Evening star., 1920-01-11

| are to play in industry"
Never before were workmen in the
steel towns so courted; SO distinctly
| made to feel that they were part. and
really, an essential part, Of this great
American movement For moment a
kind Of thrill Of partnership co-opera-
tion reached even the lowest labor
groups. They all bought liberty bonds
or war stamps; they all subscribed to
the Y. NJ. C. A. and Red Cross funds
almost to the lowest man. I have
heard over and again in these indus
trial towns Of the extraordinary feel
| ing aroused during the war. The echo
of it reached Europe and was COM
mented on there with a kind Of envy
as being something better than other
nations could achieve. This, the work
men felt, was taste of true Ameri-
canism.
Men Working in Great War.
For one glorious moment they were
accepted as men working in a great
common cause, side by side with the
employers, all equally necessary.
Hundreds of them, indeed, had actu-
ally gone into the Army and, fought
in France. Some had lost their lives.
The soldiers who returned to the mills
had new and free ideas; in the first
great parade Of strikers at Gary some
300 of them marched in uniform at
the head of the line.
A new era of democracy and good
will seemed dawning in the world.
They were simple folk; they believed
it; they felt it. We all felt it!
Then the war stopped and the dis
illusionment began. Nothing was real
ly changed; there was no more democ-
racy sthan there had been before!
They lad seen q vision, dreamed a
dreamk they had awakened. 1t was
snatc I'd away. Not only that. but
the dfeel companies, not needing to
speed up as much as during the war.
began to discharge many men, and
the workmen heard rumors that
wages were soon to be reduced. SO as
to ,get the industry back to pre-war
standards.
Had Ceased to he Men.
am trying here to show just what
happened, just what was the psychol-
ogy Of these masses OF men.
Well, they were back in the dull
mills working twelve hours . day
they had ceased to be men. and were
again mere machines. A striker
qnotsd me thet pttter;cYy OF the work.
ers:
-"I work; work, work without end. !
why enA 9os whom know not, ssss
I care a0H u Ark not.
I afa D machine"
Consider, then, in All fairness. what
happened next. Some time before the
war ended the American Federation
Of Labor had begun its. campaign to
organize the steel workers. It went
slowly; 1t was uphill business-until
the war ended. And then many disil-
lusioned workers seized upon it as
the one ray OF. hope. The employers
had done nothing. There was no way
Of getting at them. One man 1t Gary
told me that Judge Gary was .'as dis
tant as God" Not single man who
has any real ownership or any real
at Gary or is known to workmen at
Gary Not one! They are not pleas
ant places to live in-the steel towns.
Most of the workmen / asked did not
even know who was the head man"
of the Illinois Steel Company, and
Judge Gary-of whom they have all
heard-is 500 miles away in New
York. To these men the Steel Cor
poration is a vast, impersonal. in
human. unreachable machine.
So they listened eagerly to the la
bor organizers. for these men told
them the same things they had heard
during the war, exactly what Presi-
dent Wilson had told them-democracy
more freedom, more life..
But the moment they began to stir for
elves-organize--they at once found
Steel Corporation-its opposition to un-
ionism. its opposition to any change in
the conditions which, since they had had
a taste Of freedom. seemed doubly irri-
tating. In Pennsylvania when they
tried to hold meetings they were sup
pressed by the constabulary, their or
ganizers were arrested, their papers
were seized. In Gary homes were
broken into and searched. They felt
the old hopeless conditions closing in
around them.
Some years ago / heard deaf and
dumb Helen Keller describe how as a.
child she tried to express herself and
could not speak. could not even make
motions that conveyed any idea, could
do nothing for herself. She described
the wild fits Of rage she went into. She
was suppressed, inhibited. Something
Of the same kind goes on among masses
of men who are not allowed self-ex-
preston. A certain number become
reckless, fall into RACES, are willing
to do anything to escape.
This is fertile soil for wild ideas,
for quack remedies, for blind revolt.
When conservative labor unionism is
prevented the /. w. w. leader is there
with a flaming doctrine that promises
much and promises it quick: there are
utopian ideas from Russia. When open
meetings and frank discussions are sup
pressed, workmen begin to hold Sc
cret meetings. make extreme demands,
plot violent remedies. The ideas they
hold are usually Of the vaguest and
crudest. Chase them around with
few frank questions-as I have done
many times-and you can ordinarily
drive them into a corner and show
them the want Of logic, or reason. or
even basis of fact. to support their
beliefs. But you rarely convince