The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-04-17
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director.
vaAhingtsn. d. C.
SECRETARY WILSON ON REVO.
LUTON AND UNEMPLOYMENT.

Washington, D. c., April Il
When once industry in this coun-
try strikes it's regular peace-time
gait, there will be a marked shortage
OF labor Those manufacturers who
are now reducing their organizations
! because they believe that wages and
cost of materials are both coming
down, will then be unable to get the
labor they need.
UNEMPLOYMENT is still on the in
crease in the United States, tho it is
not increasing as rapidly as 1t was
! few months ago. This unemploy-
ment is the cause of all the indus
trial unrest, the Bolshevism, anarchy
and other radical movements now
observable in the United States.
This unrest will not lead to revo-
| luton in the United States because
the American workman. while well
aware of the shortcomings of our, in
dustrial system, realize that he is
better off than any other workman
in the world, and has too much COM
! mon sense to risk reducing hlmsef
| to the present condition of the Rus
| sian workman. He also realizes that
| it is possible to do by the ballot in
| this country what only revolution
can accomplish in an autocracy.
For these reasons, revolution is a
! remote contingency in the United
States, but as long as this unemploy-
ment lasts there will be much unrest
in the country, conditions Will re-
main unsettled. For this reason, the
unemployment should be ended by in
| itiating needed public works sufficient
to take it all up. If this is not done,
the situation will become worse be-
fore it becomes any better.
Public works require money, and
whether these public works can be
undertaken depends largely upon the
response to the next liberty loan.
The above is the gist of a speech
made recently before the National
| son, which has never been published.
| The labor situation is just now the
most important matter in the do
nestle affairs of the United States,
and this is the opinion of it ex-
pressed by the man who has studied
it longer and more carefully, and with
greater facilities at his disposal than
any other. Mr.. Wilson's study of
labor has not been wholly academic
| either, for he spent i good many
years of his life digging coal in the
Pennsylvania mines.
His argument that there will be
labor shortage in the near future is
supported by figures. He points out
that. in the first place, we have had
practically no immigration for four
years. Before the war we were get
| ting a million and a quarter immi-
turned to Europe every year. This
! left us a net gain of 500, 900, of which
about 100000 were of working age.
| We have, therefore, in the past four
years, contracted a labor shortage of
| 100000 from this cause aloe.
In the second place, we have estab-
lished, during the past two years, a
| ship building industry which employs
about half a million men, and which
bids fair to be permanent. These ship
| builders were drawn from all other
| occupations. They may, therefore, be
added to the shortage.
| In the third place, we Lave still a
million and half men under arms, and
q year from. now we will have at least
half a million men in the army.
From all of these causes, American
11-or. yea from now, will be be-
| tween three and four million workers
short of the number it would have had
| if there had been no war. That there
! is now unemployment, despite this
| shortage, is due to the fact that manu-
facturers believe both 1abo- and ma
terial will come down in cost in a short
! tie.
Secretary Wilson agrees that ma
| terial must come down in cost. He
says that in many cases material has
gone up more than labor. He cites
the case of one factory in which wages
rose so per cent, While the price of the
finished product rose 275 per cent.
The logical thing, he says, is that ma
labor. at least. This reduction is what
| the industrial board of the commerce
| department is trying to do, with
stormy and variable results.
But Secretary Wilson does not be-
lieve that labor will come down, or
that any attempt should be made to
pull it down. Sooner or later, industry
| in this country is bound to resume its
normal activity, and when it does it
will face a labor shortage of nearly
four million men. Labor will then be
| in a position to maintain the gains it
has made during the war.
Secretary Wilson says that radical
principles are undoubtedly being
preached in this country, and that the
labor department has done what it
can to counteract this preRching by
| sending out workingmen to tell the
workers in words they can understand,
why the teachings of the European
ultra radicals do not apply to America.
Secretary Wilson says that he has
much sympathy with some of the
'isms" preached by the radicals.
! They lay down as the basis of their
philosophy, for instance, the theory
that every man is entitled to the full
social value of what he produces. To
my mind that is true 1t is a social
| istic doctrine, purely Marxian in its
origin. The difficulty. how
| ever. is that human intelligence has
not as yet devised any method by
| which you can determine what the
social value is of anyone's labor. and
| until you are able to compute the
value to society of the labor of the
component parts of society. it will be
futile to lay down as the basis of any
philosophy that every man is entitl,
to the full social value of what his
labor produces"
Mr.. Wilson therefore discards this
socialistic philosophy as a working
! basis. He finds the best working basis
to be the fact that labor and capital
have a mutual interest in securing the
largest possible production with a Civ
en- amount of labor. The intelligent
serving of this purpose comprises
proper care for the health and we'll