Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-02-12
BY LINCOLN sTEFFENs.

he advances.
BY LINCOLN STEFFENS.
These articles are leading up to criti-
cism OF labor, which may look to a blind
partisan, like an exposure And it is
necessary to say this now. in advance,
because so much has been made both by
my editors and myself, Of my hope to
present labor's point of view. Not mine.
My point Of view is not that of labor.
Nor Is it the business mans. nor the
politicians. I am not a partisan, and
never have been, either in politics or
finance. I have tried as a reporter to
keep in mind always the common inter-
est Of society as a whole and to see in
politics and in business what made for
and against the common, human good
So now in labor. I am for those acts and
tendencies which seem to make for the
good Of humanity; not Of the working
people only Chats the narrow labor
view, but Of all the people. And / am
against all that labor does which seems
to hurt society; not business CHATS the
narrow business view, but the human
community as whole.
For example: The reasoning Of part
Of labor that efficiency would increase
the profits of the employer more than the
wages of the workers, therefore-shmp,
seems to me to be not only false, out
fundamentally wrong. II Is anti-social
Even If the premises we've true and the
argument sound; even II sklmping did
reduce profits and came not at all out OF
the wage-worker and the consumer; even
then 1t would be wrong, from the social
point of view. Anything that hindered
or set back the development of efficiency
in the workers would be bad. because
labor is so large a part of society that
spirit of skmping or habits or lnemclency
might tehd to produce loose, weak So
ciety, an ineffective breed of men, a care
less, skimping race.
Reason for Wanting More.
SO with questions Of wages. hours and
the other conditions Of work, and the
methods Of improving them. Labor
wants higher wages, as We have seen,
primarily, for the same reason that most
men want more Of anything-simply to
have more and more and more. Capital.
so to speak, opposes this want of labor,
instinctively and FOR practically the same
reason-because capital wants more ana
more and more, and. so fearing that II
labor got more wages capital would get
less profits, the employer and the employe
clash and are Forever fighting somewhere.
1t is their fighting which at present in
terests the public; a strike Is an lncon-
venience and a disturbance Of the peace
But that isn't the reason we outsiders
should take the part We do take in the
conflict between capital and labor. May
be fighting is good. Any one who, like
Col. Roosevelt, believes that peace. except
in the fighting attitude of preparedness,
tends to produce a race Of mollycoddles,
and that war is form of murder that is
not murder, but manly exercise-an the
colonies should applaud strikes, mobs and
all such disturbances of the peace. They
tend to democratize fighting, to spread
develop "the man behind the'-colonel.
This may be right. I don't think so.
but it's too early in our inquiry to come
out against anybody or anything, even
the soldiers and the war policy of direct
action. We want to know what we want
first. We should have some sense Of
what society is or might be driving at.
And, since society is all Of us, 1t should
be for the welfare of all men, women and
children-the race.
How the View Changes.
That's the social point Of view. Take
it for moment. and see how. as from
a mountain top. the view changes. The
importance of labor's effort to get higher,
ever higher. wages becomes obvious. You
see that the wage-workers are very
large part Of society, and that the future
OF the race depends in startling measure
upon the men, women and children that
work in the mills, mines and shops. Busi-
ness is important, too. 1t is not, as bust
ness men SO commonly think of tit Is
not an end in itself. It is a means to an
end. And that end is not profits alone:
profits are only the wages paid to the
leaders Of society who carry on business
for us. In other words, business is not
merely business.
Business is the machinery which pro-
duces, prepares for our use and distributes
the things society needs to live, And
that's why business should be kept going
industriously. efficiently, at peace. And
that's one reason why strikes and fight
ing, skinlping and ineff1ciency are bad
from the social point Of view. Not be-
cause these things annoy or hurt or help
the capitalist and the employer. but be-
cause they injure society. which. repeat,
is all men and all women and all chill
dren.
Why Low Wages Are Bad.
And that's why low wages are bad. and
long hours. and imperfect sanitation, and
child labor and-all the other evils Of
Industrial labor. Not because these evils
hurt labor: not because some working
men hunger and some women starve; not
| ~ ;~ye i%,,fa ND