The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-06-21

CEiSS may pEOCiAIHls anu LIE SAtTSHtSt.
| whether tor capital or labor. may
shrek with equal futility. the thing
! we arc to fnd, II We can. IL what
sai.h the still. small voice OF America
today concerning the great, basic
facts OF work and industry.
That voice will not shout from the
housetops. 1t will do its quiet work
within the factory large or small.
where men are busy where speeches
are not made. and radical editors DO
not trouble. Believe me, just as sticks
and refuse that fioat upon the stream
are not evidence Of its power. so the
true currents Of our own life lie deep
and flow strongly and without noise.
This IL what one who looks closely
will see, unless I am deceived. Many
there are that see it, and, as the
prophet was c6mforted to ind that
he did not stand alone. but that there
were thousands with him, so those
who look beneath the surface OF
md thousands in accord where some
may have thought there were but
tens.
We have seen the wages in Ameri-
can factories rise to a point above
that at which they ever stood before.
They still are at that height. Have
you heard the voice of industry calling
out that they should be reduced
Where is the Industrial leader now
found who argues in favor of reduc-
ing the wages of American labor? Is
not the silence from a thousand in
dutsries more potent than the srieks
OF few agitators or the walls of a
few employersc In their quiet way.
which has no spoken voice that we
can hear, the industries are moving
on, little by little are taking up the
slack. steadily as every financial au-
thority states. the country is settling
down to the assurance that matters
are becoming stabilized; but they arc
not being stabilized because labor IL
being cut; they are being stabilized
with the wages of labor standing
where they are. Men who are leaders
of great industries have consulted
with me these weeks gone by, and
every one of them without exception.
not because Of pressure but from his
heart and Judgment. has agreed in
urging that one inviolable thing as
matters are today is the wage OF the
working man. 1t seems to me that
as we lookout over the field Of Amer
lean industry and see this quiet &C.
ceptance of an absolutely new con-
dition. not an acceptance from force,
but an acceptance arising from judg-
ment and conscience, we see in 4
one of the silent voices OF great
power.
Ideals of Life.
But this is not all that may be
seen, There rises up in the Mass1-
chusetts senate a member of that
body who propounds and pushes TO
its passage a lawn conservative
New England--whereby employees are
given the right under the organic law
or the state to elect directors of in
dustrial corporation who shalt have
all the rights. privileges. and respon-
sibilIties of stock holding directors.
Say you one further advance by labor
advocates, one mere victory Of organ
lied workmen7 A victory indeed,
hut not so gained or so originating.
for the author of this bill is the head
OF one great industry and active in
the nagement of two others--in-
dustries that are known throughout
the iand--and he told me OF the great
satisfaction he had in thus being able
TO put into law the ideals that 4 long
life s an employer had taught him.
In another part of the land thou
sand miles or more away another
great corporation, almost unnc ticed,
starts its operatives in share of the
company's management and Uses tc
and for peace and for effectiveness.
The significance of these things does
not lie only in the things themselves
| 1t lies in the fact that men who are
leaders OF industry. of their own mo-
ton. out of their own experience end
judgment, have taken themselves tho
forward step to bring them and their
human fell ows concerned with them
in the sa1 e work into a position NJ
more corhplet mutually. Only a
few days ago I talked with another
large manufacturer, and his mind
was occupied with the thought that i.
was a. great pity industrial leaders
had been SO ill-advised so slow 20
see that they had let labor take the
, progressive measures and had not
themselves met them more than half
! way, so that the leaders of ca nital in
| too many cases were forced into an
| attitude of resistance to demands
which, being resisted. became aggra-
| waited and to which in time here.
there. and yonder they had in meas
| ure or in whole to yield So in a
| talk with textile manufacturer not
| long ago he said to me that they had
too long rnderpaid their people. II
| is plain 10 mel think it will be plain
| to every thoughtful observer-that The
| most significant fact in industry today
| is the quietly avowed determination
on the part Of leaders of so-cailed
| capital to do their part, a larger part
not so much a generous as a Just
| part. in getting together with the
| men with whom they work.
| / have been inspired by meeting
these so-called hard headed" men Of
affairs who have caught this vision
| of themselves as leaders OF humanity
as men who wish the human relation
| to he the real and the potent thing
| in their industrial life. and who have
been given the power to realize that
out Of this human relation all hines
| may grow.
| OF course, we speak not A. those
| who take their arrnor off, but those
who are but putting II on. or course
we have IN capital and in labor the
| man of backward thought. him who
| does not see that the matter Is pass
ing beyond the discussion OF tho
rights Of capital and the rights Of
labor into the larger field of how
brethren may dwell together in unity.
| One Is quick to allege that labor Is
! Irresponsible; that it does not keep
its contracts; that it is arbitrary: that
| it is not considerate. that it INDUCES
in methods which are most inconven-