Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-10-02
The Labor Crisis
From the St. Louis clobe.Demoer.t.

We printed the other day in this column a
compilation Of statements by radical and con-
sentative labor leaders and by public officials,
all pointing to the destructive activities of rad
ical labor agitators and the danger they present
to American institutions. That the great steel
strike is the result of radical propaganda for
political rather than economic ends is very
strongly indicated, and that it gets most of its
strength from the foreign workers in the steel
industry who know little and care less about
American principles seems evident. We have
Ut all times expressed confidence in the sound
common sense and sturdy independence of real
American labor in dealing with its problems
when it knows the truth. The American work
ingman is not less an American because he
works with his hands. On the contrary no ele-
ment of our population is more sincerely pa
triotic. That has been clearly shown in the last
three years Nor has the American element in
organized labor in this country been beguiled to
any great extent by the enticements of the
social and economic isms from socialism to
anarchism Their leaders have opposed these
theoretical panaceas, and have steadily en-
deavored to advance the interests of labor along
practical lines, maintaining complete separa-
ton from politics. At the general convention
the attempt to commit the federation to a
policy OF radicaism was overwhelmingly de-
feated. and this paper remarked at the time
that The intelligence Of the American work.
ingmen is one element that both the friends and
the alarmed foes of bolshevism have not taken
into full account"
But the fact that the effort was made so to
commit it revealed at that time a new element
in labor in America, an element as we have said,
which is as dangerous to American labor as to
the entire social, political and economic struc-
ture of the United States. That element, as a
result of the general ds1ocation and unrest
growing out Of the war, and the energies of
radical agtators seeking to sovietze America,
has increased at very rapid rate during the
last year, and is now. notwithstanding the con-
sentative attitude Of the mass, of American
labor, seriously menacing American institu-
tons. The American Federation of Labor Of
fcially repudiates the l. w. w. and its like, but
within its membership is growing number that
repudiated the principles of the American Fed
Grafton. while endeavoring to use the organ
iization. for its own ends. Conservative Amer
lean labor leaders are privately battling against
this encroachment, but there are indications
that they are being overwhelmed by.it activity.
by the reckless promises of its agitators and
consequences to others. The conservatives
hesitate to take an open stand against these
forces within their ranks, fearing the disruption
of their organization by internal warfare and
hoping to restrain the radicals. Yet they real
ize. they, must realize, the peril Of their associa-
ton. The worst thing that could possibly hap
pen to labor would Be the success Of radical
ISM Successful it can never be in this country,
but the menace of it is arousing an antoganistic
feeling that if not checked is bound to be hurt
full to the legitimate interests of labor For if
this movement toward class domination is al
lowed to go on as it is now going without
open opposition from the clear-headed and
clean-minded mass of American labor that is
at heart against it, the public feeling is likely
to include all labor in its condemnation
America wants to see the true interests of
labor advanced with justice and equity. The
trend toward friendly cooperation between en-
ployers and employees has been most marked
during the last few years, and particularly since
the war threw all classes into intimate associa-
ton for common cause. Nothing has oc-
CURED in our history so advantageous to the
cause ofslabor as the feeling of community of
interest developed by that conflict. The great
majority of American workers want no more
than square deal However varied the in
terpretations of square deal, this majority is
true to America and does not seek to dominate
nor to destroy. But the movement of radical
ism is essentially estructive-destructive first
to that spirit of friendship which must sway
our industrial relations if they are to be ad-
vanced for the common good, and the conse-
quences of its advance will fall disastrously
upon every element of labor, as they will upon
every element of the American people.