Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-08-21
HARDlNG'S ENLIGHTENED
VIEWS ON INDUSTRlALlSM
His Liberal Opinions on the Rights
Of Labor and capital-Truth
and Humanlzatlon VIII
Solve All Difficulties

" SdpOI dHu wv
and Humanlzation VIII
Solve All Difficulties
TT SENATOR HARDING docsn I
L watch his step Attorney General
Palmer, Commissioner Caminetti and
the whole flock of appointed dc g.
stroying angels who presume to guard
the institutions of our government will
descend upon him in wrath and the Re
pubIicans will be left helpless by the
uncercmonious deportation to foreign
shores of their major candidate.
For Mr.. Harding has just taken the
trouble to say fatty that labor in
America has been misunderstood. that
the Bolshcvist mania was absent in
recent big strikes, that the unions have
been asking little more than square
deal and that the aloofness of some of
the big managements was in part re-
sponsible for the stresses and disagree
ments which have been interfering with
production in the United States.
In an adjoining column there is
printed some of the statements made
by the Republican candidate to a repre-
sentative of organized labor sentiment
who visited Marion on II hunt for trou
Bile. There is no effort here to plati-
tudiniHc or pose. Senator Harding Is
able to approach a question of social
and economic ethics like a human being.
and he hasn't been crazcd or bamboozlcd
by the nonsense that turned heads like
Mr. Palmer's.
1t distreSseS the senator to find the
workers of America arraignpd and ac-
Cused as enemies Of the government
while their record in the war period
remains as absolute proof of their gen
eral loyalty. Such opinions sound not
in our own ears, because
in the years when the attorney general
and like minded men were doing their
utmost with destructive propaganda to
divide the country against itself and
cause men to hate and distrust their
associates in the days work. these col
umns we're consistently giving expires
sion to precisely similar views.
An astonishing number of people in
those days found sort of comfort in
the fantastic belief that labor sought to
overthrow the government, 1t was
fashionable to suppose that good could
h,. ,,.ilnp;,,p
ening the abyssrS Of misunderstanding
that already divided the two halves of
the industrial world.
Since then thc people Of the United
States have been able to perceive for
themselves the stupid cruelty of efforts
which were made to defeat the aspira
tions of labor by fastening upon every
striker a charge of felony or out and
Dut treason
The danger and the futility Of that
'ffOrt were always apparent to any one
rho stopped to realize that the case OF
he Observation-Disclosures that individual .
~ Judge Gary or the humblcSt puddlcr
n his mills-is of secondary importanc"
IlwayS. The chief concern of those in
authority should be for the quality Of
ur citizenship and of our nationaI
pirit. Because convinced, contoItCd, !
irilc and strong hearted citizenship is .
better protection TO any country even /
nan fleets and armies with banners
Without it trouble is sure to come. |
low long could democracy endure if a
lrge element in the population were
depressed and dispirited? (
Who in crisis would do the essential
crvices of patriotism:
American opinion cannot Tolerate
he spectacle Of oppressed, unthinking
lasscs endowed with the rights of the
allOt in widening areas and sullenly
waiting an opportunity to express BY
iOlenCr the grievances that they were
Ot permitted to voice in peace.
1t is foolish 10 try to escape plain
oligationS by the Palmer method Of
yasion Mr.. Harding speaks the
mple truth when he insists that the
ced Of the hour for those who work
! industry and those who own and
lanage industry is light and truth and
and recognition Of the
nduring virtue Of the square deal
Partly because of the pTcjudiCes of
AIDES union leaders and partly because
{ the familiar alOofness Of some en-
loying groups earnest and enlightened
forts to establish the machinery for
Ich approaches and understandings
ave thus far been without much result.
The Industrial Court established as
u experiment in Kansas has been Op-
osed by organized labor. The eIab- I
rate and wholly praiseworthy system
federal agencies for research and
rbitration outlined by the Second In
lstrial Conference in Washington
reused little apparent enthusiasm in
ny group, though it was conceived in
atiencc and wisdom and so devised as
, almost guarantee peaceful adjust
.pntg and puuitablc settlements in nil