Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1919-12-10

To analyze the particulars in the de-
mands of labor is to admit the justice of
their complaint in many matters that lie
at their basis. The workman demands
an adequate wage, sufficient to permit
him TO live in comfort, unhampered by
the fear of poverty and want in his old
age He demands the right to live and
the right to work amidst sanitary sur
roundings, both in home and in workshop,
surroundings that develop and do not REF
tard his own health and well-being; and
the right to provide for his children's
wants in the matter of health and educa-
ton. In other words, it is his desire to
make the conditions of his life and the
lives of those dear to him tolerable and
easy to bear.
Collective Bargaining Right.
Governments must recognize the
right of men collectively to bargain for
humane objects that have at their base
the mutual protection and welfare of
those engaged in all industries. Labor
must not be longer treated as a COM
modify. 1t must be regarded as the
activity of human beings, possessed of
deep yearnings and desires. The bust
ness man gives his best thought to the
repair and repIenishment of his ma
chinery, so that it's usefulness will not
be impaired and its power to produce
may always be at its height and kept
in full vigor and motion.
No less regard ought to be paid to
the human machine, which, after all,
propels the machinery of the world
and is the great dynamic force that
lies back of all industry and progress.
Return to the old standards of wage
and industry in employment are un-
thinkable The terrible tragedy of war
which has just ended and which has
L.. -
chaos and disaster would be in vain if
there should ensue a return to the con-
ditions of the past
Labor not only is entitled to an ade-
quate wage. but capital should receive
a reasonable return upon its invest
ment and is entitled to protection at
the hands of the government in every
emergency. No government worthy of
the name can play these elements
against each other, for there is mu-
tuality of interest between them which
the government must seek to express
and to safeguard at all cost
The right of individuals to strike is
inviolate and ought not to be inter-
fered with by any process of govern
ment, but there is predominant right
and that is the right of the govern
ment to protect all of its people and to
assert it's power and majesty against
the challenge of any class. The gov
eminent when it asserts that right,
seeks not to antagonize a class but
simply to defend the right of the
whole people as against the irreparable
harm and injury that might be done by
the attempt by any class to usurp a
power that only government itself has
a right to exercise as a protection to
all.
Hour of Test and Trial.
This is the hour of test and trial for
America. BY her prowess and strength
and the indomita BILE courage of her sol
diers, she demonstrated her power to
vindicate on foreign battlefelds her
conception of liberty and justice Let
not her influence as a mediator be-
tween capital and labor be weakened
and her own failure to settle matters
of purely domestic concert be pro-
claimed to the world
There are those in this country who
threaten direct action to force their Will
upon majority. Russia today, with its
blood and terror, is a painful object les
son of the power of minorities. 1t makes
little difference what minority it is;
whether capital or labor, or any other
class no sort of privilege will ever be
permitted to dominate this country. We
are a partnership or nothing that is worth
while.
We are a democracy where the ma
JOr1Cy are the masters or all the hopes
and purposes of the men who founded
this government have been defeated and
forgotten. In America there is but one
way by which great reforms can be ac-
complished and the relief sought by
classes obtained, and that is through the
orderly processes of representative gov
eminent. Those who would propose any
other method of reform enemies of
this country.
America will not be daunted by threats
nor lose her composure or calmness in
these distressing times. We can afford,
in the midst of this day of passion and
unrest, to be self-contained and sure.
The instrument of all reform in America
is the straight road of justice to all
classes and conditions of men. Men have
but to follow this road to realize the full
fruition of their objects and purposes Let
those beware who would take the shorter
road of disorder and revolution. The
right road is the road of justice and or
derby process.