Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1918-04-23
WHEN JOHNNY CONES MARCHING
HOME.

great deal OF interest in this country
because OF the effect IL may have on
the plans Of our own leaders Of union
labor. It is not probable that a labor
party will be started in the United
States, but American labor leaders are
apt TO take their cue from the prac-
ticed politicians who control the La
Dor party of Great Britain They viii
shape their demands for legislation on
the lines laid down in this program,
and they will act in concert as they
never have acted before.
The committee of the British Labor
party insists upon four cardinal
points: The Universal Enforcement
OF the National Minimum, the Demo-
cratic Control OF Industry, the Revo-
luton in National Finance, the Sur
plus Wealth for the Public Good I'm
der these heads the program insists
upon such details, for example, as
Government insurance against unem-
ployment, national control of rail-
ways, mines, the production of electri-
cal power. and life insurance, rigid
price fixing. and the direct taxation
of incomes above the necessary cost
of family maintenance 1t demands
that the greatest incomes be taxed
anywhere from so TO 95 per cent, that
the profits of city and mineral land
"the unearned increment'-be turned
into the National treasury. and that
the Government must be the heir to
all private riches in excess of a quite
moderate amount by way OF family
provision.
It Is big program, expressed in the
uncompromising tone Of men who feel
that they have the power in their
hands and are determined to use it
unsparingly. A discussion of its eco
monte soundness would be of little
value. The British labor leaders pro-
pose to make it n practical political
measure, and as a practical political
measure Il must be considered.
What chance is there that such pro-
gram can go through in Great Britain?
What chance that an imitation of II
will meet with approval in this coun-
try?. These matters must be voted
on by the people. and the question is.
Where are the union labor leaders to
get their votes? They intend to re
constitute society" after the war ac-
cording to their own theories of the
proper constitution of society. But
they cannot do il by themselves. The
number of enrolled labor-union men
i'm England or ian this county is a
small part of the entire voting popu-
lation. They are organized, but, on
the other hand, another body of
political opinion and political action is
organizing. If the war goes on for
two or three years. as il may. the
United States army probably will
number four or five million men, all
voters. They will be accustomed to
unity of action, to obedience, to disci-
pline. Is it likely that they will take
their political gospel from the lips of
the leaders of organized labor?
At the present moment the feeling
of the fighting men is hostile to the
labor-union men at home, The clerks,
shopkeepers, farmers who are at the
front exposing their lives to peril
every minute of the day and night,
have no kinder words for the union
men than they have for the protiteer-
ing capitalists. The French farmer
boys standing for twenty-four hours
waist deep in the mud of shell holes
or trenches class them all alike as
"embusaues" They are "In hiding"
in munition works or railways. They
demand more and more money. If
their demands are refused, they
threaten to strike and so cut off the
supplies of the men at the front, The
feeling is apt TO outlast the war and
to determine the political action of the
soldiers when they return.
American soldiers in France read
of a riverter making thirty-six dollars
on a Monday and then quitting for the
rest of the week. That news does not
A0llW 10 lhaht lAlt uEAlNAAAS man - punt
cal ally to the mechanic who, he
thinks, has betrayed him. 1t does not
seem possible that such labor leader
as Hutcheson, the head of the Car
penters' Union, will have much weight
as counsel to returning soldiers who
have suffered, or think they have suf-
fered. from his activity as an organ
izer of strikes in shipyards,
The English Labor party proposes
that the Government shall act as agent
in enrolling returning soldiers in la
Dor organizations. But it is probable
that the soldiers viii refuse to be en-
rolled or to follow a leadership that
they have taught themselves to hate.
They will have their own organiza-
ton. hardened in the terrible furnace
of war They will have their own
leaders whom they have followed
against the shell fire and poisonous
gas of the enemy And they will con-
stitute a body almost equal in num-