The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1916-10-07


Wages Independent of Tariff.
| want to widen the market for Amer
ican labor. | want to see conditions ex-
ist in which men will compete for Amer
lean labor. | tell you this, that Ameri-
can labor up-to-date is the cheapest in
the world American manufacturers can
afford to pay American workingmen
three times as much and still undersell
their competitors in the foreign mar
kets, and yet the American workingman
is told that the amount of his wages de-
pends upon the protective tariff. 1t
doesn't. 1t depends upon him. 1t de-
pends upon what is inside of his think
ing box. And when you once get to
system of regulated monopoly then you
get to a system of controlled labor
don't forget that.-At Kansas City, Oc-
fOber 8, 1912.
Arbitration of Labor Disputes.
The trouble in great many of the
labor contests we have had, my fellow
citizens. as you will bear me out in
saying, is that one side or the other did
not wish to sit down and talk it over,
and that the great difficulty in the set
tlement of great many labor disputes
has been the difficulty of getting candid
and dispassionate conference with re-
gard to the points at issue The great
difficulty about the relationship between
capital and labor is this Labor is in
immediate contact with the task itself,
with the work, with the conditions of
the work, with the tools with which it
is done, and the circumstances under
which they are used whereas capital in
too many instances, is at great remove
1t is owned and controlled by many who
have not taken the pains to go and see
the workers at their work and know
lust what the circumstances are, and the
thing most to be desired is that capital
should be humanized by being brought
into comprchending contact with the
conditions of labor.-At american Fed
GRAFTON of Labor Building Dedication,
Washington, d. C., July 4, 1916.
Justice for Labor.
| am for the laboring man. Justice
must be done him or there can be no
justice in this country. We must all be
partners in the game of government and
no one man must be allowed to play the
part of a hog.-At Chicago, April g.
1912.
Labor Ideals.
You can not rise to the tasks of the
day with any kind of zest and interest
unless you know their significance; and
they have very narrow significance if
you look upon them as a means of keep
ing body and soul together. 1t seems to
me, therefore, that the most heartening
thing man can do is to think as often
as he can of the relations which his
work bears to the place he lives in, and
to the country he lives in-At american
Federation of Labor Building Dedica-
tiOn, Washington, ID. C., July 4, 1916
Protection of Labor.
We call these questions of employers
liability questions of workingmen's
suggest quite the whole matter There
is something very new and very big and
very complex about these new relations
of capital and labor A new economic
society has sprung up and we must ef-
feet new set of adjustments. We must
not pit power against weakness. The
employer is generally in our day, as
have said, not an individual but pow
erful group of individuals, and yet the
workingman is still, under our existing
law, an individual when dealing with
his employer, in case of accident, for
example, or of loss or of illness, as well
as in every contractual relationship. We
must have workingmen's compensation
act which will not put upon him the
burden of fighting powerful composite
employers to obtain his rights, but which
will give him his rights without suit
directly and without contest, by auto
matte operation of law, as if of law
Of insurance-At Inauguration as Coz
ernOr of Neao Jersey, January II, 1911.
Attitude of Trusts to Labor.
And it is worth the while of the
workingmen of the country to recall
what the attitude toward organized la
Dor has been of these masters of con-
soldated industries, whom the Federal
Government is to take under its patron
age as well as under its control. They
have always been the stout opponents
of organized labor, and they have tried
to undermine it in great many ways.
Some of the ways they have adopted
have worn the guise of philanthropy
and goodwill, and have no doubt been
used, for all | know, in perfect good
faith. Some of them have set up sys-
TENS of profit-sharing, of compensation
for injuries, and of bonuses and even
pensions, but every one of these plans
hoe ,,,arely hound their NyOrkiupnen