The Sentinel=record., 1915-04-29
COMMISSIONER PAGE TELLS COM. MERcIAL CONGRESS HOW THE
 STATE CAN STAND ALONE.
POINTS TO ADVANTAGES
Relation Of the Wage-earner to the
 Employer is Discussed at Length by Louis E. Post of the Department of Labor of United States Government.

Muskogee, Okla, April 2S.-Wage. eanenrs and the legitimate employ CTS of the United States should not look upon each other as masters and servants, but as fellow workingmen. according to the beliefs of Louis F.. Post, assistant secretary of the De- partment of Labor, expressed before the Southern Commercial Congress here tonight.
 MT Post spoke for William B. Wil- son, secretary of the department, who was unable to attend.
 Tt is only as the wage-earner or the employer seems to the other to be trying to drive a hard bargain that their mutual interests part Post continued Even this probably would not make war between them if the element of monopoly did not enter into their relationships as destruc- lively as a wooden shoe wantonly thrown into deicate machinery. The wage-earners' interest is as truly commercial as that of his employer If you eliminate wage-eaning inter ests dividends disappear and the com mercial system crumbles"
 Mir. Post pointed ont that if you burden wage earning interests you cripple production, lessen consump- ton and check commercial develop, meut, and as a result business could not be done safely or profitably.
 You must see to it." he asserted, that wage-earners are recognized as human partners in production. That is the attitude of the department of labor under the present secretary. It's function is to promote the wage-earn- ing interests. but wage-earning inter- ests cannot be promoted by Obstruct- ing legitimate commercial enterprise, any more than legitimate commercial enterprise can be promoted by stTang- ling wage-earning interests. As wage earner and employer are partners in production, their shares in distribu- tion must be auportioned with fair ness to both"
 The speaker maintained that too
 
 importance of the wage-earning inter- ests, saying that more than one-haff the population of the United States is directly dependent upon wage earning work
 'The wage-earners of the country number more than one-third of the whole population" he said. "Of chill dren from 10 to 16 years of age there are at least one-half a million em- ployed, not counting those in agricul- tural work, who number a million more"
 MT Post described the work of the department, dwelling particularly on the recently established system of labor distribution, carried on In con, junction with the postoffice depart ment. He showed that although the plan has been in full operation less than two months, remarkable results already nave been achieved
 The south is living out of tin cans, according to E. J. Watson, commits sioner of agriculture, drainage and marketing, of South Carolina. Mir. Watson decried the tendency of southerners to buy canned milks and canned foods when they can raise the fresh materials at home.
 Speaking of the European war, MT. Watson, who is president of the Ma tional Drainage Congress and presi- dent of the Southern Cotton Con. gress, said:
 T thank God for the European war. so far as the south is concerned IL took just such crisis as We have had 10 make us fool southerners wake up to the advantages of crop diversifica- tion. For years we had been mining the soil and not subduing it and re. plenishing it as we were told to do by the Bible. My only regret that the awakening had to come at the cost of so many lives"
 Mir Watson said that a commercial fertilizer is patent medicine that gives no permanent relief asserting that 'the soi, of the south has been toniced mt d can't be toniced any more.' He urged southern farmers to plant ritrogeaous plants that will at once build up the soil and provide an excellent forage crop for live stock raising"
 Small far@t 4[ the greatest oO