Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-07-04
Expresses Sympathy With the
Legitimate Objects for
Which They Strive.
SPEAKS AT DEDICATION
OF FEDERATION BUILDING
Declares Structure Should Be De-
oted to Principle Of Common Coun-
sci and Common Understanding.

President Wilson. at the dedication
of the new headquarters building OF
the American Federation of Labor this
afternoon. said:
Mr. Gompers is generally very hap
ply in the choice of words. but he used
one word just now from which ! wish
to demur. I am not here to adorn the
occasion. but l am here to express my
very deep interest in it and to show
how near it lies to my own heart that
the legitimate results of the great la
Dor movement should be achieved.
TT seems to me that 1t is a happy
conjunction of time and occasion be-
cause we should never make any new
move or establish any fundamentally
which will affect the national life with
out thinking of the national life and
how 1t will be affected and how we can
serve it. 1t is very proper that this
great building should in this wise be
dedicated on the birthday of the nation.
You know, my fellow citizens, that the
mind needs air to breathe Just as the
body does.
Must Know Significance of Tasks.
You cannot rise to the tasks of the
day with any kind of zest and interest
unless you know their significance; and
they have a very narrow significance
if you look upon them as "a means of
keeping body and soul together. 1t
seems to me. therefore, that the most
heartening thing that man can do is
to think as often as he can of the rela-
tons which his work bears to the place
he lives in, to the state he lives in and
to the country he lives in.
You know that every man who is
man takes some pride in doing his
work well. but why should he take
pride in it? Merely to glorify and dis
tinguish himself from the common run
of workers? That will only make a
prig of him.
"A man who works in order that he
may be distinguished is sooner or later
going to do some selfish thing that will
disgrace him. because his object is him
self and not the ideals which he serves.
And, therefore, it seems to me that
every one of us should remind himself
every day that he is working for some
thing besides wages: that he is work.
or some community that he wishes to
assist, or some nation that he is ready
to serve and defend.
Dedicated to Common Counsel"
That is the reason why it seemo to
me that this is a happy day and occa-
sion. Because, my fellow citizens. you
will realize that in a position such as
l occupy for the time being / am not
at liberty to think of any one class of
our fellow citizens to the exclusion of
any other class, and since / have been
asked to make dedicatory address of
this building l am going to take the
liberty. of dedicating it to common
counsel and common understanding. I
am going to take the liberty of Jdedi-
eating it to the thing that 1 believe in
most, the accommodation of the inter
est of various classes in the community
by means of enabling those classes to
understand one another and to CO.
operate with one another
The way we generally strive for rights
is by getting our fighting blood up, and
venture to say that is the wrong way
and not the short way If you come at
promise you that mine will double as
fast as yours. but if you come at me and
say, Let us sit down and take council
together, and. if we differ from one
another understand why it is we differ
from one another, just what the points at
issue are we will presently find that
we are not SO far apart after ALL that the
points in which we differ are few and
and that if we only had the patience and
the candor and the desire to get together
we will get together.
The trouble in a 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 settlement of great many labor
disputes has been the difficulty of get
ting candid and dispassionate confer
ence with regard to the points at issue.
The great difficulty about the relation
ship 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 circum
stances 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 just what the circumstances are.
and the thing most to be desired is
that capital should be humanized nv
being brought into a comprehendine
contract with the conditions of labor
Getting Close to Labor.
You have seen what has happened
in some instances You have seen men
who have sat in their offices in some |