davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
g. uspicious of
~ Patent Remedies

There is little use to sit down to coun-
Gil about Utopia when there arc pressing
problems of bread and butter, clothing and
shelter that demand Immediate attention.
Even if anybody were supremely wise
enough to know what the ideal social order
should be and could hand us out in neatly
done up package the constitution and laws
thereof we would still have to make the
old order work while we were getting ready
for the new. But the American democracy
is suspicious of any ready made new social
order. 1t is willing to let the wise men
think and propose, and it is in a mood seri-
ously to consider their proposals, but in
the mean time it wants to meet the situa-
tion-and will.
But whether the problems be at hand or
distant, though inevitable all hands seem
to be agreed that some sort of instru-
mentality ought to be established forth
with to take both the near and the distant
view. Already three theories of the con-
stltution of this regenerating and remodel
Ing medium have been advanced The Re-
publicans maintain that as the problems are
vital and elemental they are essentially
legislative problems. especially in view of
the fact that Republican Congress has
just been elected which feels that if to the
Democrats fell the monumental wax oppor-
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
Washington Is Struggling With
the Many Problems of
kecOnVerSiOn

The first step toward readjustment then
was merely one toward chaos. and alreadv
there has been backing up in this re-
spect The indscriminate cancellation of
contracts has been stopped and now the
war Department is creating a board to
pass on the question of continuing or
stopping production on all the larger con-
tracts. The War Industries Board is be-
ing advised Of cancellations in advance
so that it can use its knowledge of the
situation to replace cancelled orders with
the non-essential requirements that have
been held up during the war, or with the
requirements of the Allies and neutrals
Tor materials for reconstruction and re-
placement
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
w Railroads ?

In the matter of the railways and the
mercantile marine we are brought now
squarely to the issue Of public versus pri-
vate ownership. Before the war we seemed
to be away from government owner
ship in regard to either. The government
now holds the railways, holds the private
ly owned ships, and is building a vast mer-
chant feet of its own. The question of
the shipping policy will have to be settled
soon, and the railway question must be dis
posed Of within twenty-one months after
the war ends
The subject of public improvements con-
tains immense possibilities relating to the
public welfare. There is talk of spending
$500,00O,000 on a great system of national
highways The figure doesn't seem to-
worry any one. On the existing roads and
those to be built it is proposed to put into
service by the tens of thousands trucks
that were made for war and may now serve
in peace. The city and the country, the
producer and the consumer. are to be
brought into direct and rapid connection
with each, other
The most concrete and at the same time
the most stupendous and novel of all the
great material projects of the new age ID
Secretary Lanes plan to reclaim something
like 250,000,000 acres of unused lands, turn
them into readymade, completely equipped
farms and sell them to returning soldiers,
war workers and others on very longtime
payments. Thus would be created homes
for 10000, 600 peoplc-20 000, 900 producers.
And beyond this scheme is the conception
that II land ho tod ri he
larry that unused estates shall be broken
up and put into small holdings.
Nor should the governmental public
social regenerative and elevatng agencies
be overlooked Americans arc stubborrly
committed to the belief that no matter how
much the government may undertake to do,
there some things that can always be
done better by private individuals or non-
governmental agencies.
The Red Cross, the Y. NJ. GA and SINH
lar bodies and the community service or
CARNATIONS have come into their own
through the war. They will go as a result
of the to an even greater work in
peace. The government and its works will
stand for justice and equality and the
square deal but these organizations will
be the national expressions in substantial
form of the nations high moral aspirations.
of its sense of human fellowship, brother
hood of man and the three old-fashioned
virtues Of faith, hope and charity. All OF
these organizations, chiefly supported as
they are by the great wealth of the nation.
are full of the new impulse toward better
and higher world. not in the great beyond.
but here and now
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
War Has Altered the United States
---Peace Finds Us I'm
prepared

visibility of increased use of machinery,
with view to reducing the need for un-
skilled workmen to a minimum. 1t has
been discovered that the nation has a.
great asset in its enormous numbers of un-
skilled men who may be turned into skilled.
lhls more than ever directs attention TO
the fact that American industrial supremacy
be maintained with the machine and
the highly paid skilled laborer against the
hand labor of other countries The Ship
ping Board is planning its ships more and
more to be congeries of complex machinery,
which it will take skilled and intelligent
men to operate. In this way it is hoped
to be able to compete on the sea against
the cruder ships and large crews of un-
skilled seamen of other nations.
AS the war progressed the Federal gov
ernment more and more took the whole
field of employment into its hands. This
was done a war measure, but it is
not thought that the question of get
ting employer and employe together can
ever again be relegated to private manage
the United States it is held that only
the Federal government can properly act as
general employment agency. Some per-
manent machinery for dealing with the dis.
tribution Of labor in scientific manner is
considered inevitable.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24

