Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1918-09-20
FULL SERVICE-EVERYWHERE
By President Gompers

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does so forcefully and concisely that
entirely aside from the specific pur-
pose of the document it has gen
eral purpose that gives to it gen
eral value and lasting interest.
Worthy of special attention by
workers and employers alike is that
section of the statement in which the
president calls upon operators "to be
jealous as never before" in bringing
about efficiency of management and
"the best possible working conditions
SO that the opportunity to work at
his best may be accorded every work
man." Upon that reasoning rests the
whole question of national war pro-
duction. In addressing the coal
miners the president also has clearly
and emphatically addressed the whole
national community of employers and
executives. And he has addressed
them exactly as they have been ad-
dressed from the beginning by organ
lied labor itself.
1t is labor's belief that conditions
of employment should be the best
not merely for the reasons that
have always held good, but now for
the added reason that only under
those conditions that are nearest just
can the essential volume of war time
production be had or expected.
What certain types of employers
may have considered matters of pure
ly ethical or abstract interest in peace
times now are put squarely upon a
plane of essential efficiency in war
time management and put there by
the president of the United States.
That just working conditions produce
the best results in output is not due
to any lack of patriotic willingness
of workers under less favorable con-
ditions. A seed planted upon rock
is perfectly willing to grow-but it
can not. That is all there is to it.
The president himself points out that
it is only with the establishment of
"the best possible working conditions
and "fair treatment to everybody
that the workman can get his "op-
portunity to work at his BEST"
The stern tests of war have estab-
lished as fundamental truths a great
many things that organized labor has
said for many years. And now that
these truths are established, they will
remain so.
1t is some time since the govern
ment took it's stand with labor for the
basic eight-hour day. "The best pos
sible working conditions" mean much
more. Organized labor is fully con-
scious of the meaning of this war
and the spirit of our people as a
whole. 1t is in accord with that
meaning and with that spirit.
Moreover labor holds that no con-
sideration of self or selfish interest
should be allowed to stand in the way
of the highest national effectiveness
in carrying the war to a triumphant
conclusion. On that premise it has
been labor's constant stand that it
has a right to demand and get the
best possible conditions under which
to strive for it's best war effort. 1t
has a right not to be handicapped by
employers who are not yet out of the
shell of times that we have left far
behind.
1t follows that employers who do
insist upon trying to impose unfair
and unjust conditions upon workers
are in a very direct and visible man.
ner putting bar in the way of Amer
ica's most effective conduct of the wal
At the st. Paul convention, the
American Federation of Labor set up
as test of conduct the proposition
that neither workers nor employers
should do anything that could not be
justified to the men risking their lives
on the firing line in France.
AS the president points out, we
must have a nation working with one
spirit for one end. Many who would
wish to fight must remain to work
Democracy's needs constitute our
taskmaster. And it is labor's great
anxiety that its own service be full
to running over, effective to the last
degree. To this end there are some
employers who will need to read care
fully what the president has said to
them in this latest appeal Of his for
united effort.
President Wilson has laid down
principles to which labor fully agrees
because they were long ago laid down
by labor itself as the primary requi-
site in securing full strength war
production.