Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-09-25


cent years. The President, in his adj
dress, is hopeful that the causes of dis
content will be located and Amounted
with Government balm. The Wash
ington statesmen are in search of
the trouble" and like the tramp look
ing for work, praying that they won't
find it. One short year ago every
body knew who to blame, and Mr.. Will
son pointed it out; mo intrigues Of
the enemy can ever divide our unity
by means of those industrial quarrels,
and class discussions which he (the
GERMANY has tried so diligently to TO-
ment," declared the President We
were accustomed, particularly in
Washington, to dismiss discomfort
with a gesture and lay it all up again
st German propaganda" And in
each and every instance when indus
trial quarrels" threatened, the War
Labor Board, with Mr. Taft at its
head, showed wages up another peg.
But the benefciaries of most wage in
creases have complained that the pur-
chasing power of money has shrunk
so fast that their new long pay check
does not get them any further than
their old short ones.
Everyone admitted in our most
troubled days that. labor had fully
met its possibilities in the progress
of human democracies. A good many
who were not ungrudging, said that
capital had also fully set that same
responsibility.
"Ah, but capital profiteered," OBJ
served the Cynic
Correct, but SO did labor" re-
sponded Truth.
"But both, as whole, remained
true to their responsibilities to hui
man democracies, interposed Impair
TALLY.
Granting all this" inquiries E
Pluribus Unum, who's doing the in
triguing now, for everybody knows
that any man in this country has the
right to cease work for any reason
that may be sufficient unto himself;
but there are mighty few employers
who can fire him, Notwithstanding
which there is production at
time when the high cost of living is
pinching everywhere ?"
"Ah, lay it up to distribution, we've
got to have goat now that Ger
man propaganda" isn't in good work
ing ORDER" growled Cynic.
But why is production below nor
NAL at time when unemployment
has given place to a decided scarcity
of women as well as men in industry"
insisted Truth
cts a cinch that somebody is still
intriguing" asserted E Pluribus
Unum.
1t is a clear case for the big con-
ference, with the American public in
the grandstand. Somebody is getting
away with the goods" and the big
industrial showdown between the
principals of Labor and Capital should
uncover the intrigues.
Everybody's Doing 1t.
Let's all strike! The policemen
have been at it in Boston; and the cub
reporters of New Haven whose jobs
ordinarily, aren't wroth a picayune,
have been stacking pens and assert
ing their rights. Actors and actress
es recently joined the proletariat
movement and brought the tyrant
managers to time. A delegation of
red-eyed agitators out in Seattle gave
their orders, first hand to the Pres
ident, while he was there; and they,
like the railroad brotherhoods, in their
talk to Congress, said in substance:
BE quick about things, Mr.. Govern
ment, or We'll tie up the industries of
the country with strikes!"
"Who said SOL" dissents American
Citizen questioningly.
Sam Gompers," is the answer.
And Sam, with his fine organization,
is the biggest single-fsted man in the
United States. Senator Myers warns
that the success of his program in
organizing policemen will extend to
the utilization of the army and navy
with the American Federation of La
Dor. And the Senator is not lone
some in the holding of these views.
Whenecer Secretary of Labor Will
son goes out to make a speech one
might almost suspect that he was
press-agenting for Sam Gompers.
While the Secretary is sane enough
with refernce to the basic differences
between labor and capital, still it is
apparent that his department is very
partisan, and it's attitude towards the
conditions of unrest are, to say the
least, not discouraging to those led
ucated geniuses" outside the agita-
tors ranks whose inhanitorv modes