Evening star., 1919-03-02

1 one taxes as aehAiuon Oh
labor any physical or mental
activity engaged in not purely
for pleasure, then he will realize
that the labor problem reaches out into
all the activities of mankind.
In ali of our previous wars, from
the time of Joshua overcoming the
enemies of Israel until Sherman made
his great march TO the sea. 1t was
frequently possible for great armies
to maintain themselves in the coun-
tries through which they were oper-
ating, receiving but a comparatively
small portion of their supplies from
home. In modern warfare that Isl
impossible 1t is frequently estimated
and il is only an estimate, because
no one has made any close scientlhc
survey to determine the exact fact
that it requires anywhere from six
to ten workers in the rear TO maintain
, one soldier in the trenches.
Whatever the exact number may
be, it is apparent to every one now
that it requires large forces, well or
ganized. well directed. in the in
dustrial field to maintain the forces
in the military field. Because of that
change in conditions surrounding
modern warfare. il is now just as i'm
portant to maintain the morale of the
workers at home as 1t is TO maintain
the morale of the soldiers at the front.
The great responsibility of maintain
ing the morale. of securing the neces-
sary supply of labor, of keeping it
actively engaged. rested upon the
newly created Department of Labor;
and it must be said, to the credit OF
the wage workers of our country.
that during the period of the war we
did not have a solitary labor strike
of more than local dimensions or in
volving any considerable number of
our workmen.
There was not a time when any OF
our great munitions factories were
seriously crippled because of any
shortage of workers. And yet, the
attitude of mind of many of the wage
workers of the country was similar
to the attitude of mind of others In
our population. They were peace
loving people, as we all were. They
were anxious to avoid war. And in
the annual conventions of the various
labor organizations in the years gone
by there have been introduced reso-
lutions declaring for the perpetua-
ton of peace and proposing that IL
any international struggle took place
the workers of all countries involved
would Immediately cease their en-
ployment and thereby maintain in
ternationa1 peace
Spirit of the Wage Workers.
| That spirit permeated the whole body
of wage workers OF our country, organ
lied and unorganized. The first step
that was necessary to be taken was to
point out the fallacy Of that position as
/ i. affected the life, the interests, the
liberties of the people themselves. We
used with the wage workers the Illus
trations of their own organizations. We
pointed out to them the fact that labor
organiza tions were not considered as ef-
ficient organizations unless they were
militant, unless they were ready to en-
gage in industrial warfare for the pur-
pose of maintaining industrial justice;
that the belief of the wage workers
themselves was that industrial injustice
was worse than industrial war, and if
that rule applied to our international
relationship, then international wrong
was worse than international war. And
that while we had engaged in conflict
partly out of sympathy for the Belgians,
the French. the Armenians, the British
and out of horror for the manner in
which Germany had conducted her side
of the warfare, the principal reason for
our engaging in warfare was the main
we might have the opportunity Of work
ing out our own destiny in our own way,
unhampered by the mailed fist OF a
kaiser or any other autocrat on earth
The sentiment prevailed among the
workers that this was a capitalisue
war, that all wars were capitalisuc
and that this was one of them. Our
duty, therefore. was to point out that
whatever of deficiency there might be IN
our institutions in this country. we had
the most perfect democracy that had
ever been established upon the face of
the globe; that while workingmen, some
of them, might not have achieved the
ideals that they believed ought to be
placed into existence, their failure, IL
failure had occurred. was due to the
fact that they were unable to secure the
cooperation and consent of majority
of their fellow workers to put those
ideals into effect; and that consequently
our struggle was a struggle for the
maintenance of democracy.
Whatever the origin of the struggle
NAV have been in Europe. whether IL
had been originated because of the de-
sire of capital in various countries to
either extend its influence or to defend
its influence, or had grown out of the
personal ambition OF autocrats, that
with us the attempt of the autocrat to
define what we should do and how we
should do it, even to the extent of say
ing to us that We could send one vessel
a week to England on a given day. by
given route-on a diven day of the
was the exercise of an autocratic au-
thority that no one but subjects could
submit to. Many of our people have
come from other countries; many of
them are natives of this country. Those
who came from other countries came
be subjects; they wanted to be citizens.
Those who were born here were born
as citizens and not as subjects. And we
declared to the working people of this
country that it was our concept OF their
understanding of the situation that they
would sacrifice the very last drop of
their blood, if necessary, in order to
remain citizens of a republic and TO
avoid being subjects of any country
Middle West Agitation.
And out through the middle west,
and at some places in the east.