The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1918-09-06

moments. In this sense war is hell,
whether it be military or industrial
But, in spite of such unwelcome ac-
compartments, we feel that war is
sometimes justifiable. It's larger aims
justify it, Notwithstanding its horrid
accompaniments. Today we owe it to
labor to look at it's larger aims.
make bold to say that they are aims
with which every Christian man and
denomination should sympathize. Let
me examine some of them in the hope
that | may increase our friendliness
toward them.
Justice Chief Aim.
"And first among these aims ! would
name justice. If labor leader were
asked to give a single reason for the
unions existence he would answer
without hesitation: TO get simple JUS
tice' 1t will not do to answer him
that workingmen would get all any
how without organizing 1t would take
a great deal of temerity to say that.
1t is not so. Generally speaking, un-
organized workingmen in the past
have not gotten justice in wages, hours
or living conditions. Broadly speaking
still, they are not at this very hour
getting it. Take the unorganized rail
way clerks as crying proof of it, The
brotherhoods, from the locomotive en-
gineers down to the switchmen, have
gotten advances in pay commensurate
with the advances in the cost of living
By pressure upon congress they got
reduction of hours, until they could
have a reasonable fraction of their
time with their families. But until
the government@took over the railways
the unorganized clerk where outrage
ously treated both in the matter of
pay and Of hours. If any economies
were to be put in practice they were
put on them. If double work was to
be given out, it was piled on their al
ready overburdened shoulders. They
were hit hard, because it was known
they were in no position to hit back.
Individual Is Weak.
eve may as well recognize, first as
last, that as things stand today the in
dividual is too weak to bargain single
handed with group. If men in one
hemisphere of industry-the hemi-
sphere we call capital-organize the
men in the other hemisphere must fol
low the instinct of self representation
and organize likewise. If the captains
of industry draw together and agree
upon a policy and an attitude, so will
the privates. They have to-
Otherwise they would leave them
selves at the mercy of the man who
hires them. 1t would be for him to de
termine absolutely the portion of the
substance accruing from industry that
should fall to them.
II am we'll aware that there are
huge associations of employers who
argue that this is exactly what shoulc
be done Any other course, they say
denies man the right to run his owT
business. But the very language they
use-'running their own business be
trays them. It reveals a mediaeva
type of mind. 1t is the old feudal con
ception of lord and vassal-the lore
determining the living conditions Of
the vassal and the vassal supinely ac
cepting it on the ground that it is not
for him to question the wisdom or the
infallibility of his betters. 1t is toC
late in the day to try to hold onto thai
outworn feudal conception There arr
three parties vitally concerned in tht
way an industry is managed: First
the men who put their money into it
second, the men who put their labol
into it, and third, the general public
Where industry is ideally managed
each Of these three parties has som,
voice in the control; the managers AM
the men will have their voice thru col
lective bargaining; the general publ
will have it's voice thru legislation
such as factory acts and workmen'
compensation laws.
1 "There was time when the genera