The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-05-20
Regrets Inability to be Present at Special Ses-
sion, Thinking it His Duty to Remain
at Peace Conference.
Recommendations BY Mr.. WILSON
Would Repeal War Time Prohibition Act,
Return Railroads to Owners and Give
Ballot to Women.

your own thoughts. hope that | shall
speak your own Judgment also.
The question which stands at the
front Of all others in every country
amidst the present great awakening
is the question of labor; and per-
haps | can speak of it with as great
advantage while engrossed in the
consideration Of interests which af-
feet all countries alike as could at
home and amidst the interests which
naturally most affect my thought,
because they are the interests of our
own people.
| BY the question Of labor, do not
mean the question Of efficient in.
tdustrial production, the question of
| how labor is to be obtained and made
effective in the great process of sus-
tanning populations and winning suc-
cess amidst commercial and indus
trial rivalries.
! / mean that much greater and
| more vital question, how are the
men and women who do the daily
labor of the world to obtain pro-
gressive improvement in the condi-
tions Of their labor, to be made hap
pier and to be served better by the
communities and the industries
which their labor sustains and adj
yances? How are they to be given
| their right advantage as citizens and
! human beings?
| We cannot go any further in our
present direction. We have already
| gone too far. We cannot live our
| right life as a nation or achieve our
| proper success as an industrial COM
munity If capital and labor are to
! continue to be antagonistic instead
| Of being partners; if they are to
1 continue to distrust one another and
| contrive how they can get the better
of one another; or, what perhaps
amounts to the same thing, calculate
! by what form and degree of coercion
! they can manage to eXtort on the
one hand work enough to make en-
| terprise profitable, on the other JUS
| tice and fair treatment enough to
make life tolerable. That bad road
| has turned out blind alley. 1t is
| no thoroughfare to real prosperity.
! We must find another leading in an
other direction and to a very differ
ent destination. 1t must lead not
merely to accommodation, but also
to a genuine cooperation and part
nership based upon real commu-
nifty of interest and participation in
control.
There is now. in fact, a real com
munity Of interest between capital
and labor, but it has never been
made evident in action. 1t can be
made operative and manifest only in
| new organization of industry. The
genius of our business men and the
sound practical sense of our work
ers can certainly work such a part
nership out when once they realize
exactly what 1t is that they seek and
| sincerely adopt common purpose
with regard to it.
| Labor legislation lies, of course,
chiefly with the states; but the new
spirit and method of organization
which must be effected are not to
be brought about by legislation so
much as by the common counsel and
voluntary cooperation of capitalists.
managers and worlSlnen.
Legislation can go only very
little way in commanding what shall
be done. The organization of indus
try is a matter of corporate and in
dividual initiative and of practical
business arrangement. Those who
really desire new relationship be-
tween capital and labor can readily
find way to bring it about; and
perhaps federal Legislation can help
more than state legislation could
The object of all reform in this
essential matter must be the genu-
inc characterization of industry,
based upon full recognition of the
right of those who work, in whatever
rank, to participate in some organic
way in every decision which directly
affects their welfare or the part
they are to play in industry. Some
i positive legislation is practicabls-