The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1916-08-04
THE STRIKE OF
THE STEVEDORES
BY E, p. M.

to interfere, or to advise, or to criti-
else, or to fix blame, or to find fault,
but only to make an observation or
two.
A stevedore sometimes, by a streak
of fortune, or by exceeding ability,
or by extraordinary frugality, be-
comes a great employer. Other work
ers, like loggers, for instance, once
in a long while by similar processes
become captains of industry.
This type of employer, remember
ing his former condition, and hard
ened by the processes of his advance,
and made mercenary by his accumula-
tons, usually expects all labor to be
as he was, to endure the trials
through which he passed and to ac-
cept the standards of living he was
compelled to accept. Because he sue
ceeded on a small wage and at ex-
cessively hard tasks he insists that
all workers can so succeed, and that
long hours and low wages should be
the portion of all workers.
1t is life. 1t is human nature. Per-
haps we should be patient with it.
But we are compelled to question
it. We are compelled to question it
for the sake of the captain of labor
himself. He hurts himself when he
insists on degrading workers. Every
employer harms himself when he in
sists on degrading workers by forcing
a low wage and long hours upon them.
Thus, employers who so insist may
be unconsciously providing the stand
ards for degrading their own children
hereafter. Fate is tickle. The whirli-
gig of time is a reckless shifter of
scenes and situations. The employer
of today may be a wage Garner to-
morrow. The petted child of fortune
today may be a horny-handed toiler
tomorrow. Nobody knows what is in
store for either employer or employee,
for man or child
We cannot afford to degrade work
ers. 1t is dehumanizing to pay made
quate wages and exact over-long
hours. 1t is destructive of the re-
public. 1t is unpreparedness. To sap
the life and material substance out
of workers undermines prosperity.
When wages are good, trade is active,
because workers have something with
which to buy. Economically, it is
sound policy for workers to have a
good living in keeping with the re-
quirements of self government, with
liberal school system and free in
situations.
Labor is not a commodity. 1t used
to be so regarded. Many employers
so treat it now. They class it with
raw material. They bring it over
from Europe in pauper form so as
to get it cheap. They fill American
factories with it for the sole purpose
of getting it cheap. They import it
just as they import raw silk, or Jap
anese hardwood or other raw ma
terials.
The practice is not only a moral
and economic mistake, but it is
against the law of the land One of
the measures in President Wilson S
legislative program declares that ia
Dor is not a commodity" 1t is the
Clayton act. Speaking of that pro.
vision in his address July 4, President
Wilson said:
q am sorry that there are any
judges in the United States who had
to be told that. 1t is so obvious that
! it seems to me that that section OF
the Clayton act were a return to the
primer of human liberty; but il
! judges have to have the primer
opened before them, l am willing tc
open it,"
Were labor a commodity to be
bought and sold like the clay for the
potter or ore for the smelter, we
could not boast of liberty. 1t would
be slavery, wage slavery, SLAYER!
as complete as that which Lincoln
abolished in the emancipation procla
nation.
Looking all strikes squarely in thu
face, We must admit that it is bette
to counsel together than to strike
but we must also admit that a worke
is worthy of his hire; that he ough
not to be dehumanized by inadequat,
wages and extreme hours; that t.
degrade him is to undermine the re
public; that to starve him limits sell
ing and buying; that to do so may b.
harmful later to the employer or hi
children; that to insist that labor i
a commodity" is contrary to law an,
a denial of human liberty.
Often our great employers gathe
together in banquets, amid rich hous