Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1919-10-09
RADICAL ELEMENT CANNOT
PREVAIL

I WASHINGTON, Oct. THE Re-
publican Publicity Association, thru
its President, Hon. Johnathan Borne,
Jr, today gave out the following
statement from its Washington Head
! quarters:
With the steady return Of the
striking steel workers to the mills one
fact is clearly demonstrated, that the
hold which the radical elements of
Iorganized labor has over the workers
lis but transient and cannot prevail
against the influence of good wages,
comfortable conditions, and perman-
lent employment. All Of those are to
be found in the surroundings of the
steel workers. There are differences
lin wages according to the classes of
work, but it has been proven that in
no class is the wage so low as to war
rant general strike.
"The steel industry furnished per-
Ihaps the most fertile field for the for
lmation of labor unrest, involving the
application of direct methods. The
man whom Mr.. Gompers put in
charge Of the strike, William 2. Fos-
ter, was an advocate of such tactics,
had made an intensive study Of con-
ditions in the steel districts, and was
probably better equipped than any
lother man in the Federation of La
Dor to make the strike success OF
all classes of our citizens, "direct
methods are supposed to make a
stronger appeal to the foreign ele-
ments. They are probably credited
with being emotional, easily led, po-
|sessed of but little love for American
forms of government, and ready at a
moments notice to fight their mag
mary oppressors. But with such a
Header and with that sort of human
material with which to work, the steel
strike has been signal failure. The
better Judgment of the men has asser-
ted itself and they have taken up
again the work Of providing for their
homes and families.
ssThe same considerations Of self
interest that prevented the steel OPP
leratives from being swayed to any
great extent by the exhortations of
the radicals will be found even more
pronounced in other lines Of industry
as the scale of general intelligence
mounts upwards. No class of labor
occupies higher, intellectual. plane
than the railroad employees, and it
cannot be conceded for moment that
they have a less regard for the well
fare of their families and the perman-
ence of their government, or possess a
smaller capacity for forming indepen-
dent Judgments than the foreign mill
Operatives.
"In spite of the fact that the con-
stitution Of at least one of the rail-
road brotherhoods prohibits the mem
bers from differing with the heads Of
the Organization, it is ridiculous to
suppose that if the leaders order
general waIkout it necessarily follows
that every man quits his work and
goes home. And SO it is with all un-
IONS In Boston the younger members
of the police fierce struck, but the old
err ones remained at their posts The
radical element at the Massachusetts
capital now see the error of their
ways.
''The fact is that the whole cause
of labor. as in everything else, is de-
pendent for success upon public APP
prevail. Lacking that endorsement it
is bound to fail. The people are will
hing that labor should have a fair
wage, and that legitimate efforts
should be made by the workers to OBJ
tain it. But when increases are de-
manded merely because it appears
that the power is at hand to enforce
those demands, or when the public it,
self is made to bear the brunt of a
strike, popular sympathy is forfeited
and the aims of the men are lost. The
uniform failure of every strike thus
far to attain the ends for which it
was called, serves only to intensity
the deep-steated conviction that must
be in the heart of every intelligent
American hat it does not pay. When
that fact is fully borne in upon the
minds of labor, the radical element
will lose any power that it possesses
at present, and the ountry will return
once more 10 the industrial sanity up
on which our prosperity is built