond, and indeed
 run at right angles to, the lines of cleav-
 age which divide occupation from occu-
 patton, which divide wage workers from
 capitalists, farmers from bankers, men of
 small means from men of large means,
 men who live in the towns from men who
 live in the country; for the vital line of | cleavage is the line which divides the
 honest who tries to do well by his
 neighbor from the dishonest man who
 does III by his neighbor. In other words.
 the standard we should establish is the
 standard of conduct, not the standard of
 occnpatoI, of means, or of social posi- | ton. 1t is the mans moral quality. his
 
 concern all humanity, his cleanliness of life. his power to do his duty toward him. self and toward others, which really count; and If We substitute for the stan
 dard of personal judgment which treats each man according to his merits. another standard in accordance with which all
 men of one class favored and all men
 of another class dlscriminated against. we
 shall do irreparable damage to the body polite. l believe that our people are too sane, too self-respecting too fit for self-government, ever to adopt such an attitude. This government is not and never shall be government by a pluto
 cracy. This government is not and never shall be governed by mob. It shall continue to be in the future what 1t has been in the past, a government based on the theory that each man, rich or poor.
 is to be treated simply and solely on his
 worth a man. that all his personal and property rights to be safeguarded.
 and that he is neither to wrong others nor to suffer wrong from others.
 The noblest of all forms of government is self-government; but 1t Is also the most
 difficult. We who possess this prceless boon, and who desire to hand 1t on to our children and our childrens children, should ever bear in mind the thought
 so finely expressed by Burke: Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact pro portion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites; In pro-
 portion as they are disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good in preference to the f1attery of knaves. So- ciety cannot exist unless controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of 1t there Do within the more there must be without. IL Is ordained in the eternal constitution or things that men of incorporate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their letters"
 Insurance.
 The great insurance companies anord striking examples of corporations whose business has extended so far beyond the turIsdiction of the states which created