The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-12-04

ing great damage TO business interests
and serious inconvenience to the gen
eral public. Appeals were made to me
from many parts of the country, from
city councils, from boards of trade,
from chambers of commerce, and from
labor organizations. urging that steps
be taken to terminate the strike.
Everything that could with any pro-
priety be done by representative of
the government was done without avail.
and for weeks the public stood by and
suffered without recourse of any kind.
Had the machinery existed and had
there been authority for compulsory
investigation of the dispute, the public
would have been placed in possession
of the merits of the controversy and
public opinion would probably have
brought about prompt adjustment.
Each successive step creating ma
chinery for the adjustment of labor
difficulties must be taken with caution,
but we should endeavor to make prog
ress in this direction
The provisions of the act of 1898 Gre
ating the chairman of the interstate
commerce commission and the commits
sioner of labor a board of mediation in
controversies between interstate rail-
roads and their employees has, for the
first time. been subjected to serious
tests within the past year. and the wis
dom of the experiment has been fully
demonstrated. The creation of board
for compulsory investigation of cases
where mediation fails and arbitration
is rejected is the next logical step in a
progressive program.
Calls Attention to Problems
of Capital and Labor.
1t is certain that for some time to
come there will be a constant increase
absolutely and perhaps relatively. of
those among our citizens who dwell in
cities or towns of some size and who
work for wages. This means that
there will be an ever-increasing need
to consider the problems insepara BILE
from a great industrial civilization.
Where an immense and complex BUSH
ness, especially in those branches re-
lating to manufacture and transporta-
ton, is transacted by a large number of
capitalists who employ very much
larger number of wage earners, the
former tend more and more to combine
into corporations and the latter into
unions. The relations of the capitalist
and wage worker to one another, and
of each to the general public, are not
always easy to adjust; and to put them
and keep them on satisfactory basis
is one of the most important and one
of the most delicate tasks before our
whole civilization. Much of the work
for the accomplishment of this end
must be done by the individuals con-
cerned themselves, whether singly or
| in combina ton; and the one fundamen-
tai fact that must never be lost track
of is that the character of the average
man. whether he be man of means or
a man who works with his hands is
the most important factor in solving
the problem Alright. But it is almost
equally important to remember that
without good laws it is also impossi.
BILE to reach the proper solution 1t is
| idle to hold that without good laws
| evils such as child labor. as the over
working of women, as the failure to
protect employees from loss of life or
! limb. can be effectively reached, any
more than the evils of rebates and
stock watering can be reached without
good laws. To fail to stop these prac-
tees by legislation means to force
honest men into them. because other
wise the dishonest who surely will
take advantage of them will have
everything their own way. If the states
will correct these evils. we'll and good;
but the nation must stand ready to aid
them.
Question of Child Labor
Most Important One.
No question growing out of our rapid
and complex industrial development is
! more important than that of the employ
ment of women and children. The pres
ence of women in industry reacts with
extreme directness upon the character
of the home and upon family life, and
the conditions surrounding the employ
ment of children bear vital relation to
our future citizenship. Our legislation in
those areas under the control of the
congress is very much behind the leg
iSlation of our more progressive states.
thorough and comprehensive measure
should be adopted at this session of the
congress relating to the employment of
women and children in the District of
Columbia and the territories. The inves-
tigation into the condition of women and
children wage-earners recently authorized
and directed by the congress is now being
carried on in the various states, and l
recommend that the appropriation made
last year for beginning this work be re-
newed. in order that we may have the
thorough and comprehensive investiga-
ton which the subject demands. The ma
tional government has as an ultimate re-
sort for control of child labor the use
of the interstate commerce clause to pre-
vent the products of child labor from en-
tering into interstate commerce. But
before using this it ought certainly to
enact model laws on the subject for the
territories under it's own immediate con-
troll.
There is one fundamental proposition
which can be laid down regards all
these matters, namely: While honesty
by itself will not solve the problem, yet
the insstence upon honesty-not merely
technical honesty, but honesty in pur-
pose and Spirits an essential element
in arriving at right conclusion. Vice
in its cruder and more archaic forms
shocks everybody; but there is very ur-
gent need that public opinion should be
just as severe in condemnation of the
vice which hides itself behind class or
professional loyalty, or which denies that
1t is vice If it can escape conviction in
the courts. The public and the repre-
sentatives of the public, the high off,
Gals whether on the bench or in eXecu-
tive or legislative positions, need to re-
member that often the most dangerous
criminals, so far as the life of the nation
is concerned, those who commit the
crimes known to and condemned by the
popular conscience for centuries but
| those who commit crimes only rendered
possible by the complex conditions of our
modern industrial life. 1t makes not a
particle of difference whether these
crimes are committed by a capitalist or
by laborer, by a leading banker or
manufacturer or railroad man.. or by a