Denver labor bulletin., 1918-11-23
LABOR OF AMERICA BUILT BRIDGE
TO FRANCE so WAR COULD BE WON
Magnitude Labors the Great World Conflict
Now Being Realized; United States Employment Service
Be Greatest Factor in Readjusing Industrial Con-
dons Thruout This Nation.

There was splendid response to the
| nations need when men in full
strength and vigor were summoned
from nonessential jobs to wartime
production. As occupations were
| added from time to time to. the nom
| essential list, the munitions factories
and other war work received a supply
of recruits who have given excellent
service to the country.
Here again came an instance of CO.
operation between employer and en-
ploye. At first few factory owners
felt some apprehension about placing
young men without experience in ma
chine work. Nevertheless, the factory
gates were opened for their reception
and everything possible was done to
instruct them in the work required to
turn out war materials.
Labor has kept the stream of guns
and projectiles, of foodstuffs, and
clothing, moving forward steadily dur
ing the past year and half. So eff
GENTLY has the American workman
performed his task that America has
practically supported the world, and
yet the people at home have suffered
no real hardships.
Coal Was Great Problem.
Coal presented one of the great
problems of the war. Coal is a vital
necessity to all forms of war work
to the factories that produce war ma
terials, the homes of the workmen,
the railroads and ships that transport
goods to all parts of this country, and
to our soldiers abroad. Many miners
had been called into the army; the de-
pleted number that remained must
produce more coal than had ever been
mined before, to supply the wartime
need.
Miners who had long considered
themselves ION the shelf" who had
accumulated money enough to tide
over their declining years, volunteered
to come back to the mines to help de-
feat the German. Miners in the South
gave up their Labor Day holiday
day which means more to the work
man than almost any other in the year
They remained steadily on the job, and
have accomplished a great task.
But the job is not finished. The la
Dor department keeps this message
before the workman: mot until peace
is actually signed will we have peace.
The processes of production must go
on and on; there must be food, coal
and clothing enough for the world"
Splendid Cooperation.
In all these mighty feats of labor
the production of the worlds supply
of wheat, the building of countless tons
of shipping, the mining of coal for
thousands of industries and a great
army and navy--American employers
have, on the whole, stood firm with la
Dor. Such men as Vanderlip and
Schwab have realized, and have said,
that the time is at hand when the
workingman, whether he works with
his hands or his brain, is the only man
who really counts.
The men who work with brain have
done their full share with those who
give their Drawn. There have been,
of course, few employers who have
refused to move forward, and who
have closed their eyes to the trend
of the times. There was, for example,
the man who asserted his right to burn
his factory rather than let the nation
or the workman have anything to say
about it's operation. There was also
the large New England firm which,
by its autocratic methods of dealing
with the help, forced the nation to
act in its own behalf. But such en-
ployers are as rare as the irresponsi-
BILE agitator. The old type of busi-
ness man who considered his own in
terests against the world has seen his
day and will never return.