The daily Nome industrial worker., 1916-09-13

Di ioluCl AoOuo, AOt d liHO put "oulu experience great trouble in even sending the mail over the road.
 Now Wilson and Congress did not want any such thing as an industrial | paralysis. They certainly did not want to see mines and mills and 1 factories and industrial plants close because of inadequate transporta- 1 tion facilities, and that is what would have unquestionably follow ed in case of the railroad strike be- ing materialized. And it was for this reason that the eight hour day became a law upon the railroads. If merely eight hour reform was ali that was concerned, the law would have been made to include shopmen and trackmen and many others whose days work is at present too long. But no such thing was done. The idea was to avert strike which would cause the business interests considerable inconvenience, consid- erable loss of profits and end in the bankruptcy court for not few of l them.
 It is because no such condition was desired by Wilson or any of the democrats, for political reasons or otherwise, that a settlement was forced upon the government.
 Now, there is as little justifica- tion for claiming this as a great labor victory as there is for declar- l ing it to be a menace to free govern ment, although it is truth that le- gislative action is seldom free, being always more or less dependent upon some economic force, and this legis- lation would have never been brought about had it not been that the brotherhood men were strong enough to cause the industrial inter ests very serious inconvenience, even if at length they would have been defeated themselves.
 That great number of railroad officials would have desired to humble the brotherhood men by forcing strike may be true. But it is doubtful if there are many really believed that such thing could have been easily accomplished. Where the big mistake was made was in antagonizing the brother hoods, and as an exchange declares, the relations between the brother hoods and the companies will never again be the same. The action of the. brotherhood men in preparing for an open break, and the delibe- rate defiance with which the com pany officials met the challenge. will have lasting results. The broth erhood men are not likely to be much longer isolated from the rest of the workers.
 Returning to Rev. Woodrow his sermon is more an example of the new uses to which the church Is put than anything else. We can easily place aside his ridiculous re- marks concerning the eight hour law being menace to free govern ment. That is neither here nor there. He simply made use of this rhetori- cal extravaganza to satisfy those ot his Congregation whose interests with the companies were indentical. ] So the pulpit, we see, is subject also to that economic determinism which affects more or less all our actions. And because he is the right man in the right place, like all right men in the right places. he ad- justs himself to the plutocratic views which sustain generously enough churches, and provide ample reward for their servants. The OK knoweth its owner and the ass its masters crib And Rev. Woodrow, rightly enough iustifies the service to which he is put by those who af- ford him a recompense for his service.
 There is whole lot of that sort of thing manifest even in clerical quarters. The ability to serve God and Mammon is no longer 50 rare, and riches have lost their evangeli- cal taint. Today men wisely con form to the idea that wealth provi~ des the good things of hfe and there is no reason why they should be de- spised even by q preacher. The odor of sancttty is q powerful disin- 'fectant of tainted wealth. q all