The Washington herald., 1914-03-15
Il Can no More Recognize the
Fact That a Man Does or
Does Not Belong to a Union
Than | Can Recognize He
Is Jew or Gentle"

~ F course, in labor controversies it was moi
always possible to champion the cause
of the workers, because in many cases
strikes were called which were utterly unwar-
ranted and were fought by methods which can
not be too harshly condemned. No straightfor-
ward man can believe, and no fearless man will
assert, that trade union is always right That
man is an unworthy public servant who by
speech or silence, by direct statement or cow
ardly evasion, invariably throws the weight OF
his influence on the side of the trade union,
whether it is right or wrong. 1t has occasionally
been my duty TO give utterance to the feelings
of all right-thnking men by expressing the most
emphatic disapproval of unwise or even immoral
actions by representatives of labor. The man Is
no true democrat, and if an American, is un-
worthy of the traditions of his country, who, in
problems calling for the exercise of a moral
Judgment, fails to take his stand on conduct
and not on class. There are good and bad wage
workers, just as there are good and bad en-
ployers, and good and bad men of small means
and OF large means alike. y
But willingness to do equal and exact JUS
tice to all citizens, irrespective of race, creed,
section, or economic interest and position, does
not imply a failure to recognize the enormous
economic, political, and moral possibilities of the
trade union. Just as democratic government can
not be condemned because of errors and even
crimes committed by men democratically elected
so trade-unionism must not be condemned be-
cause of errors or crimes of occasional trade
union leaders. The problem lies deeper While
we must represS all illegalities and discourage
all immoralities whether of labor organizations
of corporations we must recognize the fact
that today the organization of labor into trade
unions and federations is necessary, is benehcent
and is one of the greatest possible agencies in
the attainment of true industrial as we'll as
true political democracy in the United States.
Service and Reward.
This is a fact which many we-intentioned
people even today do not understand. They do
not understand that the labor problem is hu-
man and moral as we'll as an economic prob
lem; that fall in wages, an increase in hours,
a deterioration of labor conditions, mean whole
sale moral we'll as economic degeneration,
and the needless sacrifice of human lives and hui
man happiness; while rise of wages, lessen
ing of hours, bettering of conditions, mean an
intellectual, moral, and social uplift of millions
of American men and women. There are en-
ployerS today who, like the great coal operators,
speak as though they were lords of these counta
less armies of Americans who toll in factory, in
shop, in mill, and in the dark places under the
earth They fail to see that all these men have
the right and the duty to combine to protect
themselves and their families from want and
degradation. They fail to see that the nation
and the government, within the range of fair
play and Just administration of the law, must
inevitably sympathize with the men who have
nothing but their wages, with the men who are
struggling for decent life, as opposed to men.
however honorable, who are merely fighting for
larger profits and an autocratic control of big
business. Each man should have all he earns,
whether by brain or body; and the director, the
great industrial leader, is one of the greatest
of earners and should have proportional re-
ward; but no man should live on the earnings
of another, and <iere should not be too gross
inequality between service and reward
We Can't Go Back Half Century.
There are many men to-day, men of intes-
rity and intelligence, who honestly believe that
we must GO back to the labor conditions of half
century ago. They are opposed to trade
unions, root and branch. They note the unworthy
conduct of many labor leaders; they find in
stances of bad work by union men, of a volun-
tary restriction of output of vexatious and vio-
lent strikes, of jurisdictional disputes between
unions, which often disastrously involve the best
intentioned and fairest of employers. All these
things occur and should be repressed But the
same critic of the trade union might find equal
cause of complaint against individual employers