Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-06
WHAT is WoRk7 WHAT ISN'T?
A NICE NEW WORLD PROBLEM
Who viii Say Word to the Brother
hoods for the Vast Majority That Tolls

| GONE time or other in the happy future
- the pie will disappear utterly as q
weapon of offense in the movies. There
will be no more Shermans in the Senate
| Poets will sucCumb to the pressure of
| public opinion and cut their hair And in
that great day there will be no strikes.
The odd spectacle of the railroad broth
erhoods established firmly in Washington
to usurp the rights and functions of Con-
! gress by formulating revolutionary legis-
lation. not only-as Mr.. Wilson would
| say-but by a candid intention to force
it upon an astounded public shows that
we arc proceeding swiftly toward the in
telectual confusion which always pre-
cedes ordered, and even inspired, reason
ing.
II is not the method of the brotherhoods
that is most interesting in this instance.
1t is the degree of their reliance upon the
strike as solution in times Of difficulty.
One might suppose, after reading Of the
Washington news, that strikes expressed
the wisdom of the ages.
Yet strikes and the reprisals with which
they are met in the weary argument be-
tween capital and labor are alike futile
and illogical. They settle nothing. They
are trials of brute strength. The strong
man wins and imposes his will for time
upon the loser.
Which side in a strike deserves to win
and why does it deserve to win?
How useful to civilization is one or an
other contender for place Of superior
advantage in the economic scheme?
What has he given to the world and
what can he give?
No one in political authority asks these
questions when strike is afoot. But
until disputes in industry are settled ac-
cording to some such considerations as
these there will be no peace-no settled
prosperity in civilized states. No victory
will be permanent.
Ruthless denunciaton of organized
labor for its menacing egotism is not en-
tirely just. Labor when it threatens and
gestures as the railway brotherhoods
have been doing may be charged with
folly or sefshness. Yet it is only prac-
ticns a method learned long ago--and
often in great bitterness-at the knee of
capital Men of the sort who lead the
brotherhoods have apparently inherited
the state of mind of their old opponents
on the other side. They are clearly re-
vealing symptoms of an imperialistic
mood which always leads its victim to a
smash Of some sort.
That sort of reaction was inevitable.
What we need before we can find middle
course, sober settlements and fixed peace
is a new and rational philosophy of eco
nomic values. We shall have to have
some standard by which to determine the
rights or wrongs of industrial disputes
and theories.
There is only one means of determining
the rights of an individual in such cases
and that is a clear conception of the value
and extent of his service to civilization
and his community.
1t is the habit of labor men to believe
that all the rights are with the "work
ers" and the producers" but they ex-
hibt painfully restricted understanding
of the familiar terms. The man who gets
a ton of ore out of the ground is taught
to believe that he is the sole producer of
the worlds riches Yet his ton of ore
would be of little value if there were not
other men specially gifted or unusually
Industrious or talented in some peculiar
way to find uses for his iron, to make it
into fine implements, to increase its value
a thousand fold by the force of trained
or scientific minds.
A pound Of iron is worth few cents.
A pound of watch springs is worth hun
dreds of dollars. Is the patience and
knowledge that make such transforma-
ton possible worth anything? What do
men who practice these qualities con.
tribute to the sum of created values?
The brotherhoods make no secret of
their conviction that they are the rail
roads. But they never would have built
and organized the railroads. The risk,
the daring, the imagination necessary at
the beginning and still necessary must be
possible always only to the lonely and
unorganzed individual whose instincts
are invariably opposed to all that we have
come to talk about as group action.
Other men made the rails and the build
ings. But the Pennsylvania Railroad is
Scott and Cassatt. The Great Northern
and a good deal OF the prosperity of
the great Northwest is Hill. Inventors,
pioneers, visionaries, scientists, investors
who were willing to take long chances
all individualsts to the homemade the
railroad systems of the country possible.
They contributed much. They produced
much. They could not have gone alone.
They had to have the help of the men who
,,o,lyad ont their SchemeS Rut the mo- ~
who gets the iron out is not the only
producer.
There are millions of producers of
whom you never hear. Teachers con-
tribute knowledge. They produce ideal
ism and ideas. Ministers Of Christianity
contribute spiritual disciplneZor the
greatergift of spiritual peace. They are
not at Washington with ultimatums,
though we could get along without rail
roads hetter than we, could oct alono