The labor world., 1920-10-09
DOES LABOR FORGET?

is certainty.
| If we get Harding we will go back
to "normalcy,' whatever that means
If we get Cox, we will at least have
the opportunity to keep going forward
as we have been doing for the past
eight years.
Since Woodrow Wilson has been sick
man things apparently have not been
running just right at Washington, Post.
master General Burleson is busy throw
ing sabots in forward-moving machin-
cry and Attorney General Palmer gets
as mad as bull every time he thinks
he sees Red. They have done Mr.
Wilson and his administration lot of
harm.
But what Burleson and Palmer have
done is not sufficient to divorce Amer
| lean labor from the Wilson admins
tration. The friendship Woodrow Will
son has shown for labor and the better
things he has brought to it far out
weigh the injury Burleson or Pal
mer can do.
Let s go back to the beginning and
start all over. 1t was the Wilson ad-
ministration that gave US the Clayton
act which declares that 'the labor of
human being shall not be regarded as
an article of commerce or trade.' That
declaration has given the American
worker larger opportunities for indus
trial freedom without repressive legal
processes being used against him than
he ever enjoyed before. It is the
Magma Charta Of industrial freedom,
Without it the powerful anti-union
forces Of this day would legally ham,
string organized labor.
The Wilson administration gave us
the seamen's law, a measure that in
cludes American seamen within the
provisions of the constitution and de-
stroyed the last vintage Of involuntary
servitude under our flag. When the
law was enacted it was charged that it
would destroy our merchant marine.
We were then the fifth maritime nation
! IN the world. Now we are the second.
The Wilson administration gave us
the federal child labor law and 25 or
more others of equal Importance. In
deed more remedial labor legislation
was enacted during the Wilson admin
lstration than during the so years pre-
ceeding.
The Wilson administration recog.
nized the right of labor to organize
and collectively bargain. It is respon.
sible for one million organized railroad
workers who enjoy the right of collec
tive bargaining that was previously
denied them. It is responsible for union
recognition in American shipyards
even inducing such men as Charles NJ
Schwab to deal with organized labor
1t is responsible for the introduction
OF real industrial democracy in navy
yards and arsenals. It is responsible
for the employment of hundreds Of
thousands of union men during the wal
at union wages and union hours in the
construction of barracks and war build
lngs. Indeed organized labor was given
squarer deal under the administration
OF Woodrow Wilson than it ever GOT
before from any administration.
That is why every big business man
and every anti-unionist hates Presi
dent Wilson with a hate that knows nc
limit. The radical Socialists and Boil
shevists hate him because in his ad.
vocacy of the New Democracy he re-
fused to recognize the "class struggle, ,:
and for the further reason that he will
not recognize as ''political prisoners
lot of people who, either Willingly
or unwittingly, he believes, gave ''aid
and comfort'' to the enemy during
the war. But the real American work.
man should respect him and stand by
MIN because he stood by him when
they NEEDED him.
The Republican platform and Senator
Harding promise nothing to labor. In.
deed, that platform declares it will
curb labor's present lawful activities
whenever it becomes necessary for the
"public good''
Ihe Democratic platform at least is
OF positive and sympathetic charac-
ter. Governor Cox has progressive
record. He has shown a breadth Of
VISION and sympathy for labor that en-
title him to its suffrage in preference to
Senator Harding with his queer ideas
OF labor's relation to industry and his
orazen defense of the Esch- -Cummins
railroad law and it's iniouitous labor
provisions.
DEVELOPING PUBLIC OPINION
Labor's non-partisan political ectivitv