The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1915-02-01
us. SHOULD own
RAW MATERIALS
AND RAILROADS
Such a Program Is Only Practi.
cal Labor Panacea, Declares
Reformer
PRESS CALLED
UNFAIR TO WORKERS
Afternoon Papers With New,
More Progressive Service, Give
Both Sides Just Due
BY JOHN EDWIN NEVIN.

BY JOHN EDWIN NEVIN.
(Stdd Correspondent United Press.)
NEW YORK, Jan. 3O.-Government
Ownership OF raw material and trans.
portation IL needed to provide Jobs
for the jobless, In the opinion OF. Amos
Ptnchot. lawyer and reformer. He 90
told the federal Industrial relations
commission today. Pinchot took sharp
issue with the men who have approx.
ed the unlimited power of the various
charitable foundations and educational
boards. And he charged directly that
they are menace. as they poisoned
education at the source.
Pinchot and John r.. Lawson, of
the United Mine workers. were to-
days only witnesses. Lawson painted
trial war In Colorado He renewed
the allegation that the coal operators
control the state and local govern
ments there and quietly admitted that
30 far as his state At present was
concerned, democracy was a failure.
Pinchot advocated government own
ership Of railroads and government
lownership Of natural resources with
o leasing system az the panacea for
Industrial unrest. This was neces-
sary. he said. in order to make trans
portation and the raw materials which
are the basis of industry, accessible
to all competitive industry on equal
terms. He also explained to the CON-
mission that he Is not Socialist
and holds neither with the monopol-
lists nor the Socialists who advocate
the elimination of competition In in
dustry. His position was that COM
petition was essential In everything
but the raw material and Transports
tion.
One of the elements which makes
for trouble in Pinchot's opinion was
the inability of labor generally to get
It's side of controversies fully and
fairly treated In the public press. In
this connection he urged the connie
sion to investigate the general hand
ling Of news by press asso, iations.
In this connection Pinchot cited
what he termed concrete examples of
favoring the mine owners against the
workers, and OF distorted facts In con-
|nection with the West Virginia and
upper Michigan strikes.
|nIshino associations-the United rress
and the Associated Press," he said.
sThe Associated Press sells news
chIefy to morning papers, and the
United Press TO evening papers. The
United Press 10 conducted by group
Of younger men who have broader
altitude toward industrial questions,
and who usually give fair treatment
20 both sides In their reports Of con-
filcts between capital and labor. sut
the Associated Press, under older and
more conservative management, takes
afsirmatIveiy the eide az capital"
Pinchot warmly endorsed the labor
unions and the principle Of collective
bargaining. Denial of the right to or
ganize by the Steel corporation and
the Colorado Fuel & Iron Co., and
similar corporations, he denounced as
"feudal and barbarous."
"Our great corporations are taking
away every right from labor except
the right to work ut . wage hardly
large enough to supply physical ef-
ficiency," said Pinchot. In the sys-
tenn OF golden rule absolutism, OF
which 30 many advocates have ap.
peared before your commission, com
plete controls control touching the
most vital thing In mans life. and
fixing the conditions In which he must
work and live and try to support HIS
family--is assumed by the employer.
Such a system IL unjust and imprac.
ticable.
The golden rule policy was a. ap
plicable to slavery as solution as II
II To the absolutism In Industrial con.
ditions which exist today. Moreover,
when disputes arise ~ we have seen
in Colorado, In Homestead, Pa, IN
Calumet. Mich. in Paint Greek. in
Lawrence, In Paterson. In Roosevelt
N. J.. and q dozen other strike points,
that golden rule has been hung up In
the closet and the Winchester repeat
or loaded with buckshot has been TAX
en- out in Its stead. The most sincere
advocates Of the golden rule are alb
sentee landlords who leave the run
ming Of their plants to managers who
know they can only hold their Jobs
80 long 40 they turn up an amount
Of profit satisfactory to the owners
Pinchot referred to John d. Rookie
Teller. Jr.'s. testimony ~ proving this
fact. The fatalities accompanying the
strike At Roosevelt, N. J., he cited a
another example. He declared thai
so far a. the Colorado Fuel q
Iron Co. was concerned, IL earned
and carried forward as q surplus 81,
500. 900. $780, 900, 31.800,O and 81.
zoe, 900 from 1910 to 1918. This mon
ey. he said. actually was available fol
dividends.
The cause Of Industrial unrest IL
the fact that there are more men than
there are Jobs all the time. and In
hard times often q dozen men foI
each Job. We must develop industry
until there are more jobs than there
are men. Men today bid against each
other for jobs. Today In this coun
try condition Of restriction exists
which limits industry and therefors
limits the amount Of labor which Il
used In industry. Last year the leg
islative assembly of New Jersey made
q report which stated that 81 per cent
Of all the anthracite coal OF the Unit
ed States was owned or controlled BY
combination Of IL railroads, IN
which the Philadelphia 4 Reading
alone controlled SO per cent Of all the
unmfhed coal. This cornering Of the
anthracite coal deposits. which are Z
basis of both industry and labor, pro
duces a condition OF restriction IN
Industry and labor. The fact that this
~~<~ttatt~ srour, r<,uf role h<>fh A.