Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1918-05-14
AFTER THE WAR.

AFTER THE WAR.
Irwin Fisher political economist Of
Yale foresees a new phase of the
labor problem at the end of the war
and that there Will be grave danger of
discomfort when workers return from
the exciting life of the soldier to the
monotony of the shop. So he and
few others among whom he mentions
tho lafe Dean Parker Ct the University
of Washington and the manager OF
pulp and pape; mill at Sault Ste.
Marie have come 10 the conclusion that
the solution Of the problem is to make
the worker genuinely interested in his
work. In pursuance Professor Fisher
has made an address which intensely
interested the president of the glass
blowers association and which he hopes
will strike a responsive chord in labor
itself.
That there will be reimbursement is
of course when the millions of soldiers
return to civil life. No doubt there will
manner of doubt many of those de-
mands will have to be met and con-
coded by employing agencies. How
ever it is not to be assumed that those
demands will be Of an utterly unrea-
sonable character or that a great dis
content Will manifest itself because Of
the change from a life of danger and
hardship to one Of peace. 1t was not
so at the close Of the civil war. OF
course at the close of that war when
the proportion of returning soldiers
was as great to the population of that
time as the proportion will be when
this war is over there existed the un-
formed and half discovered empire Of
vast opportunities and its lure of
peaceful conquest to the necessities and
the spirit Of the needy and adventurous.
The returning soldier married and'went
west. He found that his place had
been filed while he was gone and that
most OF the fulsome promises made
when ne marched away were forgotten
or repudiated. But he made his place
and took it and with it assumed major
control OF the country he had saved.
The civil war soldier became the
strongest force in the economy OF the
nation. He led in business, in pro-
fessions, in agriculture. He guided and
directed politics. From the army Of
return came the Irresistible impulse
that welded a confederation of states
into mighty nation and sowed UNI
continent. The process of adjustment
was not only logical but elementary. 1t
came because it must come as the
earth settles into place after a quake.
Mankind adjusts itself to conditions.
To the generation in which the ad-
ment takes place that readjust
ment appears revolutionary and de-
structive; but the record of the world
and its progress proves the logic and
centuries look back each upon the past
from a higher level to the lowest level
of barbarism Out of the bloody dust
of great wars and the debris Of world
change grow the marvels Of peace as
the peoples blow above the fields OF
Flanders. Wars won for liberty are the
foundations on which successive gen
erations build higher temples of uni
versal liberty.
So It will be when this monstrous
war Is done and men come gladly
back to peace and the duties and re-
sponsibiilties of peace. That there will
be the jar and attrition Of readjust-
is certain but the great army will
settle itself into the economic whole
in its own way. 1t win come back to
a new conquest of peace, to assume
leadership and to very large degree
control Of the destinies Of the country
it defended and kept whole upon the
maps of the world. We may prepare
ourselves for that event. II conditions
interfere vitality with that readjust-
ment they will adapt conditions to the
needs of the time. For many things
shall pass away and many things be-
come new when 100000 men of
J strength and courage and determine
ton bound together by the strongest