Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-10-03

The Rev. DR.. Charles A. Eaton,
who is pastor of the Madison Ave-
nue. Baptist Church, in New York
city, was called upon by the United
States government during the war
to organize a national service sec
ton of the shipping board, and it
is admitted that much of the en-
thusiasm which was put into the
rapid building of ships was due to
his efforts. Recently he was asked
by the editor of the London Times,
just before Doctor Eaton sailed for
home, to write an article on the
present indust rial situation. The
following is an abridgement of that
Importance utterance:
~ ELIEVING that the whole
X world has entered upon
new age which calls for new
standards of value, new concep-
tions of truth and duty and new
tasks and tests in every realm OF
human endeavor, 1 venture, with
full consciousness of their made
quacy, to offer a few suggestions
toward a solution of our most i'm
mediate difficulties.
First of all, let us raise the ques-
ton as to how much of the old ma
chinery of life we can carry over
into the new age. When a geologic
cycle in which water covered the
earth changed into period wherein
dry land became a fact animal and
vegetable forms of life had to re-
adjust themselves to the new con-
ditions or perish. We may as well
face the fact that the world of hu-
man institutions has just passed
through a similar experience. The
new element which will determine
the next cycle of history Is the
emergence of the masses OF men
into self-consciousness. Henceforth
all legislation, all thinking, all in
dustrial organization must be con-
ceived in terms of all the people.
In England labor has proclaimed
its unalterable determination never
to go back to its pre-war economic
status. 1t never will. Neither will
capital, with or without proclama-
tions. In Russia the masses STOOD
up and thought they were free.
Thev have fallen into the hands of
a tyranny more hateful and bloody
than any political czar. But the
| ia ct remains that in every land the
whole people are thrilling with
new sense of selfhood. And this
is why democracy, which is a
! scheme of life in which the whole
people participate upon equal terms,
( is being accepted everywhere as
| theory, although it is failing otten
+. as a practice.
| It seems to me self-evident that
this new awakening to self-con-
| seriousness of all the people calls for
/ some better instrument of express
! sion than the class struggle winch
! has characterized the past genera
! tions. If capitalism has been the
| instrument of a class it must now
become the instrument of all. If
| the capitalistic system cannot be-
come the economic organ of all the
people it will cease to exist. The
! labor union has been the necessary
! and useful organ of class III II
has in it a universal value it may
, become the organ of all the people.
! Otherwise it will have to be aban-
! doned. From now on no man can
claim special consideration because
he is a workingman or an employer
| He must rest his rights upon the
fact that he is n man. And his
| rights will have no value except in
so far as they are sanctioned by his
| duties.
| have been greatly impressed by
the many sig that England will
suffer this winter from lack of fuel
! According to an English authority
the average yearly output for a
British miner is 226 tons, while foI
an American miner it is three tim es
that amount. These figures raise the
question not as to what will become
of the miner or the mines, but what
will become of England. An Ameri-
can contractor is erecting rolling
mills in England From the same
blue prints he has let contracts in
Pittsburgh, Youngstown, o., and ir
England. He Is paying so per cen
more for the same article made In
England for use in England than ht
pays for it in Youngstown. And the
workman there is reI Giving 80 pei
; cent higher wages than here.
If l were an Englishman l shoulC
he gravely concerned over thes,
facts. The English workingman ii