The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1920-04-30
PUBLIC yIcT1MlzED THROUGH
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. BY
OPPOSITION
PEOPLE The GOAT
Operators Profits Sufficient Z.
Grant Increase in Wages With
out Advance to Public
by Paul Hanna

Washington. d. C.-Bankers arc
frankly nervous about the outlook
for financial panic, but the manu-
facturers. and merchants continue
to live in rose-colored world. Fox
the time. being there is big money
to be Yade out of low production
and hixh prices, so business men
refuse to worry about the end ol
the world, that may never come.
The optimistic stand-patisan is
having its effect on labor. The en-
ployers' conspiracy to reduce
wages has been abandoned for tho
present. Government price-fixine
has been abolished-what there
was of it-and the manufacture
ers and merchants are free to
charge as much as they like. That
means they can pay wartime
wages, multiply the increase, add il
to prices and thus make more mon.
ey than they ever did.
Labor, as represented by the rail
road bretherhoods and the coal
miners, tried to break OUT of that
vicious circle and establish theil
-andust RI 5 IN a basis of Increased
service to the public. They failed
because, in the face of public ignor-
ance and hostility, their leaders
abandoned the constructive princi-
pies they had been instructed to pul
through.
Instlnctively in most cases and
consciously in others, American la.
Dor has come to understand tina,
private ownership places an intoi-
cradle limit upon the advancement,
of the workers as class. The so
called Plumb plan for railroad con.
troll struck a responsive chord
among the wage-earners because j,
proposed to eliminate private capi.
tai from transportation and divide
the benefits of that enterprise mors
or less evenly between those who
run the railroads and those who use
them.
In that principle the coal miners
saw the big thing they needed-ar
arrangement that would give the
nation ownership of the fuel depos
it's and divide the wealth they con.
stitute more or less equitably be
tween those who dig 1t out Of the
ground and those who use it. 81
the miners. in convention. endors
ed the Plumb plan, and asked theil
leaders to cooperate with the rail
road brotherhoods to apply the sys
TEN to transportation and mining
alike.
The vast, unorganized maiorit,
called the public" stood to win al
enormous advantage through thi
system OF public ownership ant
democratic control of industry. Blu
the organs of publicity through
which the public gets it's .sinfor
nation" Immediately launched q
campaign of misrepresentation,
which convinced the public that la
bor had formed conspiracy to ro,
the consumer.
All this is merely a prelude {,
what has happened in Washingto,
during the past fortnight, an.
which ought to show the public
how thoroughly it will be punishet
for it's own stupidity.
President Wilson has formerl,
abolished the last pretence OF con
troll over the price of coal. The pub
lie will pay. The miners get sligb
increase in wages, which the oper
ators Will multiply, with Whit,
House consent, and add to thel
prices. The public will pay.
At the hearings last month th
miners showed that operators pro
fits are in many instances so larg,
that wa ge increase could be granite,
withou. adding to retail prices. Il
their convention the miners appeal