Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1918-10-18
LAlBOR'$ DAY
Written Federaonist by p Walsh.

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In practice, as we know, the function
of government under this dispense
ton has only too often been the pro-
lection of property owners in the eX-
ploitation of human life. For eX-
emple, l take this from the plea of
an attorney for violently anti-uniOn
shop, in defense of the odious "indi-
vidual contract" designed to deprive
the workers of their chief weapon for
the securing of satisfactory wages:
THE right to make such a con-
tract was an incident of employment
and was part of the constitution
rights of personal liberty and private
property which can not be impaired
by legislative action" etc.
Now, this theory of government
and law was doubtless admirably
suited to the conditions of the time
for which it was formulated, when
the world was just emerging from
feudalism. Land, including that
held by the privileged classes, was
plentiful, and industry was still
largely a matter of individual handi-
craft But with the industrial revo-
luton which soon overlook the Euro
pean and American world, millions of
persons were taken from the soil and
coOped in dingy factories, their lives,
under economic stress, placed as alb
solutely in the keeping of the indus
trial employers as they had previously
been in the control of the feudal
lords. But whereas the feudal lord
would scarcely have permitted any
of his retainers to starve on his
estate. the industrial employer often
felt no such personal responsibility.
For the tradition which made prop
erty the peculiar ward of the state
also constructed theory to free the
property owner from responsibility
for the human beings he exploited.
The law of supply and demand was
exalted as the great king, before
whom employer and employe alike
must bow And this king was above
the law. His person was sacred.
You could not fine him or jail him
for his crimes, for the reason that
you could not lay your hands on him.
Yet by subtle combinations and
manipulations the owners of property
busted themselves to repeal the law
of supply and demand by the rebate
system and the like, which suppressed
free competition in the world of
business and industry. Supply and
demand" was dethroned where it
prejudiced property, but maintained
in tyrannical power where it preju-
diced human life.
Again, private property" invented
special set of ethics to absorb it's
moral responsibility toward human
life. Everybody for himself in this
world" the alibi goes. land the devil
take the hindmost" This is the law
of the jungle. the primitive law
which education has supplanted.
But the jugle law not only said
that everybody is fair prey for every
body else, but also everybody's prop
erty. Property and life were alike
thrown into the scramble. The
jungle has no elaborate set of laws,
enforced by an organized police, for
the protection of property. That is
the creation of our modern civiliza-
ton, which has repealed the jungle
law where it relates to property and
maintained it where it relates to hui
man life.
Here are two so-called laws the
law of supply and demand and the
law of the survival of the fittest-
repealed by property to exploit hui
man life. You can not have 1t both
ways. If the law of supply and de-
mand does not operate as against
property, then it shall not operate as
against human life. If you proclaim
the Jungle law in relation to life. then
we must proclaim it in relation to
property.
During the hearings of the Com
mission on Industrial Relations we
put to large owners of industrial
properties this simple question
"Who is responsible for the human
suffering from which wealth some
times draws it's dividends?" Thu
reply was that the executive man
ayers of the properties determined
the labor policy. And these man
; ayers replied that it was their dut.
to secure dividends for the invested
= capital Somewhere between the tw,
responsibility always seemed to evap
crate.
But the conscience of the nation i
coming to understand that thi
lodging of responsibility can not b
permitted to continue Either prop
> erty is responsible for the health
working hours and living condition
-iof its employees, or it is not. If it Is