The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-05-05
HAS HAPPENED BEFORE.

Senator Stone may have ampi- lions to be the democratic Lafol- lette. It is not an enviable, how ever it may be an admirable posi- ton. The role of Athanasius contra mundum never is.
 So here we are when every corpo- ration has been treated to a dose of patriotic whitewash, ready to sacri- flee itself for the country upon it's altars of finance, with the Senator declaring that the evidence is in- disputable that cold storage plants are destroying food in storage and have been buying up crops to allow them to rot that prices may be | boosted.
 It is not known what is the na- ture of the evidence which Senator ! Stone has on this subject, but it is well known to have taken place in the past and there is no good req son why it should not happen again.
 These good reformers! How uto- plan is their conception of orga- nized society! One would imagine i that society was organized in order that it's needs might be rapidly, effectively ard well satisfied in- stead of the organized activities be- 1 ing directed 70 the end that people 1 controlling or owning the machin- cry of production and distribution make money.
 There is not a man in business today, Senator, although you may think otherwise who is in the business for his health, or for your i health or for that of rest of us. They are in it, with the best intention in | the world, to make a piece ot money. and as large a piece as i they can within the law. They buy and pay for their goods. It is theirs to do with it that which they please. Their property rights are definite and directly ascertainable by law and about their right of ownership there is no manner ot l question whatever.
 So if they buy an auto and let [ it rust, if they buy tank of gaso- line and spill it in the sea, if they buy shoes and lay them on their shelves, if they buy corn and sell it or let it rot, that is their business. 1 And it is their business if they hold these thing which they bought for a high price or give it away. | If they make living buying as cheaply as, possible and selling as dearly as possible and refuse to sell if they cannot get their price-that is still their business and mighty 1 good business.
 It is only a fallacious idea to think that business and social work are identical. When discussing the ethical Justification for destroying certain quantity of coffee and sugar. Havemeyer the elder inter rupted the tiresome disquisition with the laconic" damn your ethics, this is a business proposition.
 The good Senator ought to know very well that during the piping times of peace when industrial pa- nics supervened, the warehouses were glutted with merchandise and men went ragged and poorly clad the granaries were bulging with food and men starved-the houses were empty in all directions and men tried to sleep shelterless or carried the banner all night That did not occasion a word of con demnaticn for it was sensibly real ized that good business advised clos ing down factories when there was no sale.
 Closing down the factories meant throwing men out of work, and throwing men out of work meant that they had no money to buy the necessaries of life. And we would like to know wherein it is more i'm moral or more unethical--we do not question the legality of it at all