The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-11-28
AMERICAN PEOPLE
SOUND At HEART
Continued from page ~

standard which will give peace and
comfort to the home and opportunities
of leisure and intellectual and spiritual
culture will be won All wise and good
people want an equitable distribution
of the products OF industry, and want
every member of our population to
have his rightful share in the wealth
of the nation. But the weapon of the
strike will become more and more un-
popular There is better way. The
wisest leaders Of labor are seeing this
light. They are seeing that it is a
wasteful method, that it reacts with
infinite harm upon those who use it,,
that 1t alienates Invaluable friends,
that it injuries the country, and most
of all injuries those who resort to it..
bringing upon them the odium of dis
turbing the whole world of industry
and upsetting the peace and order Of
the nation from end to end
"The method of the strike is usually
unnecessary and useless, reprehensible
from every viewpoint and destructive
Of the interests of all, labor itself in
eluded. The end sought for can be
achieved in a better way, and will be
so achieved; and condition of life
reached in this land where there will
be, for the diigent, temperate and
worthy citizen, no real poverty, con-
ditioH of life in which there will be no
slums, no excuse for ignorance or vice,
in which all will be we'll nourished and
we'll housed and well educated in which
every American youth viii be trained
In body and mind for the battle of life,
and in which every man and woman
win have an opportunity for happiness
and usefulness throughout all his days,
with no haunting fear of poverty and
hunger when the days of active EN-
ployment and productive labor are
over. We may, ! think, safely believe
that nothing less than that is the pur-
pose of God for us all.
But that does not mean that there
are not, around us and before us in the
immediate future, perilous times Es-
pecially if men viii not think and act
calmly and unselfishly, and allow time
for readjustment and reconstruction.
You cannot keep on paying higher and
higher wages without drawing upon
the community as a whole, and every
supposed gain in the rise Of wages must
necessarily mean a rise in all prices
and corresponding decrease in the
value of money which reduces the buy
| ing power of those wages. And as
wages keep going up and all prices rise,
at length industries viii become I'M
profitable and will close, leaving us face
to face with paralysis and panic
$50 it would seem that what we need
most is not strike after strike with re-
sulting disorder, want and i'll will, but
spirit Of reasonable Cancellation, a
spirit of brotherhood and good will in
working out the problems that concern
us all Brains and skill and powers of
management and the spirit of enter
prise are as essential TO the prosperity
of business, and, therefore, to the pros
| perity of the workman, as is the hand
of the worker himself Is it impossible,
or is it too late, for each to see the
others sidel All worked together and
/ fought together to win the war Men
of all classes and races and conditions
went over the top together. Why can
| nv TUG HfC bbdb RuC plOHPtl
ity and happiness Of his workmen is
the chief asset to him and his business
The better off the workman is the bet
ter off the employer is. And, on the
other hand, why cannot the workman
be made to understand that the policy
of cunning, Of dawdling and Sinking,
of Ca Gannie, as the Scotch have it,
TO say nothing of hindrance and sabo-
tage, spells ruin for everybody, employ
er and employed alike, and to the coun-
try to which they both belong? You
will never settle your social and indus
trial questions by the most elaborate
and scholarly legislation in the world
You will settle them only when the
spirit Of Christ enters into all classes
and we are all determined to do to
others as we would have those Others
do to us, Fine-spun theories to the
discard--there is only one way. This
other man is my brother and | am go.
| ing to treat him as brother. You will
never get peace and permanent results
in any other way"