lite and conduct Of the American people dur
ing the war, and had the dominant hand in
mussing up the old Order he is the logical
one to take the initiative in laying the
foundations of the new era. Technically
the war is still going on, and his vast war
powers arc still active 1t is not to be
forgotten, cithcr that he has the larger por-
tion of a contingent fund of 100000, 900
on hand to spend as he pcascs While Con-
gress Is playing politics with the subject the
President can go ahead and appoint COM
mittees end commissions galore, and he can
get the best brains of the country in and
out of the government to survey and sub
nit a solution of every problem that vexes
the people and the state.
Whether in relation to the near future
or in relation to that more distant golden
age OF reform and perfection that many
generous souls look TO see issue from the
present confusion, here are some of the big
questions on which the national wellbeing
rests:
1. The labor problem and the manifold
relations of labor and capital.
? Maintaining and increasing the VOL
ume of production Of wealth.
o. i iOiSlSu tldNc pOllcy, Win winch is
Intimately bound up the spacious -ques-
ton of a policy for the new national
merchant marine.
l. Domestic trade policy including con-
troll and regulation OF great corporations
which have become more powerful
through the war.
5. Public Improvements on vast scale.
such as highways, river, harbor and
canal improvements, ocean terminals and
the ambitious land reclamation projects.
6. Future ownership and control of the
railways.
T. Universal military training
s. Universal education and vocational
training.
In dealing with these subjects. and. even
more, in dealing with the greater matter
that is vaguely named as the creation of
a new social order. it is realized that this
1.-THE opportunity Of c.Tcle for a great
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24

tunity to them rightfullv belongs the
equally vast reconstruction opportunity. OF
course the Republicans feel that the next
Congress is the one that should take up
the work. SO they would like to see the
matter deferred until after March 4, when
they would have Congress called together
in special session. The Republican idea
is to have joint Congressional commit
foreign trade, interstate transportation,
domestic trade, relations Of employers and
employees and national resources. If Con-
gress is to have an immediate hand in the
tangle the Democrats would prefer a per-
mancnt reconstruction commission author
ized by act Of Congress, with numerous
membership at liberal salaries and supplied
with large staff This is embodied in
Senator Overman's bill, which was hurriedly
drafted after Senator Weeks, of Massa-
chusetts, embodied the Republican idea in
joint resolution.
rhc Democrats, however are not working
overtime on the Ovcrman bill They are
waiting for signal from the White House.
Perhaps they got this signal at confer
encc some Democratic Senators had with
the President Tuesday evening. The Presi-
dent is believed to hold to the view that
since he is commander in chief of the army
and navy and was general regulator of the
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
Lreedom For
l. Little Business

Concerning the regulation of domestic
trade, it is said that the incidence Of war
industry has contributed greatly to the
fertilization of powerful corporations and
that unless new ways are found of provid-
ing opportunity for small corporations and
individual businesses, they will have very
hard shedding hereafter
The industrial side of the war has re-
vealed the fact that it is possible with
comparatively little training, though of an
intensive nature, to convert an unskilled
workman into skilled one In shipbuild-
ing, Tor instance, green men have been
turned into skilled workers in six weeks. in
stead of the several years that we're deemed
necessary IN peace times. 1t has also been
found an easy matter to convert skilled
man from one trade to another. These
facts have directed attention to the ads
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
Mo Return to
l. y The Old Order

Take the labor problem. 1t is scarcely an
eXaggeration to say that the war has revo-
lutionizcd relations between employers and
employees and that the latter have derived
from it advantages that they resolved
not to surrender The National War Labor
Board will expire as such with the coming
of peace, but it has built up a body of
extra legal capital-labor Jurisprudence that
is not likely to be overthroWn. In some
form its work will have to continue in
peace. its policies and its interpretations
have firmly established in the popular mind
the permanence of such things as a limited
working day, a minimum living wage, the
right of employees to organize, collective
bargaining and equal pay for women. The
cight-hour day, as basis at least, has be-
come almost UNIVERSAL Even the United
States Steel Corporation, which long MAIN
tanned that it was not suited to the steel
industry, has accepted it. But the War
Labor Board, though sort of supreme
court for the settlement of disputes between
labor and capital has not been alone. Some
eight ten adjustment commissions have
dealt with labor matters in as many differ
ent groups of relations between employers
and men where the government was con-
cerned Permanent committees of en-
ployers and employees in the major trades
have been created. Everywhere the view
has gained ground that industry belongs
not to capital or to labor, but to both. We
have made great steps toward the democra-
tlzlng Of industry without infringing on the
conception of private property.
Now labor is going to insist henceforth
that it be spared the misery of unemploy-
ment 1t has practically won the conten-
ton for minimum living wage, no matter
what the work. Now it desires continuity
of income. That means that somehow en-
ployment buffers must oe created The pro-
posed solution of this problem is that all
great public works be held in reserve for
periods OF business depression, absorbing
workers times get bad and dispensing
with them times improve and private
employment calls to them. Samuel Com
pers told us the other day that labor is 60
ing to insist on the high rate of wages it
has won during the war. AS long as infla-
tion keeps up and business keeps going on
the present plane that is possible, but when
the purchasing power of the dollar begins
to increase nominal wages will begin to go
down. But whether measured in nominal
or actual pay, wages will henceforth be
higher. Labor will get and capital
less the wise ones tell US Ii that be the
case, it is the business Of government to
help industry to keep its wheels turning
at all times, and we come to problems
of increasing production and finding outlets
for the goods. Moreover, the policy of the
various labor adjustment boards of
regulating wages according to the purchas-
ing power of the dollar supplies the begin
nings OF scientific method OF determining
nominal wages in order to keep real wages
IN line with the varying cost of living.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
# American Life Is Opening to a New Chapter

