The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1912-01-06
"CAPITAL VERSUS LABOR.

Under the above head. the Banner
this morning tried to answer the stars
argument in the Mcnamara case by
rigging up list of suppositious cases
about In the same way a little girl
would dress her dolls, and bearing
about the same relation to the matter
at issue that doll would to a human
being
The Star doesn't believe in arguing
from the actions of suppositious peo-
pie. 1t is not any more convincing
than making man of straw and
knocking him to pieces again. Since
the Banner wishes to suppose, how
ever, the Star for once will suppose
with 1t.
II the editor of the Banner hires
cheap john contractor 30 put up
fimsy building and then rents it for
theater; if fire breaks out while the
theater is crowded and scores or hum
dreds of his neighbors and friends,
perhaps some of his own children, are
burned or trampIed TO death, then the
editor of the Banner and the contrac-
tor deserve to be sent TO the peniten-
tiary or hung.
If the editor of the Banner buys an
out of date steamer, and. knowing it
is unsafe, and not adequately provid-
ed with life saving apparatus, allows
it to be run on occasions where it is
sure to be crowded with women and
children, and 1t sinks or is burned, with
many board, then is the editor of
the Banner morally and should be
legally, guilty Of murder.
The Star declines to draw McIver &
MacKay or Mrs Smith into the argd-
ment. They have not done anything
1t. L, rs,.re
atonemert.
The Star is not going to argue any
thing from the standpoint of capital
versus labor" 1t doesn't believe in
the versus. Each is necessary to the
other; capital can't exist without Ia
Dor; labor cannot exist comforta bly,
and intelligently without capital. Be
side, in the broad sense that a news
paper should treat such questions,
capital and labor are not classes. They
extend from the foundations of society
to its apex The man who gives a
darkey a nickel to shine his shoes rep
resents capital in his degree as the
corporation that gives contractor a
million dollars to build a railroad. We
all. depend on each other and owe duty
to each other The very poor only
may be crushed to death in the mines
or contract the white plague in the
sweatshops but it is the comparative
" well-to-do who lose their lives in
the fire-trap hotels and theaters and
when deficient equipment hurls the
train off the rails
Labor owes it's duty to capital: cap
ital owes it's duty to labor; both owe
duty to all humanity with which they
are inextricably mingled. Capita
always owes to the weaker, that labor
shall have fair wages, proper tools
safe appliances and sanitary surround
fngs. When it does not furnish these, il
fails in its duty not only to labor, bu
to all society. Labor owes to capita
that it shall earn it's wages, and with
capital it owes duty to society that il
shall safeguard its life and property
But the miner, the railroad man, the
sailor. the employe of hotel Or theater
is seldom careless. His life, as we'll a:
his employers property, and the live:
of those entrusted to him. depends or
his care How seldom he fails. w.
could all bear witness to if we would
stop to think.
The McNamaras, who by the way
did not confess to having made a bus
mess of wholesale murder and arson
represented class or much m1Stake1
men who believe in making war OF
capital because it is capital. 1t cal
at least be said for them that when
ever they committed an outrage the,
knew that they perilled their own lib
erty lives by so doing No sucl
virtue belongs to the men who ow,
unsafe mines, f1retrap buildings. rottel
tenements and leaky ships, and pa.
starvation wages They are nv
enas of humanity and the Mcnamara
are only the wolves, and civilization
will never be secure until it eliminate