Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-03
Conditions in England and
United States at This Moment
Are Almost Similar in Character
Comment in Article London
Points Passing of Old
Labor and Capital Must Hereafter Work Together
BY CHARLES A. EATON

as good as the best. In mining and
the steel industry he is not compet-
ing with men of his own breed, eX-
cept in part; for large proportion
OF the iron and mine workers of
America are from central and
southern Europe. Why should a
Pole or Slav in America mine more
coal or produce more steel products
than an Englishman in England?
Is it a question of machinery or
method, or is it state of mind?
Except for the vastly greater eff
fort put forth by Britain in the war,
conditions are very much alike in
America and here at the present
moment In both countries the
masses of men have greatly i'm
proved their position during the
war. Drastic taxation has taken the
money from the rich and high
wages have distributed it among the
working classes. The middle classes
are close to ruin because of high
taxes, high prices and little or no
increase in salary. Trade and in
dustry are more or less dislocated
by new world conditions created by
| the war. Government interference
| with the business and liberties of
the individual has grown like a
cancer. And the fanatic, faddist,
| anarchist and Bolshevist is busy day
and night seeking to create revolu-
| ton, tear down tested institutions
! and usher in the millennium by
killing the goose that lays the
| golden egg. We have in both coun-
tries wise and worthy leaders both
among employers and employees.
But these men, who are Americans
| and Englishmen first and class men
second, are being pushed aside by
wild extremists of the TrotZ' y type,
whose ignorance of the laws of life
is equaled only by their invincible
| aversion from work. l do not be-
lieve that either the radicals in la
bor or the reactionaries in capital
| represent the respective classes.
L do not believe that any policy
can be devised, in the present un-
settled condition of the world, which
will work successfully for any
length of time or in any large area.
But 1 should be untrue to my deep
est convictions were 1 to close this
statement without frankly saying
a few plain words about certain
| things that must be done here and
in America at once if we are to es-
cape economic chaos and serious
suffering.
In the first place, employers and
employees have got to get together
on a basis of national service. 1t
is plain treason for either labor or
capital at the present time to ad-
vance their own interests by de-
structive and revolutionary strikes
or cunning financial manipulation.
The progress and prosperity of
both depend upon the well-being of
their country as a whole. Every
body must quit thinking in terms
of a class and begin to think in
terms of a nation. We must work
for England just as our soldiers and
sailors fought for England.
Let us face the fact that we never
can go back to the old times; and
let US find a way of all working to-
gether for the common good. This
new attitude of mind is absolutely
alien to the class hatred and ma
terialistic madness that have come
out of Russia to infect and bedevil
the world We need spiritual
awakening. You cannot make a
permanent society by tying a bundle
of selfish folk together with some
rotten string of class or self
interest. The destiny of man is in
his soul, and we must find some
way of driving out suspicion, envy,
hate and i'll will before we can Gre
lations. The cure for i'll will is in
telligent self-discipline in a humane
and moral conception of life. The
way to get rid of small idea is to
put a big idea in it's place.
Let us tell the truth to each other.
The normal Englishman or Ameri-
can has no more use for "prole-
tartan dictatorship" than he has for
) the rule of DANGEROUS lunatic
And much of the back-wash from
this madness is alien to the best
. ideals of the English-speakine
worlkingman as it is repugnant to
his intelligence. If / were work
, ingman now as l was for many years
: of my life I should be deeply de-
pressed by the desperate efforts be-
| ing made at the moment of my
) country's need and danger to reduce
) my life to the stature of weakling