roads, and Illinois has gone her $4,000 600
better Then there is Secretary of tho In
terror Lane, with his present reclamation
service and his spacious scheme of ultimate
reclamation of all the waste land of tho
country Irrigation projects already planned
and surveyed and laid out in the ordinary
course of the work of the reclamation ser
vice could give immediate employment to
loo,ooo men if Congress were to supply the
funds. With the launching of the greater
project of reclamation and it's feature of
ready made farms, work could soon be pro-
vided for 100000 men.
The rate of rehabilitation of the army
and navy will be a great factor in the
solution of the rcadjustmcnt of human
units. Until the soldiers are back i'm
mensc numbers of temporary workers in
both essential and non essential industries
will hold their places and if the soldiers
drbble back to civil life there will be little
dlslocation Hence students of the post
pellum labor question are calculating on
how long it will take to bring the army
back from France and are advising that
the men in camps and cantonments at home
be released gradually and as civic life di-
rcctly calls for them. instead of en- massc
1T IS hoped that large numbers of the SOL
dlers in France can be diverted for period
to~helplng in reconstruction there and in
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24

Belgium, or in policing the defeated coun-
tries. Indeed the shipping situation may
be such that it will actually be necessary
to seek employment abroad for the men
while they waiting for the tagging
ships. Britain moved about so per cent of
our soldiers overseas, but no agreement
was made concerning their return. The
men of Australia, New Zealand, South Africa
and Canada, many of whom have been
abroad for three or four years. anxious
to get home, and they arc likely TO have
the first call on British ships Ii we were
to turn all our ocean tonnage to the task
of bringing back the American soldiers it
could be done in short time. But the
national life and wcllbeing as a whole de-
pend largely on keeping up a minimum OF
foreign commerce. The soldiers must not
be brought home to country commercially
paralyzed because of the effort TO get them
back promptly
Rehabilitation, CT supreme Importance TO
the individuals and families it VIII deal
with, is relatively an unmportant problem
because of the comparatively small number
of casualties and the excellent health that
has prevailed in the army The surgeon
generals Office will begin this work, and
the Federal Board for Vocational Education
and the Red Cross will carry it on. The
total American casualties in the war prob
ably do not exceed 100000. and the number
of permanent crpples will not be more than
ten or twenty thousand Unlike England
France and the other countries engaged in
the great war, America will not be land
of cripples for generation. A kind Provi-
dence has spared us that trial, and there is
no doubt that the impaired men will be
looked after and assisted "to get on their
feet" as no wounded soldiers ever were be
fore.
50 far the problems of immediate read
juatment are being dealt with by many
different agencies which formerly worked
toward war and are now working toward
peace. There is no readiustment or recon
struction board, commission or adninistra
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
Earms and
L. Highways Need Men

Another sponge that is counted on to soak
up many of the war workers is agriculture,
from whose toilers large numbers were di
verted to war work The farms of the coun-
try are shorthanded, but it is going to be
a very difficult matter TO get large numbers
of the former farmhands to go back to
the soil. Town life has spoiled them for
rural life. They have come to love group
work and the crowd. They prefer excite
ment to placidty. Inevitably there will be
a period of unrest and instability. Between
the war job and the final peace job tenn
porary employment will be necessary. This
suggests the stimulation of all possible
forms of emergency employment. Fortu-
nately large field of that sort is available.
Public improvements of all kinds have been
delayed or suspended during the war. 1t is
, estimated that public works have been
duced at least 25 per cent. If the Federal
government, the states, counties and cities
should at once begin to make up for lost
time projects already decided upon and
in no sense merely work-supplying enter
prises it is believed that they could provide
employment for a million men for ninety
days. New public Improvements could take
care of hundreds of thousands more.
There is no question that a great era
of highway building is about to begin, and
prompt action would start much of this in
time to mitigate if not prevent the suffer
ings of unemployment. Congress is ex
pected to go in for great scheme of ma
tional roads, and the various states are
tackling the road problem on scale hth
erto undreamed of. Pennsylvania has Just
voted bond issue of S50,000,oOO for state
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24

