New-York tribune., 1919-09-26

short. Foster thought deeper than his
opponents suspected when he under
took TO dominate great industry by
organizing the once lowly "laborer," +"
now become a figure of towering I'M
portancc. Cunning and powerful
mcchanisms can accomplish wonders
in the hands of the skilled men. the
native born, who eschew the strike.
and good showing can be made by
them almost unaided for a time. but at
last the man of the hands must be
found. Wherefore, though in general
it is only the foreigner and the COM
mon laborer who have walked out tn Y
must come back or be replaced. or in
the end even Homestead must slow
down, and perhaps finally come tc a
standstill.
This is what Foster means when he
says that it takes time to stop ne
momentum of some of these great
plants, This is what he has in mind
when he says that they are slowing
down and will eventually come to a
static. This is why the forge masters
anxiously scan the gates morning and
night; they are looking for the COM
mon laborcr, now Indispensable 20 the
machinery that once displaced his
predecessors.
If Foster could have pulled out all
Of the men who are valuable. simply
because Of their Drawn and primitive
intelligence, and could keep them out,
he would be the ultimate victor, even
in the Monongahela struggle, for there
would be no steel made in the United
States.
But here time and habit march
against him, and there are domestic
considerations. The ya-ds and side
walks, Uttered with children. who must
be fed and clothed and Sheltered must
be convincing evidence TO oster that
he wes right when he preached in his
"syndicalism that the laborer must
prepare for The class struggle by aid
Of birth and control, and told them that
the golden age of labor, in the fifteenth
century,. faded into the past because
Of the handicap Of too many children.
The habitual manual worker is as
much lost out of the Job as the Office
man away from his desk lie looks
longngly at the mills, and when he
sees them still running he itches to go
back. Each day, too, reduces the saw
lngs, if there be any, or sharpcns the
pangs of want.
Labor Begins to Yield
So, in all strikes there comes q time
when the laborer surrcnders uncondi-
tionally, If the forces that tend to
press the employers into humility have
not operated more rapidly than those
that bear upon the laborer IN an
orderly strike tnat is all there is Of
the contcst-jus' waiting for the for
ces relentlessly at work to do the bust
ness, barring the effects Of panic on
one side or the other
Without undertaking to prophcsy,
1t is plain to-day that in the bitterly
contested Monongahcla Valley the la
borers are already beginning to yield.
They are coming back in dribets. at
Homestead, at Braddock, at Duquesne
and even at Clarion. Not that they
suffer from want as vet, but they suffer
from ennui, from forebodings and lack
the bucklng up of morale that comes
from great meetings. parades and dem
onStrationS.
At the Edgar Thomson Works. where
eN-servlce men, armed with repeating
Shotguns loaded with huckshot, guard
an the approaches, it was found that
the rrst to return were the native
born children Of foreigners. They went
out with their fathers, the Observers
say, but their fathers will come back
with them
"Eorajuu Man No r.. D.,,