The daily Nome industrial worker., 1917-04-13
CONSCRHTION.
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forced IS more than llhelH, dlIHouSH there is quite a considerable lot of opposition thereto. That opposi- tion will be founded on the eco- homie position of the people who favor or resist i..
 Those who favor il may be those who will by no chance be drafted: while those who oppose it will be those who will be subject to re- gulation Of this kind. strictly speaking the president has through the Dick Bill the power, if he finds occasion to use it, to draft anyone of military age Moreover employers can see to it. without Dick Bills that economic conditions drive men as last resort to fight.
 The progress of conscription in Great Britain throws a great light upon this Most imagine that con scription was only begun after the war had been going on several wears. But that notion is far from correct In point Of real fact, con scriptiol had been going on from the very start of the war, patriotic employers saw to tnat, and where they failed the Defence of the Realm Act came to theiI assistance.
 II Was in this way: economic con ditions forced the workers into the
 iL h. fion was passed not to get the work CTS who were slackers, but ths slackers who had enough money to live without fighting and did not wish to risk their hides
 The industrial dependence of the working class is historic. II is dependent class in peace or in war, And just as during peace the fact of his being without means to live unless he works and is compelled to sake what he can so in time oi war. he is driven by the same eco homie urge to join the army or go hungry. Employers in Great Brl- tain. where they could, fired their employees of military age, advised their men to enlist and employed women. Where they could substi- 4ute female labor or labor not ot military age, either too old or too young, they did so and a gracious government very conveniently sus- pended the legal limitations in the matter of both female and child labor Sc the man of military age sought work in vain, and found himself driven into the army. He mad a free will in the matter: he could have remained outside and starved to death, and 1t was not conscription technically even if It was conscription actually. When 4conscription was enforced it got men of the lower middle classs, and from that up, who had money to live without fighting and without work ing. unless they had a mind to do one or the other.
 The industrial requirements of the United States are such just now that they cannot spare very many of the workers. Two or three million wage workers removed from the fields of active employment would raise the devil with established in dustries. Employers know it and they keen the officials posted on this head.
 But there is an enormous class of nondescripts who are not wage workers: who are not engaged Tn active productive work and who can be spared They may moi want to go: they may prefer to read the war news from the paper instead of experiencing it's thrills first hand in the trenches, where the thrills are also accompanied by an uncer- tainty of living that rather height ems the sensational feeling. They can live without enlisting. They don't have to.
 If they will go. we'll and good. If they will not, as in England, there will be conscription.
 Likely enough there will be a | general substitution where possible | of female for male labor and then male labor can hunt a job in vain. If of military age, he will be told to fight, just as during times of peace he was told to stand ln the