Omaha daily bee., 1920-02-27
Democracy and Autocracy
In a Struggle for Rule
Of the Industrial World
Upon the Issue of the Fight Depends the Future We'll
fare and Progress of the Nation-New Plans for
Cooperative Control Fast Gaining Ground
Throughout the Country-Many Movements Are
of the Extreme Radical Type
BY RAY STANDARD BAKER.
Article XVIII.

! Article XVIII.
| In this article-the last of tn
series-I wish to take up certain
loose ends and suggest certain gen
eral conclusions.
| Boiled down, the present crisis ii
America-and for that matter in tn,
world-represents a struggle to es
cape from the chaos of industrial
warfare, with fhe waste and ineffi
cheney which characterize war, into
a new reign of law and order. "Lav
and order" however much the tern
may be abused, is today the pas
sionate desire, the deep need, of tn.
whole world. 1t is desired and need
ed in international affairs; still NOR,
desired and needed in the great felc
of industry.
Three methods are proposed fol
attaining law and order in industry
| The first is that of extreme con.
servatives like Judge Gary of the
United States Steel corporation, who
would enforce law and order from
above by virtue of maintaining a
determined autocracy of capital
While powerfully organized them.
selves, employers who hold to this
point of view use every device to
keep labor disorganized. Judge
Gary will neither meet nor deal with
outside representatives of union
labor, nor will he recognize organ
izatlons within his mills.
If employers of this type are
forced by the growing power Of
labor to deal with the unions it is
in no real spirit of cooperation;
they merely sign a truce, and the
ATTITUDE on both sides remains one
of suspicion and hostility which may
at any moment fame up in open war
(strikes, lockouts).
Extreme Radical Movements.
The second method is that of the
extreme radicals. An examination
of the extreme radical movements
among American workers will show
that most of them have for their
central purpose, however vaguely
expressed. however yelled, the i'm
position of law and order upon in
dustry through autocratic control
by labor. They SEE only injustice,
suppression, ineficiency. in the au-
tocracy of capital-and they fly to
the other extreme. Labor must
rule" is the slogan of revolutionary
radicalism. Extreme conservatism
thus breeds extreme radicalism;
czarism breeds bolshevism. The
exemplifcation of this extreme point
of view is found in the Dictatorship
of the proletariat" now existing in
Russia.
While the great masses of labor
in America today are not yet touched
with this extreme spirit, never
theless labor unions are growing
now as never before; they are pene-
trating many industries formerly
unorganized, like the steel mills and
the textile industries. They have
already conquered the packing
house industries. They are going
into politics as never before, with
the successes of the labor party in
England to cheer them on. They
are undertaking with fresh spirit
Of determination cooperative enter
prises designed to serve the sole
needs of the workers.
Workers Are Winning.
To any honest observer who sur-
veys the development of the past Is
years it is clear that while they
have lost battles, the workers are
winning the war. One need only
recall as evidence of this advance the
immense body of labor legislation
passed during the last few years in
America and the fact that labor is
now represented in the presidents
cabinet; one need only recall the
Fart which labor leaders played dur
ing the war, and, finally, the power
exhibited recently by labor organ
lations in the steel and coal strikes
and in the railroad controversy.
While the masses of American labor
may not subscribe to the outright
program of the extreme radicals
that labor must rule" yet the whole
drift of the labor movement is in
that direction.
New Cooperative Relationship.
The third method represents a
vigorous rejection of the whole
idea of autocracy-either the blind
and greed autocracy of capital or
the rough autocracy of labor. A
sturdy and wholesome voice is rising
powerfully in America-not clear
yet, and rather angry, but full of
vitality-that says:
"A plague O. both your houses.
We will be bossed neither by Gary
nor by Haywood nor by the ideas
that they personify. Get together
now and do your jobl Give US pro-
duction; give US clothes and coal
and steel and food-and stop your
fighting about It'll"
Out of this spirit and out of the
intolerable chaos which 1ong-con-
tinued conditions of incipient civil
war in industry have produced has
sprung the remarkable movement
which I have already described, to-
ward new cooperative relation
ship between employers and workers
and a gradual substitution of demo-
cratic for autocratic control of in
dustry, 1t represents right-about-
face; a new spirit, new attitude. 1t
is opposed by both extremes, both
the old hard-set employer class and
the wilder radicals, but it is being
accented hv <ba 1ororer& roora