South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1915-08-28


prisoning, assaulting ana killing their
leaders.
Elaborate spy systems are being
maintained TO discover and fOrestall
the movements OF the enemy. The
use of state troops and policing
strikes has bred as bitter hostility 10
the militia system among numbers of
labor organizations and states have
been unable To enlist wage earners
for this second line for the nation S
defense. Courts. legislatures and gov
errors have been rightfully accused
of serving employers and their agents,
with almost negligible exceptions, il
is the wage earners who believe, as
sert and prove that the very institu-
tons of their country have been per-
verted by the power of the employer
Prison records for labor leaders have
become badges OF honor in the eyes
Of many of their people. and great
mass meetings throughout the nation
cheer denunciations of courts and
court decisions.
Wages Are Too Small
Now. more than ever, the profits
of great industries under centralized
control pour into the Golfers Of stock
holders and directors who never have
so much as visited the plant, and who
perform no service in return. And
vast inherited fortunes, representing
more in social service to the credit of
their possessors, automatically treble
and multiply in volume, one-third OF
these who toll from eight to Il hours
a day receive less than enough to sup
port themselves and their families in
decency and comfort
From childhood to the grave they
dwell in the shadow of fear that
their only resOrt-their opportunity
TO tOil-shall be taken away from
them through accident, illness. cap
rice of foreman. or the fortune of in
dustry. The life of their babies is
snuffed out by bad air and cheap
lodgings. and the lack of nOuriShment
and care which they cannot buy.
Fathers and husbands die or are
manned in accidents, and their fam
lilies receive a pittance. or succumb in
mid-life and they receive nothing.
And when those unfOrtunates seek,
by the only means within reach TO
better their lot by organizing TO lift
themselves from helplessness to some
measure of collective power, with
which 10 wiring living wages from
their employers. they find too often
arranged against them not only the
massed power oil capital, but every
arm of the government that was
erected to enforce guarantees of equal
ity and justice.
Followed Natural Bent.
THE social responsibility for these
unfortunate conditions may be fixed
with reasonable certainty The re-
spOnsibility, and such blame as at
tached thereto. cannot be held to rest
upon employers, since in the main
tenance of the evil of low wages, long
hours and bad factory conditions. and
in their attempts To gain control of
economic and political advantages
which would promote their interests,
they have merely followed the ma
tural bent of men involved in the
struggle of competitive industry
The responsibility for the condi-
tons which have been described
above, we declare rests primarily up
on the workers who blind to their
collective strength and oftentimes
deaf TO the cries of their followers
have suffered exploitation and the in
VasiOn of their most sacred rights
without resistance
"A large measure of responsibility
must however. attach to the great
mass of citizens who, though not di-
rectly involved in the struggle with
capital and labor have failed to real
lie that their own prosperity was
dependent upon the welfare of all
classes of the community. and that
their rights were bound up with the
rights of every other individual But
until the workers themselves realize
their responsibility and utilize TO the
full their collective power. no action
whether governmental or altruistic.
can work any genuine and lasting inn
prOVamapr