Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1916-08-28
GARDNER TAKES
UP ATTITUDE OF
WILSON TOWARD
THE LABOR men
Quotes Presidents Declaration
That Labor Is "a Formidable
Enemy to Equality and Free
dom of Opportunity"

Beachwood, Aug. 27-The former la
Dor record Of President Wilson was
| touched upon Saturday in a COMPARE
| son between utterance on organized
labor by DR.. Woodrow Wilson, presi-
dent Of Princeton University, and
President Woodrow Wilson. president
Of the United States, made by Con-
gresham A. P. Gardner of Massachu-
! sets, at an enthusiastic rally at noon
| here Saturday.
| Mr.. Gardner suggested that it was
almost ludicrous for a statesman to
| profess a devotion to the cause of or
| ganized labor who SO recently had de-
clared that labor is "a formidable en-
envy to equality and freedom of oppor-
tunity" and that the standard of the
| employee lis to give as little as he may
| for his wages
According to Mr.. Gardner, for so
years Of the Presidents life the ici-
Giles of conservatism clustered around
his brow"
Mr.. Gardeners speech, in part, was
as follows
I'VE have been hearing a good deal
lately that President Wilson is the es-
pecial friend of organized labor. To
tell you the truth, have noticed that
along about election time most of us
statesmen are conspicuous for our de-
votion towards those blessed spots
where the votes grow thickest. l hap
pen, however, to have a pretty good
memory and a still better scrap book
! Lately. l have been perusing my
scrap book and with ghoulish glee l
shall resurrect for your relish one or
two observations made by our good
President in his unregenerate days
when he was DR.. Wilson, the head of
Princeton College When the working
man reads these words, he will read
lily appreciate the love and reverence
in which he was held at that time.
| Address to Graduates
| "On the 18th day OF June. 1909, in an
address to the graduating class OF
Princeton College, DR.. Wilson ex-
pressed his remarkable views on la
Dor in the following words which are
taken from the Trenton True Ameri-
can of the succeeding day:
You know what the usual stand
ard of the employee is in our day. l.
is to give as little as he may for his
wages. Labor is standardized by the
trades unions and this is the stand
ard to which it is made to conform.
No one is suffered to do more than
the average workman can do; in some
| trades and handicrafts no one is suf-
fered to do more than the least skillful
| Of his fellows can do within the hours
allotted to a days labor, and no one
may work out of hours at all, or vol
unteer anything beyond the minimum
| Il need not point out how economically
disastrous such a regulation of labor is
1t is so Improbable to the employer that
in some trades it will presently not be
worth while to attempt anything at ALL
He had better stop altogether than oper-
ate al an inevitable and invariable loss.
! Furthermore, at dinner in the Wal
dorf Hotel on March IS. 1907, DR.. Wood
row Wilson, according to the New York
American, spoke as follows:
1--WE speak too exclusively of the ca D.
| italistic class. There is another, as for
midable an enemy to equality and free
dom of opportunity as it is, and that is
the class formed by the labor organiza-
tons and leaders Of the country
PLENTY more such changes Of faith
have been commented on by William Ran
/ dolph Hearst and George Fred Williams.
! The question is, are all these changes
sincere? In short, to put it bluntly, is
President Wilson merely a vacillator. or
is he a good, old-fashioned political hum
bug? The public will decide that ques-
ton by instinct, not by argument. How
q ba,
If all Woodrow Wilson'S changes Of opin-
ion had not conceded with his own inter
ests and his own ambitions; IL in a single
case he changed to the unpopular side,
how much more easily we could have be-
lieved in his sincerity.
1.-THE fact is that for 50 years OF his
life. President Wilson was a profound
Tory with the icicles Of conservatism
clustering round his brow. Then for
the next two years he was a pro-
nounced Radical and now he is Rad
ical every second week and a Con-
sentative the rest of the time.
by book after book and lecture af-
ter lecture DR.. Wilson taught the stu
dent to mistrust the initiative and
referendum, to believe organized labor
a menace, to clamor for the repeal Of
the Chinese exclusion act, to regard
our foreign-born citizens as a coarse
crew, to view with hostility the regu-
lation Of public service corporations
by commissioners A Bourbon prince
could have asked for no more reac-
tionary expounder of wisdom.
about these matters President Will
son has changed his mind. When the
| wind shifts, will he change back
again."