step forward toward better world. 1t is
realized that the group or groups of men
who are to deal with these subjects must
be ready, on the one hand. to accept what
is practical and timely and what is adapt
able to the American genius, and be ready,
on the other hand to reject the pure theor
lists and the paper schemes that Will rise
like mushrooms hot and moist night.
The idea is to take advantage of the
present state Of public opinion before it
shall begin to solidify as it gets away from
fusing events, in order to crystalline 1t IN
the end into attachment to new ideas of
the relations of men to one another and TO
the state This is an of good feeling.
Men have become benevolent under the
softening influences Of sacrifices and united
efforts for the common good Thinking OF
the public interest supreme III war, they
are now inclined to think Of it as supreme
in peace.
Around a thousand conference tables,
where harmony instead of discord was the
object of all, capitalists have come to see
from the viewpoint of the manual workers
and the latter have come to and under
stand the problems of employers. 1t may
be superficial view, but it would seem that
in America the war has tended to abolish
classes and social groups rather than to
give them sharper outlines.
Talk about Bolshevism in America the
public mind now stands is merely the intel
lectual diversion of dilettante philosophers
who think that whatever happens in Eu
rope may, and perhaps ought, to happen
here At the moment all America seems to
be agreed that this is a goodly land, the
best Of all, and that it is the firm purpose
of all to make it better still. All classes are
receptive; one is any longer dogmatical.
Everybody has his eye better future,
but all are anxious not to lose what we have
in the quest of something better. Anyway,
whether we shall go further along the road
or not, there is no denying that we have
done some travelling since the began
and that there is no chance Of the footsteps
being retraced.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
nn the Threshold
~ Of Events

SO much for what the thinkers are thinks
ing of and the dreamers arc dreaming of.
Their thoughts will take form and their
dreams assume substance, so far as our
generation Is concerned. largely according
to what is decided and enacted in the next
two years, the two years of Elasticity that
the students expect to precede the con-
gealing of public opinion. What is accom-
plished will depend in great degree, they
say, on how successful the builders of the
new time may be in appealing to public
opinion and in shaping it along sane but
progressive lines in the next few months.
Publicity is to be the alembic. The influences
that converted a hundred million pacifsts
into relentless combatants for noble
cause wlll be, if the champions of the new
era nave ther way set to work to stir the
people up to a great forward step in social
and economic betterment while the going ia
good.
The manner in which the reforms of re-
construction are brought before the people
and the way IN which public opinion ia
crystaillzed WILL it is held by the advo-
Gates OF reforms, be the real test OF our
democracy and of the sincerity of the nro.
LESSONS OF good will now heard on all
sides. If selfish interests are held in chaclr
and every encouragement is given to a full
and free discussion OF the many and various
problems with full confidence on all sides
mat such consideration will eventuats
IN measures for the general good, regard
less Of their effect on special interests. it
IS confidently believed that all measures
decided upon will be in line with the or
DERBY evolution of the American democracy.
ana that there will not be the faintext
danger of there appearing here the wild
ana erratlc efforts to reform by force and
bitter class legislation that are the mensrs
Of Europe to-day.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24

ton. A few weeks before the armistice
was signed the President did request
Messrs. Baruch, Garfield. Mccormick and
Hoover to begin to consider unscramblng
plans, but they were too busy scramblng
right up to the moment the last gun was
fired to pay much attention to the new task.
There has been much talk of the creation
OF an executive comm ssion to deal with
adjustment but at this writing no action
has been taken in that direction though
there have been many conferences at the
White House relating both to the proxmate
and ultimate problems the war has left
behind. 1t is expected that the President
will deal with both phases in his annual
message to Congress next month. The gen
eral impression is that the President is
convinced that the agencies that have made
war will be able to make peace though they
may leave behind them some rcsiduary
legacies that will fall to those to whom
may be ntrusted the colossal task of for
muatlng policies for the new era
New-York tribune., 1918-11-24
My, What a Mess They Made!

csts, policies and parties, likely battle
royal between the legislative and cxecu-
tive, also between conservatives and lib
erals. Reconstruction problems Of this
nature may be divided into two classes.
First Those that call for prompt solution
in order to maintain the stability of indus
try and labor and prevent economic deprcs-
sion and unrest and that arise directly from
the unsettlement of society by the war
effort.
Second-Those that relate to elemental
recoHstruction-in fine, to new order of
society,"