The Cordova daily times., 1919-06-10
TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1919.
AMERICAN LABOR IS SOUND

Amid the sanguinary orgies of revo- lution and the crash of institutions America stands erect. It would be a foolish, futile and brutal boast to wreath ourselves in the artificial smiles of the professional optimist and say "all is we'll" On the other hand it would be equally absurd and dan gerous to imagine that our industrial system is destined to disaster. The pessimist, like the optimist, ignores the most obvious facts.
 Industrial civilization is sounder in America today than anywhere else. Let us not be affrighted by the ever present problem of capital and labor. It will be our chief problem for many years. Capital and labor will be ad justing themselves to changing con- ditions always.
 If there is menace it lies not in the problem, but in the hearts of those who must work out the problem the laborer and the employer.
 Our industrial system is sound be- cause American labor is sound. Amer icap labor in it's doctrines, in it's as- pirations, in it's practical plans and in activities differs from Bolshevism as much as Russia differs from the United States.
 Alarmists have been predicting revo- lutions in this country for a genera tion. Twenty years ago they could see the time near at hand when a few men would own virtually all of the national wealth. Ten years ago there began diffusion of wealth that still is in progress. The growth of vast industrial concerns has not led to the enslavement of labor.
 Because American labor, at heart, is sound, because it's head is clear and because it has clung to common sense amid the red currents of radicalism, it recognizes it's community of inter- est with capital. It does not believe
 
 All of us look back with regret and yet with encouragement on the con- troversies of the last few decades. The fault, as general rule, was of the head and not the heart That solutions for every problem between labor and capital were not speedily attained was due, not to the innate viciousness of either party to the dis pute, but to the fallibility of the human intellect.
 Through all these disputes labor in the United States maintained an at titude that made ultimate solution probable. It avoided altogether the attitude of European labor which preached revolution and practiced it wherever it could. Russia affords no parallel for usG It would have been a miracle had the Russians been able to solve their problems without revo- lution.
 When the czar was crowned more than twenty years ago at the Petrov sky palace $4OO0O,O00 was expended on celebration lasting two weeks. It occurred to some of the soft-hearted and soft-headed aristocrats that the autocracy would show it's thoughtful benevolence if it distributed bread among the populace. It really occurred to them once in many years that the people needed bread and they decided to accord the boon by way of cele- brating the czar's enthronement. The distribution lead to riot among 100,- 900 underfed men, women and children and 5000 were killed or maimed in a stampede. When the czar was in- formed of the tragedy he wept and, in the evening, he danced.
 We mention that scene because 1t was symbol of the rottenness at the heart of the Russian nation. Whatever radicals may say, whatever aliens | maddened by European conditions | may attempt to tell us about our own industrial weaknesses, we know that, amid all our political and economic struggles, we had nothing of that de- gree to contend with.
 Both labor and capital have been misled by blatant reformers who