Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1918-03-28
CONSUMPTION AND
AGAIN CONSCRIPT

on the Nations demands for means
to win the war. All that is asked
is that burdens be laid with equity
so far as there is wisdom to dis
Germ equity. The loudest applause
that Mr.. Davis drew in his splen--
did address was his proposition to
conscript labor that dogs not show
willingness to do its part in the ap--
palling task before us. But there
is a proposition that needed saying
right with that, and there is no rea--
son for thinking that Mr.. Davis
would have omitted it If time had
permitted discussion of all the
phases of the war. But as he lett
it unsaid it seems highly important
to give it utterance here. 1t is
this: CONSUMPTION that is laid I'm :
evenly ON citizens is the end CT
Democracy. And the timeliness of
this remark is precisely in connec--
ton with the trouble of getting men
to stay at their work. Mr.. Davis re-
ferred in general way to strikes;
he might have referred i'm very
particular way to method of de-
laying Government work that is as
damaging as the strike and Yet has
hardly name in our conversations.
AT the factories they call it the
turnover of labor. This is how it
words: "in the great Hog Island ship
yards they use 100000 men, In order
to keep that number at the benches
they have to hire 10000 every month
The equivalent of entire force quits
the job every thirty days with no
care whether the UNITED STATES
ever gets another gun or ship plate
made. If that were the whole story
We had better hurry the "boys" back
from France to take care Of the
traitors at home.
But it is hardly the first chapter
of the story 1t would be the equi--
valent of a lie to omit right here
that England had the same trouble
and has solved it not only without
COHSCIlptlOu Dut III ouNu d "oJ 90
to get the best labor returns that any
State has ever secured. And this is
the way she did it. Before starting
out to fight a civil war upon the men
who held the secret and skill for
making the munitions, she exercised
the fundamental right of every ma
ton and took for Governmental pur--I
poses the land she needed paying
for it pre-war price. She also ex
ercised the same right as to ma
terial paying for it ON the same
basis, and then detailed men to go
firm the ranks and build houses for
worhmen; yes houses, but not only
houses. Sc built cities for them
with all the conveniences and attrac-
tons that well to do man wants
around his home, and rented the
houses at what some Englishman
naively called "shockingly''lo pri--
ces. Her investment in this way
is half billion dollars, al of which
will come back into the public treas
ury to help ease burdens when the
war is won. The result is that the
workman has a margin between earn
ings and expenses, and is content
ed. Anyhow the turnover of labor is
thing of the past in those Govern
ment cities and every man and wo--j
man living there has fine feeling
that tn Government has shown
care for them enough that they areII
warranted in flinging themselves in
to her service without reserve.
We have done the same thing at
our munitions cities-Not. When the
great plant near Philadelphia was
located, land spectators rushed
from the Hobbies of Congress and
bought every Foot of land that could
be used for workmens homes and
the price they put on it when the
builders arrived, no man knows SO
workman gets an inkling of 1t every
rent paying day His rent must pro-
vide an income on all the graft of
the Spectator, and the unprecedent--
wage he receives is all swallow
ed up by the profiteer's demands.
Another case on smaller scale
and more in the open may help us
to the beginning of knowledge AT a.
new town built by the DUPONT people
for a powder plant thiss happened
to land values. They selected as a.
site an old farm down in Virginia.
1t had been on the market at 10000 /
dollars, with no taker, but when
The Government powder makers need |
I'd it they had to pay, $3.50, 900 for
,n1y part Of the tract. That was
he site for the factory. Tho Du- :
Points do not stand to lose any '
hing by the initiation for they will t
;harge more fer the powder and /
ecoup themselves. But when the t
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