The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1916-10-23
Worst Type Of Futility.

futile to show courage and stand up
for the right, From the standpoint Of
the nation, the worst type Of futility In
a President is to fail to stand up for
the right. President Wilson felt IL was
futile TO oppose these men, exactly as
President Buchanan, his spiritual for
bear, felt in 1850, that II vas futile. 10
oppose secession. That type OF futility
gives the real measure Of the man who
practices IT, What Buchanan consid-
cred futile Lincoln made heroic.
/ champion Mr.. Hughes as against
Mr.. Wilson because in every such cri-
sis Mr.. Wilson. by his public acts. has
shown that he will yield to fear. that
he will not yield TO justice: whereas
the public acts OF Mr.. Hughes have
proved him TO be incapable Of yielding
in such a crisis to any threat. whether
made by politicians. corporations or
labor leaders.
1 have always stood for the rights Of
labor. You miners before me know
that. l stood by yOu, and I incurred
the hostility of the greatest financial
powers of the and by so doing. and !
have felt that hostility in public life
ever since. But | did not care. because
L hLitM lIldl NY COURSE WAS IlEIta !
stood by you because / believed you
were right. If l 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 shorter hours. OF labor. ]
have stood for a better wage for the
laborer, for better housing conditions;
for giving the laboring wageworker
better living conditions and better and
safer working conditions. l have stood
to give him and his wife and his chill
dren the chance to make Of themselves
all that American citizens should make
Of themselves. l ave stood, and al
ways shall stand, for everything in the
interest Of justice for the laboring
man. But | have always stood, and al
ways shall stand. against yielding any
thing through fear or because OF
threats. l believe in the great principle
of arbitration. / believe In invoking
the action of the government to help
labor; but / also believe that to invoke
such action viii In the end be ruinous
to labor. as we'll as to the country II
IL is not exercised with wisdom and
fearlessness and in the spirit OF exact
justice 10 all the parties concerned. II
these questions are not settled right.
then some time they will have to be
unsettled, and infinite trouble IS there
by laid up for us I'm the future. The
only way we can settle them right is
by elaboration, after all the facts have
been put before a disinterested and
competent body, n the judgment Of
that body obtained thereon. This is
the course hat eve now ought 70 be
pursued as regards the Adamson bill
Its operation has been deferred until
after Congress assemblies. Congress
should hold II up until a proper COM
mission shall investigate the entire
subject; and then the Adamson bin
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.
Wilson Bitter Critic of Unions.
Labor leaders who are shortslghted
may at the m get from a man I'm
public office who is not actuated by
justice. more than from a man who Is
actuated by justice. But the laboring
people as a whole cannot afford TO ac-
cept such gains. II unjust legislation
is given them for improper reasons.
hen unjust legislation against them
may be enacted for improper reasons.
More than any other people in the
country the wageworkers should insist
on just and fair action. There Is
grave reason to believe hat In the
course President Wilson has followed
he did violence to his own real convic-
lions. Until he became a candidate for
office. he was a bitter. %ungenerous 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 I'm speaking of the
capitalistic class. he says that there Is
another equally formidable enemy and
II is that class formed by the labor
leaders OF this country" and again Il
am a fierce partisan OF the open shop"
and again THE usual standard Of the
employee in our day is to give as little
as he a for his wages. Labor is
standardized by trade unions and this
is h standard to which it is mad 70
conform. l need not point out how
economically disastrous such regulation
Of labor is. 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 a university and had neither fear of
nor desire to profit by the labor vote
In Mr.. Wilson's History of the Amerl-
can People" he explicitly stated that
the Chinese ought not to be excluded
from this country because it is better
to have them here than 1t is to nave
the immigrants we now get from Eu-
rope. His words were: "The Chinese
are more to be desired as workmen
thar most of the coars crew that
come crowding in everywhere at the
Eastern ports" Now he turns round
and says: Our gates must be kept
open" to those whom he thus denomi-
mated a coarse crew." Since he went
into politics he has again and again,