The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-01-29
ONE-SIDED COLLECTIVISM.


 statement after his brief message to Congress wherein he urged the pass age of an anti-strike measure thus defined his exact attitude:
 ''To pass a law which forbade O. prevented the individual workman 10 leave his work before receiving the approval of society ill so doing
 is based on the prln- cipIe that the concerted action or powerful bodies Of men shall not ne permitted to stop the industrial pro cesses of the nation, at any rate not neiore the nation shall have an op- portunity to acquaint itself with inc merits of the case between ca ,Jovers and employees; time to form it's opinion upon an lmpartiai statement of the merits of the case and opportunity to consider all practicable means of conciliation or arbitration. can see nothing III that proposition but the Justfable safe guarding by society of the ne- rcssarv processes of it's very life.
 fl is not the head of the Employ CTS Association that is speaking, be ii recollected, but Gompers enthusi- astically supported candidate for President. Woodrow Wilson, and 1t is just as able an eX parte state meut as any official of any labor batting employers association could well make.
 Ii is characteristically fatuous, as all efforts upon the part of well ln' tentioned men to stabilize the un' stable must be; it is characterlstl' cally superficial as all comment unon the surface appearances O. things will always be-
 But it is more than that. It II an effort to gild a policy or lroi which it is not immediately deslreC should be understood. It proposes to prevent strikes in the interests O "society". It proposes to take ava! from the collective organization th' right to quit work if they find tha such a step is necessary to improve their condition, and it is to strlK' at the very fundamental prlnclple of that vestige of human liberty Una still remains to the workers.
 Obviously President Wilson doe not intend the people who have Ill te,,igence to understand, will bellev that he proposes that strike D suspended pending the public Know ing about it and begun when the have been furnished with partcu lars The self evident stupidity o such proposal is only used to var uish the real purpose in view U nreyent labor making use o1 th strike to protect itself. Passing Ia" to prevent the individual leaving hi work. whatever may be the ulterio motive of such legislation IS nc based upon any sound prlncipl whatever. It is so helplesly one sided that it immediately stamps Il self on that account alone as unJus There is no law that prevents a employer from discharging a ma and letting him starve to death, nc 'e tbare any law to prevent emplo, CTS closing down their works I' husinass reasons" and letting the1 circulate through the country, hop less objects Of charity. and Nlchh Inf an unfair industrial condition Nor is there any such law pr nosed Society has shown absolute m concern whatever about the ind yiduals who are thrown out Of wor Congress has never devoted tW hours of it's time to considerable os the millions who were uner ployed at different periods in u industrial history of the Unite States. Nor has any president n even Wilson. Conrgess mas neV troubled about the activities or few men who as individuals
 heads of some commercial org nization reduced the number Of the employees, closed down whole esta lishments and under one plea or other denied to enormous masses human beings the right to live,
 they alone could live by their bor.
 If would be obviously ridiculo