The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-12-13
is LABOR WORTHY OF ITS HIRE?
Mr.. Laboring Man:

Mr.. Laboring Man: ~.
The following gentlemen, Mr..
Washburn of the Federal Lead Com
pany, Mr.. Thompson of the st. Louis
Smelling d Refining Company, and
Mr.. Adami of the st. Joe-Doe Run
Company, cannot be held amenable
for the establishing of a tive-day
working \in lieu of a six, and
more often, seven-day working week,
as you have had. These gentlemen
are simply hirelings of the above re-
spective companies and if they wish to
serve their employers faithfully and
well, their only and imperative duties
are to execute the mandates of their
respective companies without let or
hindrance, fear or favor.
But the gentlemen referred to
above are under obligations to treat
all laborers at the plants where they
have supervisory control with that
courtesy and consideration that one
gentleman should bestow upon an
other.
Because of the character of labor
that one man performs may not go
well with fried shirt and a four
in-hand tie, does not argue that he is
not equal and very often the superior
of the high-collared Office man in
those things that enter into the wool
and warp of true manliness and man
hood.
The day is here and is being so rec
ognized by the men of true vision, that
the laborlng man must be recognized
and considered in any worthwhile in
dustrial scheme that has been, or that
may be projected if success is to be
obtained in such scheme or schemes.
The day is past and is only an UNI
pleasant Renaissance, when the la
boring man was regarded as a mere
chattle and as being unworthy of hu-
manly treatment and gentlemanly con-
sideration.
Out of this great war the laboring
man has been transformed into an
uncrowned king, that is, his import
ance as the greatest factor in the
worlds progress and stability is just
now being realized and valued. A
new day has dawned mot the Mile
NAL DAWN and a new deal will be
rolled. out to labor, and that will be
a square deal, which will be of equal
rank to that which will be accorded
to capital.
Men like Charles w. Schwab, head
of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation,
William c. Redfield, Secretary of Com
merce, and Harry A. Wheeler, pres
ident of the Chamber of Commerce of
the United States, have caught the
new vision, for at Atlantic City, on
the 4th inst, these gentlemen attend
ed an assembly of four thousand men,
in which virtually every branch of
business and industry of our country
was represented, and delivered mes
sages on the readjustment and re-
construction problem that is facing
our people in this new day. The part
of these messages directly pertaining
to labor was that labor had an inher-
ent right to organize in it's own be-
half, and that no unfair hand must
be laid on labor.
Mr.. Schwab, heretofore never con-
sidered as the especial friend of la
Dor, delivered himself in this manner:
~ believe in the fairness OF the
American laborer, and ] also believe
that the only foundation upon which
anything can rest with permanency
is the economic use of everything,
matters not whether labor, material
or manufacture, and that any founda-
ton of organized labor or capital thus
not based must utterly fall" that he
seriously doubts if labor ever received
its just share of the prosperity of
this great country. He further said,
shat we, as manufacturers, must open
cur eyes to a wider vision of the |
present and future with reference to
our workmen"' Ways and means
must be devised by which capital and
labor must be synonyms and share
equally, not Sin theory, but in prac-
tice. We must not only talk of these
things but we must do them.
Fellow laborers, these are some of |
the lessons that are being learned and |
assimilated by the captains of indus
try, and the employer of labor who
don't catch the new vision should be
bored for the simples.
In conclusion will say, that if |
meoSlo' Slhie, NueSS. anu Var pSHJeT,
presidents of the companies before
named, don't catch the vision of the
new day, their employees will.
Apropos to the above. The new
"labor week" of five days, no doubt,
prefaces the beginning of the future
policy of these respective companies
and only dimly foreshadows what is
in the minds of these "cormorants of
wealth" to be ladled out to the labor
ing men, of their employ, in the fu-
ture. This action on the part of these
cannot be justified or up
held by any method Of reasoning and
is only subterfhge-a sham. When
We contemplate the huge profits that
these companies have realized, dur
ing the years of 1914, 1915, 1916,
1917, and up to the present time in I
his year of grace, and when we re-
1ect that their laborers have received \
only a small 1.-THE of what was justly {
md honestly due them, and this only
Turing the last two of the fat years,
Turing which they were only partially !
'aid in proportion to the profits which t