St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-12-29

gun is the man behind the machine
that makes the gun and makes the
ammunition for the gun. No nation
is stronger than it's Industrial body
And there is Britain's Weakness
weakness more appalling than the
slowness of recruiting for the army.
Lloyd George has hit the nail on the
head.-Boston Record.
Winston Churchill on the New Spirit
in American Life.
There is a new spirit in the univer.
sites, a healthier and sounder public
opinion than existed at the end of the
nineteenth century; a new interest in
and knowledge of government and en-
thusiasm for democracy, with desire
to share it's tasks and responsibilities.
The response to the call of the train.
ing-camps at Plattsburg and else
where is an encouraging indication of
it.
Peculiarly significant, however, IL
the birth of this new spirit among EN-.
ployers of labor-an indication that
emulation may replace competition.
There is no need to be cynical on this
score, to insist that the men who con-
troll great corporations and combina-
tions of capital have been frightened
out of many practices in which they
hitherto have INDUCED. There can be
no question that the public attitude
toward these practices has changed
and it would be stupid and un-Ameri-
can to maintain that this opinion has
not permeated the element that en-
ploys labor, and made them more
American Also This cumulative spirit
this indication of the dawning of en-
lightened self-interest, this willing
ness to put a shoulder to the wheel, is
at present more marked among en-
ployers of the large corporations. But
it will spread. and is spreading. Even
as we have today in the medical pro-
fession an association, an cumulative
body of medical opinion purifying that
profession of quackery and fraud and
strictly commercial practice, even as
we have among the lawyers bar asso-
Citations SO we shall have among
business men and employers grow
ing element that sets its face against
practices hitherto INDUCED in, making
these practices more and more d1ff1cult
| of accomplishment by the remnant.
When employers of their own in1t1a
| tive take steps to insure the safety ana
health of their employees, and at their
| own risk make experiments that teno
toward the ultimate establishment OF
! industrial democracy, toward giving
the working-man a share and interest,"
in the industry, labor must respond.
Little by little individual an1mos1ues
are broken down and class animoslty
is weakened. It makes no difference
if these experiments with a view TO
industrial democracy do not meet the
demands of extremists; it makes M
difference whether motives are mixed
if the good be predominant. II the
spirit is there, we may trust to It's
working. Our watchwords must be
patience and faith, faith that our great
problem of industrial democracy VIII
| one day be solved by the same pr1ncl-
pie of equality of opportunity, by the
same trust in man that solved for us
the problem of political democracy.
A nation saturated with the conV1c-
ton that all should have an equal
chance. imbued with this volunteer
cumulative spirit instilled by education
and growing out of experience, can
not ultimately go wrong. Let us
therefore make our individual contr1-
buttons, and be assured that it is bet
ter to give than to receive.-Winston
Churchill in Harper's Magazine ro1
| January.