Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-09-26
A BLANKET INDICTMENT

VIZ A0hkHhoANA VI ANNW ASA ~ ~"
4 Jersey. and of the entire coast. II
necessary. even as far as New Orleans"
are to be asked to strike. as well as one
third Of the adult population OF the
metropolis. But IL a street railway cor
poration will yield to certain demands OF
the conductors and motormen Of one city.
this attempt to halt the nations trade
with Europe and the rest of the world
will not be made. In possibilities for
producing a national crisis, the New
York labor situation is measuring up on
even terms with the recent railroad
trouble
Its symptoms are those OF a social dis.
location. The railroad situation is purely
economic. The trainmen have organ
lied a corporation, with s15.Ooo,ooo CAPT.
tai. They call themselves labor"
rather than business" or benevolent and
protective association" simply as a mat
ter Of policy. They admit they are paid
better than many railroad clerks and
that none Of them is suffering. Their in
slstence that the railroads can AFFORD to
pay them more is equivalent TO saying
that II the railroads cannot afford It they
won't ask 1t. in theory. This is the atti-
tude of business men and not of what
is called labor.
But when butchers and garment MAX
ers and longshoremen and motormen
show tendency to pool their complaints
and make a blanket indictment Of all EN-.
ployers. the trouble cuts deeper. The
butchers OF Paterson, N. j., have made
the problem of the New York carmen
their own, according to union claims.
Why not the Chicago packers. the drovers
of the western plains? Who do not fur
nish meat? Who are not employees? In
censed by newspapers that ridiculed their
statement that 100000 persons would go
out on a sympathetic strike, the union
leaders say that they will get as many
hundred thousand out as they possibly
can "just to show the public" What
fraction of "the public" will there be left
to be shown?
This extreme sensitiveness betrays
social rather than an economic basis In
the disorder. OF course It is primarily
the sensitiveness of the union leaders,
Just as 1t has been largely through their
hastiness and Incorporate talk that there
has been disorder. But II they are right,
IL union labor is ready to fly off the
handle because somebody laughs, re-
markable change has come over the COM
plexion Of American family and social
life. It means that brothers and cousins
are everywhere at daggers drawn and
calling each other tyrants and slaves. 1t
means that half the parties that are held
are in danger Of disruption because some
| of the guests are labor" and some "capi.
tal," some employees, some employers.
That is the condition in America, where
all trades and professions mingle in the
same circles and associations, even in the
same family, II. as is asserted, the long
shoremen of New Orleans are ready to
| strike in sympathy with the carmen OF
New York because both groups are em.
ployes.
But It is not the general condition. 1t
is peculiar to New York. because as yet
In industry New York is foreign city.
with vast groups of undigested aliens who
have been at work there since they
landed. and have not had chance to
try America out. They bring classspirit
with them and concentrated wealth and
poverty temporarily accentuates this
spirit In them. They find themselves all
In the same boat-see none but an ex-
ceptional individual among them rise
above their level The assimilative pow
er of the country. through which they
gradually filter. gives them their chances
according TO their ability. in one genera
ton. New York is a sieve that catches
the big Jumps OF un,Americanism and the
labor leaders there make the most OF
them.