Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-12
WE ARE ALL MEMBERS
OF ONE GREAT BODY
And Workers Should Not Be lndIferent
When Their Employers Confer on
Legislative Programs

WHEN the wage-earners see III III; inc
w papers today the reports of the DIM
ner to Senator Penrose at the Manutac-
turers' Club last night they are likely TO
pass them by.
Of what interest to them are gather
ings of bankers and manufacturers and
politicians?
The workers too often think the men
with money live in a different sort of
world and have forgotten that there IS
such a thing as human brotherhood.
And there is occasionally justification
| for this view. But the excuse for it does
not obtrude itself so often as it used to
| do.
The world is learning that brother
hood pays in dollars and cents. The re-
| ligious teachers have been saying this
for centuries, but they have been talking
to deaf ears and presenting their Illus
tratons to blind eyes, yet they have not
been discouraged. They can take heart
now because within recent years great
employers of labor have increasingly
recognized that employer and employe
are members of one great organism, and
fers all the members are inconvenienced.
Although the speakers at last nights
dinner discussed political and economic
questions primarily from the, point of
view of the employer, not one of them
was ignorant of the fact that the rights
of the employe are involved equally with
those of the employer in the legislative
program discussed.
No one should forget that the pros
perity of America is due largely to the
past activities OF the Manufacturers
Club and similar organizations. AS
Congressman Moore points out on this
page today, there was time when this
club was the leader in the demand for
an adequate protective tariff system.
The success of its efforts has brought
good wages and comfortable living con-
dtions to the workers in protected in
dustries not only in Pennsylvania, but
in every other state. The Penrose din
ner. attended by 200 business men, is
evidently a move in the campaign to
secure by legislation a guarantee that
the old-tme prosperity shall be made
secure.
The outline by Senator Penrose and
Senator Watson Of what must be done
commends itself to the common sense of
the average man. 1t deserves serious
consideration for the reason that these
senators are Republican leaders who will
be influential in the new Congress, and
can assist in doing that which should
| and must be done
4 The first duty of Congress, after pass
ing the appropriation bills held up by
the last Congress, is to undo many of
the things which the Democratic Con-
crosses have done. Some of these things
we're necessary because of war condi-
tions, but they have continued long
enough.
For example, arbitrary power was del
egated to the executive departments, and
was used in an arbitrary manner. The
excust for this legislation no longer
exists. We must return to the whole.
some division Of power between the
:, executive and Congress at the earliest
possible moment.
The government has been permitted tc
|
, as the railroads and the telephone, tee
graph and cable lines, and it has beer
allowed to interfere to such an extent
| in the financial affairs of great business
l enterprises which have remained in the
control of their owners that nothing Of
e importance could be done without per
Y mission from Washington.
Y The financial condition of the railroads
e is such that it will take years to untanglt
: the complications that government con
/ troll has brought about Wages hav,
Il been increased-no one complains abou
5 the payment of a fair days pay for
l. fair days work to any man-but fregh
II and passenger rates have not been raise,
II enough to provide money to pay the nev
. scale of wages An adjustment of rate
to meet the new burdens is imperativ
before the railroads are handed back t
their owners.
- There must be, too, reconsideratio
: of the whole tax program, so that tn
II burden may rest more equitably upo
a the shoulders of those who have to bea
i it. The habit of extravaganza contracte
o during the years when the government
was spending billions for war and n
3 one was counting the cost of anythin
;e must be changed, and the easiest way t
r do it is to oust the men who have bee
ic spending public money as if nothin
e. mattered, and to replace them by me
" who will conserve the proceeds of tn
d. tax laws.
Ie But if business is to adjust itself /,
It peace conditions when submarines q
II not interrupt International trade, II
d Underwood tariff law must be repeals