The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1915-09-10
VIGOR OF RANK AND FILE.
A Citizenship That Has Not Been
Weakened by Excessive Toll and Low
Working Conditions Can Stand the
Test of War When Occasion De-
mands-Unons Should Be Fostered.

Working Conditions Can Stand the
Test of War When Occasion De-
mands-Unions Should Be Fostered.
Now that mems minds are naturally
directed toward national preparedness
for self defense it is most fitting to
consider conditions which concern ma
tional health, vigor and development.
There come to all nations, whether
suddenly or with warning, those tests
which prove the spirit-the power Of
endurance of the people.
No nation can possess endurance
whose citizens bear the inevitable con-
sequences of sweatshop labor, long
workdays, low wages, insanitary con-
ditions. Physical health and vigor af-
feet progress along all other lines.
Those who toll with their hands con
stitute the rank and file of the citi-
zenship of nations. If they are I'M
derfed, partly clothed, physically stunt
ed, their condition is Il menace to the
nation, whether in peace or in war.
When the citizens deteriovate physical
ly the nation will decline. War may
reveal unsuspected weakness, but that
weakness will ma lifest itself under
conditions of peace, though somewhat
more slowly or, worse still, less observ
ably.
That nation whose industries exploit
human workers during times of peace
will be burdened by mass of un-
employable, discarded workers and in
times of war will find its existence
threatened because Of inability to pro-
duce supplies and because of dearth of
fit soldiers.
Those policies and those Institutions
which conserve human life and which
afford opportunities for the develop
ment of every citizen constitute the
greatest safeguard of the nation. The
citizens must be protected, but that
protection must come through their
own educated initiative. SO that the ma
ton shall consist of men and women
conscious of their own dignity and i'm
portance, aware OF their own powers
and intelligently following a course of
action to promote their best interests.
Individual initiative and resource
fulness are the most valuable qualities
of a nation. They must not be subor-
dinated to the outward forms of ma
tional welfare, but rather must they be
the ultimate ideals of all conservation
policies.
To realize these ideals the children
Of the nation must be assured the
right to be well born, to grow and to
play. Real educational opportunities
must be accessible for all and must
meet the needs Of ALL
When maturity is reached the indi-
yidual citizens must have the right to
voice in determining the conditions
under which they shall live and work,
and they must be assured the right to
organize, to express their wills in these
matters. This means that society and
all its agencies must put an end to
all tactics that obstruct the progress
and welfare of the workers instead of
outla wing or ostracizing labor organ
iZations or punishing efforts of wage
earners to participate in determining
conditions of work.
In wartime every nation expects
loyal support for its wage earners. 1t
expects organized cooperation in de-
Tense on the battlefield and in making
munitions Of war; it expects under
standing of the national interests and
needs. These things are equally nee
essary in time of peace and must be
developed in times Of peace They
cannot be called into existence sudden
Iu of orlyo
have long demanded that their phys
fcal well being and their labor power
should be conserved and that they
should be granted real freedom to or
ganize to make these demands effec-
tive, There is not a single nation that
has generously and unreservedly grant
ed these rights to the wage earners.
BY such policy every nation assumes
responsibility for national peril and
foregoes its right to full and free pa
triotic sacrifices from its citizens.
A nation which fails to stimulate
and TO develop qualities which work
for voluntary associated effort for the
common welfare condemns its citizens
to stultifying practices and effects of
compulsion. Preparedness in national
resources, whether for war or peace,
is secondary TO the development of ma
tionai characteristics which underlie
fundamental preparedness for life and
growth. There must be some strong
force dedicated to the cause of hui
manity that shall compel the incorpora-
tion OF these truths in national policy
there must be industrial and hui
manitarian craftsmanship as well as
political. Even now the great indus
trial interests are planning to protect
themselves in the convulsive shock
that win come at the end of the pres
ent European war, when present cur
rents of industry and commerce will
be suddenly changed.
The citizen wage earners Of our coun-
try will be in as great need of protec-
tton as industries and commerce.
Methods and policies must be devised
In advance. The wage earners are en-
titled to participate in determining
these matters which SO yitally concern
them, Federationist