New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-03
Labor's War
By Winfield r. Gaylord
Ftcc-Prcsidc't, american Alliance for Ldbo
and Democracy


not determined by decisive battles between
armies, but is a struggle between whole
nations. That nation whose ill-to-win"
cndures the longest is the victor.
In modern war three lines must be de-
tended by every nation involved. The first
is the military-thc army and the navy.
This is easily understood. The second line
is the economic. represented by the Ma
tional Council of Defence in our nation
and the various state and local bodies
ISOLATED with the economic problems. The
third is still more difficult to grasp as be-
ing military in its naturc-the moral and
spiritual defence, the defence of ideas and
IDEALS
1t is clear to all minds that the enemy
attacks first or military line. Our
army and navy, our fleets of the sea and
air, under constant menace from the
foe. and he constantly aims to destroy them.
Events of this war have made it quite
clear that the enemy is just as much in
tercsted in destroying our factories our
docks and ships, our railroads and ware
houses, he is in destroying our armies.
These the trenches and Notifications
of the second line.
The DCfeatist Offensive
But the third line is just as VITAL and
sometimes has proven more vulnerable.
The Russian line was 1attened by the use
of words and ideas. And the Italian line
was broken by the use Of printed and
spoken words. Prussian ideas in Italian
words permcated the Italian people. Prus-
sian agents in Italian uniforms circulated
among the Italian soldiers. AS a part of
the Prussian offensive, there is being cir
cuated among all nations the pacihst idea.
In the German Reichstag Eduard David,
Social Democrat said: Germany must
squeeze her enemies with pair Of pincers,
namely, the military pincer and the pacifst
pinccr. The German armies must continue
to fight vigorously while the German Social
lists encourage and stimulate racifsm
among Gcrmany's enemies"
On this third line of defence we must de-
fend our ideas, must preserve national
conscience and our democratic solidarity
Of purpose. The enemy has prepared here
his poison gas, has here laid his mines,
here has his sappers at work. Here we find
our bulwarks threatened with destruction.
The Prussian is at work trying to capture
the very citadel of our political govern
ment, and has the supreme audacity to pro-
mote the candidacy of his own friends, if
not his very agents, for positions OF politi-
cal power. How much cheaper will his
warfare be if he can control the making
of laws-an the making of military ap-
pIOpTlaClOnS. ~ week OF delay IN the pas
sage of a vital military bill here is worth
billions of dollars in ammunition to the
Kaiser; and sufficient amount of con-
fusion in American legislative councils will
place our whole military force at his mercy
Labors Stake in Democracy
For the preservation of loyalty in Amcri-
hearts, fer the preservation of good
faith and mutual confidence among the men
and women of organized labor, for the
safeguarding and development Of the demo-
cratic institutions which the Kaiser would
gladly destroyed because they are
among the chief bulwarks of democracy in
the world, and for the development of that
opportunity and that capacity for organized
self-government which is the greatest
treasure of the democraces of the earth,
the men and women of labor are organized
in the American Alliance for Labor and
Democracy. And to this organization they
invite all whose minds have not been seized
with the foggy phantoms of the Bosheviki
and whose hearts not with the German
Kaiser. TO realize the real possibilities of
democracy on American soil will be the
supreme privilege of the workers of the new
world when they have beaten back the
Kaiser. But not until he has gone back
"back from Flanders. back from France,
back from Serbia, back from Italy and back
from the lands of the Russian peoples" not
until then will democracy be free to take
up its larger and noblcr task
The present task may involve the use of
the weapons Of autocrats against the auto
crat. He must be beaten. But we must
beware lest he whisper words of democracy
in the cars of those who are weak, and
persuade them to open the gates to his
hordes for the destruction of all our
ctadcls Of future hopes We must Guard
ourselves against the very weapons of de-
mocracy in the hands Of his treacherous
agents, who ask for freedom of speech in
the name Of a Kaiser and who invoke the
shbboleths of free press in the cause of
those to whom treaties are but scraps of
paper and human honor and holy ideal,
but masks of deception
This is the war of labor. Let labor see
to it,