Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-02-12
GUAR TEE0

Will Stop tadt 1OuSn
GUARANTEED
working day until it is manifest that
union labors attitude is: No matter
how short the day. it must be shorter
and the pay higher. Manifestly we
are q long way from realizing equal
ity and democracy when some men
work four or five hours and some
men, like the farmers, work fourteen,
! fifteen or eighteen hours. This strike
fever has become epidemic and
malignant since the armistice was
signed and it must be cured. probably
by remedial treatment better than by
surgery. 1t is serious and the sooner
! we realize it the better. Mayor Han
son of Seattle said:
This is not strike; it Is attempted
revolution engineered by anarchists,
! bolsheviki and the I. W. w."
In Butte. Montana. $1,000 miners
have quit work at the call of the I.
W. W., and their action has been en-
dorsed by soldiers who are or
sanizins seviets, haransuins the men
about their rights, and doing picket
duty, while wearing the uniform Of
the United States Army. The cause
of trouble here is a reduction Of 81
per day from the wartime scale of
wages Offset by demand from the
strikers for a six hour day and Sc per
| day wages. Butte has been placed
under martial law and no settlement
Is in sight.
We hear much about the disease of
bolshevism. 1t is this which is caus-
ing all these troubles, but it is not a
! new thing. Only the name is new.
! The thing is simply an ignorant dis
satisfaction with things as they are
which thinks the solution is to des-
troy them all and start over. The
germs are always present wherever
! ignorant labor exists and it happens
that conditions are very favorable at
the present time for their develop
ment. This method of reforming the
world should be too obviously foolish
and wasteful to need refutation, but
labor has for years been believing in
certain threadbare fallacies and for
getting certain important factors. The
chief delusion is that labor produces
wealth. Labor believes that a strike
hurts the employee. 1t doesn't. In the
war we heard much about Time being
the Allies strongest resource. They
could afford to wait. Germany
tai can afford to wait. Labor lives
from day to day.
Organized labor takes a most one
sided view of things. 1t forgets that
| ShSiS GIS 1iohS,
losses that have to be carried in any
line Of activity-it forgets just be-
cause it does not have to carry them.
Labor has no risk and no RESPONSE
bility except the personal ones OF
each individual laborer 1t takes NO
initiative on contracts, enlargement OF
plant, or scope Of business, is no,
much affected by world politics OF
finance, and shares no losses. Yet
leaders of labor today are making
such ignorant and arrogant demands
as to endanger the whole future OF
the world.
Many unions have proven them
selves selfish, shortsighted, forgetfu
of what effects they may produce on
the nations life by breeding class
leaders who appeal to class spirit and
stir UP discomfort to further theil
own ends. OF such Mayor Hanson
says:
Inc labor unions must now cleanse
themselves of their anarchistic elenen
or the labor unions must fall. TneI
are on trial before the people of this
country. l take the position that GU:
duty as citizens stands ahead Of tins
demands of any organization on the
face of the earth. The union men, the
business men, the church men mus,
first of all be citizens. Any man VIII.
owes higher allegiance to any organi-
cation than he does to the government
should be sent to federal prison or bc
deported."
Vice President Marshall gets at the
! root of the matter in his American
creed recently formulated, where he
puts the American people and theil
interests ahead Of class interest and
suggests the remedies.
Il believe that the American republic
as instituted by the fathers, constitute
/ the finest system OF government ever
ordained among men and affords the
| machinery for the righting Of grew
ances without resort to violence, tumult
and disorder.
exists in the social and economic condi-
ton Of the American people Is traceablu
to the successful demands Of interested
classes for class legislation; and l be-
lieve, therefore, that equality can be
obtained uEder our form Of government
| by remedial legislation in the interest
OF the american people and not In the
interest OF anybody thereof. large or
small.
Il believe there is on justification in
q government where officials are elected
and laws made by the people for a mi.