The Delta independent., 1916-11-03

|
son or Grover Cleveland had been Presi-
dent. The futility inhered solely in Mr..
Wilson himself If President Wilson had
stood by the honor and the interests of
| the United States in this matter; il he
| had insisted upon a full Investigate tion he.
| fore action, if he had insisted upon arbi.
tration and had announced that if there
was any attempt to tie up the traffic of
the United States he would use the entire
power of the United States to keep the ar.
teres of traffic open. ! would have ap-
plauded him and supported him. But. to
take such action needed courage II need
ed disinterestedness. II was necessary that
the man taking it should put duty to
the nation first and political and personal
considerations last. What President vii.
son did to permit the overriding of
justice by appeals to brute force
He says that it would have been "fu-
tile" to show courage and stand up for
the right From the standpoint of the ma
tion. the worst type of futility in a Presi-
dent is to fail to stand up for the right
President Wilson felt it was futile to op
pose these men. exactly as President Bn.
chanan. his spiritual forbear. felt in 1861.
that it was futile. to oppose secession. That
type of futility gives the real measure of
the who practices it. What Bu-
chanan considered futile Lincoln made
heroic.
| champion Mr. Hughes as against Mr.
Wilson because in every such crisis Mr.
Wilson, by his public acts. has shown thar
he will yield to fear. that he will not yield
to Justice: whereas the public acts of
nugnes nave proved nm to be IN
capable of yielding in such crisis to any
threat. whether made by politicians. cor
porations or labor leaders.
| have always stood for the rights of
labor. You miners before me know that.
| stood for you. and | incurred the hostil.
ity OF the greatest financial powers of the
land by so doing. and have felt that hos
tity in public life since. But ! did
not care. because knew that my course
was right. stood by you because | be
lieved You were right. II ! had been the
type of man who was willing to stand by
you when you were wrong. ! would never
have dared to stand by you when you were
right. against such opposition as at that
time encountered. | have stood for short
er hours of labor | have stood for a bet
ter wage for the laborer. for better housing
conditions. for giving the laboring wage
worker better living conditions and better
and safer working conditions. have stood
10 give him and his wife and children he
chance to make Of Themselves al thst
American citizens should make Of them
selves. I have stood. and always shall
stand, for everything in the interest OF
justice for the laboring man. But | have
always stood. and always shall stand
against yielding anything through fear or
because of threats ! believe in the great
principle of arbitration. I believe in in
voking the action of the government to
help labor: but ! also believe to invoke
such action Will in the end be ruinous to
labor. well to the country. If il is
not exercised with wisdom and fearless
ness and the spirit of exact Justice to all
the parties concerned. II these questions
are not settled right. then some time they
will have to be unsettled and infinite trou-
bic is thereby laid up for us in the future.
The only way We can settle them right is
by delibcration. after all the facts have
been put before disinterested and com
petent body. and the Judgment of that
body obtained thereon. This is the course
that even now ought to be pursued as re.
CARDS the Adamson bill Its operation has
been deferred until after Congress assem-
bles Congress should hold it up until
proper commission shall investigate .he en-.
tire subject: and then the Adamson bill
should be enacted either unchanged, or
with whatever changes and additions
the report Of such dispassionate com.
mission may show to be desirable and
necessary.
Labor leaders who are shortsighted may
at the moment get from a man in public
office who is not actuated by Justice. more
than from a man who is actuated by jus
tice. But the laboring people as a whole
cannot afford to accept such gains. n un-
Just legislation is given them for improper
reasons. then unjust legislation against
them may be enacted for improper reasons
More than any other people in the country
the wage workers should insist on just and
fair action. There is grave reason to be-
lieve that in the course President Wilson
has followed he did violence to his own
real convictions. Until he became a can.
didate for office. he was bitter. ungen.
erous and often unjust critic Of labor
unions. ! have before me speeches and
letters of his made and written in 1905,
1907 and 1909. in which Mr.. Wilson says
among other things that labor unions
drag the highest man down to the level
OF the lowest" and in speaking of the cap.
itaistic class. he says that there is an
other equally formidable enemy and il il
that class formed by the labor leaders Of
this country" and again 81 am fierce
partisan Of the open shop" and again "The
usual standhrd OF the employee IN our day
is to give as little as he can for his wages
labor is standardized by trade unions and
this is the standard to which il IL made
to conform. ! need not point out how
economically disastrous such regulation of
labor il. Our economic supremacy may be
lost because the country grows more and
more full Of improbable servants" These
were the utterances Of Mr. Wilson when
he was president Of university and had
neither fear of nor desire to profit by the
labor vote. In Mr.. Wilson's History Of
the American People he explicitly stated
that the Chinese ought not to be excluded