Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-10-18

i<dUOI LAY. lJlC, DIS d uds w Hill
American wage-earners celebrated
with a good heart. They celebrated
it with the slogan officially adopted
for it by the American Federation OF
Labor-"Win the War for Freedom
knowing that it is industrial free
dom as we'll as political freedom tC
which the American government is
officially committed. Labor Day
1918, may confidently be taken,
believe, as marking a definite step
in silent and peaceful revolution
which is sweeping this country in
favor OF the traditional policies for
which organized labor has so long
contended.
Not so much, l fear, could have
been said for Labor Day, 1917. At
that time labor had, it is true, many
notable victories to record, but they
were too often mere defensive vic
tories The movement to break down
legally established safeguards for
labor, especially for women and
children, had been effectively halted.
The abuse of the injunctive process
had been denounced by federal law.
Conditions everywhere had been i'm
measurably improved. Yet labor's
position on the whole was still prec-
arious. Though wage-earners had a
reasonable assurance that selfish in
terest would not be permitted ruth
lessly to take advantage of them,
they could not feel confident that
their rightful position in the COM
would be recognized.
One outstanding fact, however,
gave promise of more to come. That
was the governments agreement
with the unions on cantonments and
other government work guarantee
ing union recognition and union
standards. This has since been OK
tended in the agreement of the
Shipping Board, with it's $4,000
shipbuilders. of the War Department
with it's machinists, in the trend. of
the mediation proposals made in la
Dor disputes within government de-
partments (as instanced by the
award of the Shipping Board in the
Great Lakes Seamen's case) and in
many others.
In the principles and policies of
the National War Labor Board, Of
ficially promulgated by President
Wilson, most of the basic trade
union principles were announced as
the axioms governing the settlement
of industrial disputes. These prin-
ciples were established by an in
creasingly enlightened public opin-
ion, because no others were adequate
to meet the enormous demands OF
wartime democracy What was in
evitably coming to labor through la,
boris own efforts, came more quickly
because the war was speeding up the
processes of evolution. The wal
forced the nation to face the facts
and facing the facts the nation saw
the need of treating with labor as ar
equal and granting to it measure Of
industrial justice.
l have said that this change
amounts to a step in silent revolu
ton. What has happened, l think
is this: The nation has begun def
initely to assert the absolute right O
human being to the labor of hi
hand and brain, even when that RICH
conflicts with the accumulation o
wealth.
need hardly say to trade unionist
that this right has never received
such general recognition either in tn
law or in the conscience of the ma
ton as it has since our country en-
tered upon this righteous war. Their
has, generally speaking, been no lay
and no principle requiring an EN-
ployer to deal justly with his EN-
ployes. There has been no LAY
which the employee could invoke eve
to secure himself decent living
though there were a multitude c
laws which the employer could il
woke to prevent him from getting i
The whole framework and spirit {
our laws, inherited from the dea
past, have been designed primaril
for the protection of so-called pro-
| erty rights. According to the theol
| which was thus handed down to u
| the chief function of government hi
! been to protect property while lea