Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-05-23
Secretary Redfield Stands Up for His
Ideal.

Representative Underwood consider
ably disturbed the peace of certain in
terests and aroused their journalistic
representatives when he announcer
that threats to reduce wages as an ar
gument against the tariff bill now in
process or their reduction after the
new tariff goes into effect would lead
the government to investigate labor
and wage conditions in the shops from
whose owners the threat comes. The
perturbation becomes intense whei
Secretary Redfield reasserts the de-
sign to dig deep into the situation II
provoked to do so and fills in the dc
tails of the way in which the informa-
ton will be sought. Of course. Too
long has been the resort to this threat
been habit. too long has the reduc
ton of wages been the first and pos
sibly the only step to recoup dimin
ished profits, for the proposed removal
of the processes to be regarded witt
enthusiastic favor. 1t falls into its
place as the last development of that
interference with business which is
declared to be the certain undoing Of
all that managerial skill and capital
istic enterprise have constructed. The
disturbance is not surprising; it re-
mains to inquire if it is warranted.
The secretary's warning was pro
voked by the announcement of the
National Association of Employing
photographers as to tariff reductions,
which he read back to them as his
text, thus: This means workmen
thrown out of jobs. 1t means that
wages must go down in order to com
pete. 1t may mean longer hours than
forty-eight hours week. Was II
careless of the association that had
just uttered this familiar cry to invite
to its dinner the new secretary of com.
merce? Did it forget he was the auth
of The New Industrial Day." the
exponent Of the right of every sharer
in industrial enterprise to fair place
in the producing force and to a degree
of efficiency that would make his labor
count for the greatest benefit? From
Mr. Redfield was heard only direct
application of the faith as to industrial
justice which he has espoused in all his
recent utterances. And it is due to be
said that the situation was ideal for
the application.
BY this new inquiry the national
government will indeed be regarded as
an intruder. 1t is already assured thar
it plans an unwarranted interference
with business. The reply to the ap-
prehensive objection is obvious. 1t is
that the purpose of the government,
declared by the secretary, is no longer
extraordinary, that it is not the tactics
of the partisan defenders Of any par
ticular tariff measure, that it aims at
the construction Of the highest effici
ency in business to the advantage OF
both the employer and the employed.
and that, above all, the relations of
employer and employed have come to
include as an essential party the public
that both are held to serve. Mr.. Red.
field said it in his speech to the 18th.
ographers thus:
The greatest interest in our man.
ufactures is that of the people.
without whose purchases the fac
tories would close. They have
more at stake than anyone else.
and they are beginning to have
very clear ideas respecting their
interest in our factories and how
to look after it. It is chiefly they
who refuse to admit any longer
that the head of a great business
concern can do as he will with
what he is pleased to call his prop.
erty. 1t is they who insist upon
the treatment Of the operatives
as men and women, and not as
machines.
Opposition to the application Of the
governments inquiry with such a pur.
pose may be excited and vociferous
but it somehow fails to justify itself
to reason.-Christian Science Monitor.