The Alaska citizen., 1916-11-27
Phone 26z Phone
WIL SON AND LABOR.

Ii is very evident from the lateSt dispatches regarding the President! message and the convention of the American Federation of Labor. thai one of the biggest jobs that Presi. dent Wilson will have during hl. second administration will be the settlement of the labor problem. And that it will be settled by some man her of means there is but little doubt for, from the attitude of La b6r at least the attitude expressed in the dispatches. Labor is about to iraugurate a campaign to push through reforms which it claims are necessary to a settlement of the per petuaIly existing dispute between em, ployers and employees, or, in other words, between capital and labor.
 Labor recognizes the fact that now is it's chance to imppye itself; the best chance that it ever had. For, although the labor problem has been bochersome to practically every ad. ministratIon since the United States first became a country, Labor as a whole never secured such recognl- ton from any administration as it did under the Democratic admins traitor of President Wilson. And now Labor is preparing to press to the limit the advantage it has gained. But is it not making a mistake? Does the passage of the Adamson law and other measures partially beneficial to Labor, by the last con. gross. give Labor the right to come forward in a dictatorial manner and tell the government of the United States just what should or should not be done?
 The Adamson law, greatly bene, ficial measure to the laboring ele. ment of the country and at the sanIe time the means of settling whal threatened to be a railroad strike of gigantic proportions, was forced through congress by President Will son. Students of the railroad strike problem, however, know that it waS passed by congress as last means to gain an end. And the end to be gained was the settlement Of situation which threatened the peace 1nd prosperity of the entire United States. For President Wilson would never have passed the Adamson law for the benefit of Labor alone, as some of the labor leaders seem to think It was simply his way of re- lieving a nationwide situation which threatened to become troublesome after every other means of settling the dispute had failed.
 The matter of the railroad strike went to the President voluntarily for arbitration. He worked at it long and earnestly trying to get the railroad executives and the repre- sentatives of the trainmen. who threatened the strike, to agree to some kind of a settlement This they failed of doing So when he saw no other way of relieving situa- tion which would undoubtedly mean the tying up of trafflc throughout the United States and the practical existence of state of anarchy, for a railroad strike would have meant nationwide bloodshed, judging from the experiences of other and smaller strikes, he pushed measure through congress which gave at least tenn porary relief to the trouble.
 President Wilson is known to be a friend of Labor and the laboring man. He undoubtedly realizes that the laboring mans is no bed of roses Which makes it practical ly certain that he will do all he can to help the laborites. But that he will push through some of the radical measures which are being suggested by labor is not to be thought of for a moment. And even the suggestion of these by the labor ing element proves that. if given the whip hand, labor would be even more tyrannical than it claims capi- tai to be.
 One of the measures which Labor proposes to force through along po- litical lines, according to late dis patches, is that against the courts injunction. In the past it has been the habit of the capitalists. when they saw that their property was in imminent danger of being de-