Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-10-30
THE WORLDS CENTER


CONGRESS. for the time being, is little
" more than an incident in the life of
Washington. Debates, expressive of pur
poses that have national or international
scope and suggestive Of an authority that
frankly aims to rival or inspire cstab-
ished government, are filling the air of
the capital The orators in the House
and Senate have competition at labor
HEADQUARTERS, in the Womcns Trade
Union Congress and in the great inter
national labor congress that has just as
sembled under the authority Of the coun-
Gil of the league of nations. Washing
ton has become the center of the world.
If Mr.. Mckinley or Mr.. Hanna were to
return they would not know the city.
They would not recognize the terms in
which national affairs are being dis
cussed. They would have to feel that
they were in the presence of powerful
forces that have not yet been defined in
any acceptable political doctrine, though
they certainly arc moving the world. The
radicals of a generation ago are the con-
servativcs of today.
The various labor conferences and the
lllullu'T VI ulStuSSlUIl lIISDIICu ny SIlIkpS
and labor agitators have q common i'm
pIicatiou. They express the willingness
Of society to admit that political generali-
cations alone cannot meet the needs Of
time in which human affairs are subject
to forces of which older statesmen never
dreamed. Vast and intricate organza-
tions of capital, the enormous expansion
Of industrial activity, due to mechanical
processes; the trend of women and chill
dren into this industry and the instinc-
tive drift of labor into powerful and am
bilious groups have brought new COM
plications to trouble those who aim to
keep life free and justice assured for all
people at all times. Congressman and
senators may proitaby listen with re
spcct and attention to much that will be
said by their present rivals in what you
| might call the pulpit of tho world, For
| the labor debates, in Washington these
! days will reflect a mood that is general
| in every country and a desire common
| to all humanity, to make its social insti-
| tutions better fit the life of each indi-
! vidual in times that have changed so
rapidly as to leave many an od-fashioned
politician gasping at the rear of the
| social procession
1t is significant that Washington
| should be the scene of this newer mani
festation of advancing opinion. But it is
even more significant to observe the man.
ner in which representatives of labor and
industry alike have approached the diff
cult tasks appointed for them. Undoubt-
edly there are selishness and narrow
mindedness apparent occasionally on
both sides. But there are always the de-
termination on each side to "see what
the country thinks and an unconscious
desire on the part Of radicals and stand
| patters alike to "put it up to the people"
These are healthy signs. The jury in
| this instance is first the common society
of America and then the common society
of the world. The steel strike was lost
because its leaders We're declared guilty
of something muchS like dishonesty. The
coal miners may yet study the steel
strike with profit. But larger than the
steel strike or the proposed coal strike is
the effort of the international labor con-
ference to find way by which strains
of this sort may be made unnecessary.
Congress, instead of refusing to allow
official American participation in that
conference, might well have appointed
committees Of its members to sit in.
They might not have learned anything.
But they might have unlcamed much.