Evening star., 1920-01-20
VTGOR MARKS PUBLIC
AWAKENING TO ACTS
OFGROUP INTERESTS
Demand for Justice and Square Deal
Dominates Proposed Remedies
for Industrial Unrest.

! ish capitalistic OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES are
still at it-and now we are nan
ling labor organizations we uon
want either Gary or Gompers 10 Doss
MS to control our lives or force their
will upon US.
Recent object Lessons.
We have had one or two recent OBJ
iect lessons of stunning force. Ihe
entire lie. 200, 900 of us have seen our
business paralyzed, our prouuc.ioii
cut off in the steel industry because
Gary and Gompers could not agree:
The 11O OOO 600 of us have suffered
still more acutely because 4oo,ooV o.
US who are coal miners stopped pro-
ducinp a basic necessity of life. There
was never before in America sucn an
acute demonstration OIL srouP inte
est against public interest. NO won
der fhe American giant is angry
hIindly anpry-and beats ABOUT III d
kind of berserkian raEe-not at an
particular as to what headS ne hi'S'
or how. +ho orl,,
.,nression of the public interest. the
outlook would be dark indeed But II
is not While there are poWeriui
forces using the fine burst OF paSs'oi,
for a new DEAL" for pubic r1ghts'
for "law and order in America 10 SCI We
their own selfish lnterestsI .tf !. o,,7r
a smoke-screen to conceal tnelr own
n,,rnoses-there is, it seems to me, a
new sense abroad that law and order
must be based upon real understaho-
ing of the new conditions ana upon
solid foundation. of justice.
Never before has there been sucn n
number of inquiries from all sides anu
by all kinds of organizations, or such
a desire to get at the truth. we nave
had government inQuiries-one conmis-
sion now sitting-which have aroused
unusual public interest 1t is nothing
that the Presidents first commissioh
failed: at least, it failed dramatically,
with the protagonists of the opposing
issues clearly revealed.
Mr.. Asquith's Statement.
On what may be called the side of
the capitalists the awakening is marked.
The other day in the office OF one OF
the notable figures of Wall street
where one would least expect to md
such Sentiment-I saw framed anu
hanging on the wall this quotation from
a speech by Mr.. Asquith, delivered IN
January of last year:
1.-THE old system has broken down.
War was it's final declaration OF IN
solvency New factors are at work.
Science not only has not said her last
still only lisping the alphabet of ami
hilation."
Organizations such as chambers of
commerce and merchants associations
have been working on the problem.
They all begin with the assurnp-
tion that the old system is at least
cracking, if not. as Asquith says,
broken down, and that new methods
must be devised to meet the situation.
Not only public and business and
religious bodies are awakening. but
labor groups as well. Labor is learn =
ing that it has public as well as spe-
cial interestS-that to large extent
it is the public.
A new note was prominent in the
so-called bill of rights issued by a
group of 119 union leaders at Wash
ington on December ~. There is a
clear attempt to meet the new public
criticism of labor organization. espe-
cially regarding productivity and eff
cheney, by the proposal of new reme-
dies for the organization of industry.
No group any longer dares leave the
public out of account.
All this grouping for a better un-
derstanding of conditions, this as
sumption on all sides that there ought
to be more justice. more democracy in
our Industrial relationships-howe
uncertain yet of specific applications
of new remedies-is surely the most
hopeful element in the present unrest
rest
Copyright by the New York Evening Post. Inc. }