The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-07-06

q district court to issue an Injunction
restraining the drum-head court The
drum-head court. consisting Of appointees
Of certain corporations. went to Charles
ton and induced the Judge to withdraw
the Injunction. Had he made 1t per-
manent instead. he would have been max.
ing history: but he did not. He missed
the chance of being one Of the greatest
figures on the bench.
. Then nifty OF US were tried by the
drum-head court I was held In the mill
tary prison, called the bull pon. three
months less five days. Others were de-
tanned three months and two weeks. We
didn't suffer much: was never really
uncomfortable. But who gained any
thing?
That's the point I'm trying to make
/ an not railing against my imprison-
ment. but against the ipefhciency Of the
! system which so Silly Imagined that to
keep me there could do anybody any
good. It accomplished absolutely moth
ing toward the solution Of the trouble.
ITO try to do that in that way was like
an effort by q doctor who gives you q
little morphine. when you ache. SO that
you won't feel the pain. The govern
ment of West Virginia gave a little NOR
phine to the Industrial situation. It did
nothing toward the removal Of the cause
Of the disorder which had brought about
the ache.
West virginia Conditions.
"west Virginia shows the survival OF
conditions which existed elsewhere in
the dark Industrial ages Of thirty years
ago. 1t is very likely lucky for the
country that was locked up and that
the others were locked up.
1T offered to the nation an object les
son of what most regions have grown
out of. and perhaps thus stimulated
thought which may take all OF US a
little further toward enlightenment The
next twenty years will carry US along
q constantly ascending path into condi-
lions even more conspicuously better
than those which rule today, than the
West Virginia conditions are now worse
than those which rule elsewhere.
THE people of this country must learn
to choose their leaders-poiitical. indus
trial, and social-not because they are
good fellows. but because they are in
telligent students OF great questions. No
job is too small to put thinker into.
The voters at labor union elections and
corporate elections of directors. as well
as voters at the polls in city. county.
State. and national elections. must try
to find men who understand. There are
they get into the offices we will begin to
hurry on the upward path. Politics.
economics, and sociology should link
arms.
They are going TO. Ten or ffteen
years ago, when some one spoke OF the
recall Of Judges. the entire nation rose
In arms. Today II il a common issue,
and in some States II is a fact. II Will
presently be fact in others, and then
will follow other great advances as SEN
sational. as bitterly opposed at first and
as generally adopted after they have
been thrashed out and perfected
Mauv Mine Owners Not Bad.
The Stock Exchange investigation
failed, but it set a lot Of people think
ing right, and among them I've no doubt
were many members Of the Stock Ex-
change Agitation pays
Il am in no more sympathy with dyna-
mite in the hands Of labor leaders than
am with embezzlement as a practice
among financiers. The capitalist who
robs a bank 10 no worse than the labor
agitator who blows up a mill.
There are mine owners in West Vir-
ginia against whom we've been lighting,
but who are not bad men. They're the
victims of the circumstance that they
are in an ill-developed industrial group
There are also bad mine owners-very
bad ones
There are workers. there. who are
innocent victims of the system which
obtains. industrious men. anxious 20 be
law-abiding and peace-loving- Don't
suppose that many Of those men down
there hate turbulence? The average hui
man being only wants a quiet home. a
well-fed. comfortable family. so situated
that its happiness is possible. There are
also vicious workers
Neither side has a monopoly. either
Of vice or virtue. What is the use OF
shouting: They are perfect" about any
body? The good men on both sides are
clash will come that working of the yeast
which so fascinated the outrageous hero
of Jack London's Sea Wolf and human
ity will feel the thrusting of its steady
rise.
Not . saHragist.
Il am not a suffragist. In no sense of
the word am 1 in sympathy with wom-
an suffrage. In a long life of study of
these questions have learned that wom-
en- are out of place in political work.
There already Is a great responsibility
upon women's shoulders-that Of rearing
rising generations.
1T has been in part their sad neglect
of motherhood which has filled reform
schools and which keeps the Juvenile
courts busy. If women had been really
industrious in their natural field they
might have warded OF some horrors of
the time. They can begin now to be
more useful than they have been by
studying these economic problems and
helping toward Industrial peace.
The average working woman Is UNFIT
ted for the ballot. She will rarely Join
an organization Of the industry she
works in. Give her the vote and she'll
neglect It. Home training Of the child
should be her task, and 1t is the most
beautiful Of tasks. Solve the industrial
problem and the men will earn enough
30 that women can remain at home and
learn it.
shall have. when strikes come. better
strikers: and we shall also have far bet
ter men for them to deal with. The rich
neglect their sons as the poor do. In
the prison Enclosure recently saw an
old man going to the well each day for
water. Behind marched a bayonetted
militiaman. He was a weak and inof
fensive old man; he was a strong young
guardsman.
Human Animal Neglected.
'I asked the young man what the old
man had been arrested for. 1t transpired
that he had failed to pay a fine Of $40.
He had not had the money. His Of
Tense had been not really criminal, but
ethical He has jeered at the militia.
Il asked the young man what he
thought his mother (who was dead
would think If she could look at him as