New Britain herald., 1915-09-08
A Gross Injustice to Organized Labor
 (New London DaV.o

Tn numerous instances through
 out the country Labor Day was made
 the occasion of attacks on what some
 labor leaders describe as militarism
 in the United States. Members of vari-
 ous organizations of workers are
 being urged to set their faces against any policy of national preparedness
 and to refuse to be jockeyed by the
 representatives of capitalism into sub-
 mission to military training or into
 any participation in measures for the
 safeguarding of the country against
 invasion or enSiavemcrt
 No effort will be made anywhere to
 prevent the propagation of this policy.
 The promoters of 1T orn secure in their
 right of free opinion and of free speech. They are made so by the
 spirit of the government that they do not believe in defending. No man will gainsay the right of any labor leader to any capitalist to argue to the best of his ability and to the limits of his strength against any policy of
 national security that may be sug- gested, Or to call that policy by any nar,e that may seem good to him. But it would be a rather trying sit uaticn for organized labor to find l Itself in, in case this country should l indeed be called on to defend itself, l if certain of labor's leaders were to have their way and the organized workers were at that time arrayed as a unit against all military activity. Organized labor would, in that event occupy the rather unenviable posi- tion of being the only distinctive ele- l ment in this country unwilling to do a mans part and perform a citizens duty by his country.
 If such an unhappy situation should ever arise it would not perhaps, be i the cause of great rational peril, be- oalIse there are yroba bly quite enough men in the United States outside the labor orga, izations to successfully de- | ford the county against any possible c,5l,1bination--at least to save it from ultimate conquest; because, after alL sorganized labor constitutes rather l a small minority of the able bodied male population. And, with an army composed exclusively of non-union- ists, if the peril should ever become so great as to make the service of | the unionists absolutely necessary. the machinery for conscription would ! be in unsympathetic hands and or l ganized labor would discover that it l is easier to draw up resolutions against nilitariem than it is to escape 1 the inevita ble militarism of war times. But the shame of the skulker would attach, none the less, to the name of orga nized labor; it would be stigmatized and finger pointed for a generation as the only class which, as a class, shirked it's duty in the
 moment of the countrys danger.
 For 1t is assumed that the leaders
 who denounce militarism today are
 prepared to denounce militarism if
 acute danger arises. Otherwies their
 position is miserably illogical. He
 who frowns on preparedness must
 frown on defense in the face of the
 enemy, for the only purpose Of pre-
 pardeness is defense and the only suc-
 ccssful defense must be through pre-
 pardness.
 Of course organized labor is not
 eoing to set itself against preparedness
 Its members will be, by the tens of
 thousands, in whatever system of
 military organization, is adopted or developed Nine out of ten-and
 better-trades unionists are Aneri- cans first and organized labor men afterward.
 Why, then, should organized labor permit itself to be so misrepresentcd tv blathcrskite orators on Labor day or any other day? Why should or ganized labor permit damagoghes to exploit it as an enemy of the National Guard, of the army and navy-cf every sane and proper measure of national defense? Organized labor is permitting a few Individuals to do it a gross injustice.