The evening world., 1917-09-21
PUT BOTH TO THE TEST.

TX THOUSAND striking longshoremen in this city are back
at work to-day because patriotism was at last made to seem to
- them a bigger thing than the petty question whether or not a
dock foreman who had discharged a union man should be himself
dismissed.
When Federal officials pointed out that at the present moment
loyal labor is the kind that declares for arbitration, the dock men
decided to prove their l~oyalty-and proceeded forthwith to show it
by volunteering to unload, without pay, 5000 sacks of newly arrived
mail containing thousands of letters from American soldiers and
sailors in Europe.
These workers showed the right spirit.
Are employers, manufacturers, captains Of industry" whole
slers and business men generally setting examples of the same kind
Of Americanism2
Are they treating labor on the one hand and the great con-
suming public on the other in a way to inspire confidence'and a spirit
Of cooperation in ether3
Addressing the war convention Of American business, held this
week at Atlantic City, under the auspices Of the United States
Chamber Of Commerce, Secretary of Labor Wilson placed RESPONSE
blity for strikes and labor troubles squarely upon profiteers, whose
war pslicy' is first and last a policy Of pilage:
e" now tell you American business men that this is no
time to stand upon your preudices. nor to insist upon
protteering. Is many of your members have been doing II
you couldn't collect abnormal profits in normal times, you
shouldn't take advantage of the necessities OF your country In
this time Of crisis"
What is the good Of preaching patriotism and loyalty to labor
If employers, whose duty toward the nation is every bit as obvious
and compelling, deliberately and publicly proclaim that, having
counted on big war profits, they mean to have them?
Producers, manufacturers, handlers, wholesalers, retailers, ought
to realize that they are facing az economic situation the develop
mentS Of which bear directly upon the future and, indeed, upon the
very existence Of many Of them.
If by a persistent, unpatriotic policy Of exploitation they force
the nation to take a constantly Tightening control Of the buying and
selling Of necessities during war time, do they think that what is
thereby demonstrated Of the possibilities of protecting the public
from consequences Of plumber and waste is going to be forgotten
when the war is overp
zone looming shadow Of this war" as Mr.. Hoover points out,
"s its drift toward socialism. For the gigantic sacrifice Of life the
world is demanding a sacrifice of property. We will surely drift on
that rocky coast unless we can prove the economic soundness and
willingness for public service Of our commercial institutions"
Labor is rebuked for it's disloyalty whenever II takes ADVANTAGE
Of the nations present need to urge is own demands. But what
sort Of example is put before labor by those who employ II, or deal
in is products? II war were to mean unusual profits" all sIoro tho
line, why shouldn't it mean unusual wages alsoP
The American lsborer AND the American employer must
each take the test. The patriotism of the latter, no Less than IN.
patriotism Of the former, will have to prove wha, p.rc.n,... 90
the sn-imPortant element of sacrifice II actually contains. tn,
prO6teerassays no better than the striker.