Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1906-12-04
SANTA FE, N M, TUESDAY, DECEMBER T. 1906.

| DoSA'
corporations and trades unions, there
Is one matter more important to re-
member than 'aught else, and that is
the infinite harm done by preachers
of mere discomfort. These are the
men who seek to excite violent class
hatred against all men Of wealth
They seek to turn wise and proper
movements for the better control OF
corporations and for doing away with
the abuses connected with wealth, In
to campaign of hysterical excite
ment and falsehood in which the aim
Is to infame to madness the brutal
passions of mankind. The sinister
demagogs and foolish vsionaries who
are always eager to undertake such
a campaign of destruction sometimes
seek to associate themselves with
those working for genuine reform
in governmental and social methods,
and sometimes masquerade as such
refcrmers. In reality they are the
worst enemies of the cause they pro-
fess to advocate, just as the purvey-
ors of sensational sIlander in newspa-
per or magazine are the worst ene-
mics of all men who are engaged in
an honest effort to better what is
bad In our social and governmental
conditions. To preach hatred of the
rich man as such, to carry on a cam
paign of SANDER and invective
against him. to seek to mislead and
infame to madness honest men whose
lives are hard and who have not the
Kind of mental training which will
permit them to appreciate the danger
in the doctrines preached-all this is
to commit crime against the body
polite and to be false to every wor-
thy principle and tradition Of Ameri-
can national life. Moreover, while
such preaching and such agitation
may give livelihood and certain
notoriety to some of those who take
part in 1t, and may result in the tem-
porary political success of others, in
the long run every such movement
will either fail or else will provoke
violent reaction, which will itself re-
suit not merely in undoing the mis-
chief wrought by the demagog and
the agitator, but also In undoing the
good that the honest reformer, the
true upholder of popular rights, has
painfully and laboriously achieved.
Corruption is never so rife as in COM
munities where the demagog and the
agitator bear full sway, because in
such communities all moral bands
become oosened, and hysteria and
sensationalism replace the spirit of
sound judgment and fair dealing as
between man and man. In sheer re.
volt against the squalid anarchy thus
produced men are sure in the end to
turn toward any leader who can re-
store order and then their relief at
being free from the intolerable bur-
dens os, class hatred, violence, and
demagogy is such that they can not
for some time be aroused to indigna.
tion against misdeeds by men OF
wealth; so that they permit a new
growth ofSthe very abuses which
were in part responsible for the origi.
nal outbreak. The one hope for sue
cess for our people lies in resolute
and fearless, but sane and cool-head-
ed, advance along the path marked
out last year by this very Congress.
Railroad Employees Hours and Eight
Hour Law.
l call your attention to the need of
passing the bill limiting the number
of hours of employment of railroad
employees. The measure is very
moderate one and | can conceive of
no serious objection to it. Indeed so
far as it is In our power, it should be
our aim steadily to reduce the num-
ber of hours OF labor with as a goal
the general introduction Of an eight
hour day. There are industries in
which it is not possible that the
hours of labor should be reduced;
just as there are communities not far
enough advanced for such a move
ment to be for their good, or, If in the
Tropics, SO situated that there is no
analogy between their needs and ours
in this matter. On the Isthmus of
Panama, for instance, the conditions
are in every way so different from
what they are here that an eight hour
day would be absurd; just as 1t is
absurd, so far as the Isthmus is con-
cerned, where white labor can not be
employed, to bother as to whether
the necessary work is done by alien
black men or by alien yellow men.
But the wage workers of the United
States are of so high a grade that
alike from the merely industrial
standpoint and from the civic stand
point it should be our object to do
what we can in the direction OF secur-
ing the general observance of an
eight hour day. Until recently the
eight hour law on our federal statute
books has been very scantily OBJ.
served. Now, however, largely |.
through the instrumentality of the
Bureau of Labor, it is being rigidly
enforced and shall speedily be able
10 say whether or not there is need
of further legislation in reference
thereto; for our purpose is to see it
cbeyed in spirit no less than in let.
ter. Half holidays during summer
should be established for government
employees; 1t is as desirable for wage
workers who toll with their hands as
for salariel officials whose labor is
mental that there should be reason.
able amount of holiday.
Labor Of Women and Children.
The Congress at Its last session