Omaha daily bee., 1920-01-31

plants, gave it as his mature judg-
ment that on the average the manu-
featuring capacity of this country
was not more than rs per cent OF
what it ought to be if the produc-
tive machinery were properly man
aged. A part of this was due to in
efficiency of the management; and
part due to the slackness and want
of interest of thes workers. Think
OF it! A slave willing to do four
times as much work as it is doing
but crippled by confusion in the con-
troll!
Some'other extraordinary features
of this situation at Gary flew to my
mind. In the back streets OF the
town unhappy groups OF the most
ignorant of the workers were meet
ing-men. who cannot speak Eng
lish-men that no one pays any at
tention to SO long as they come to
work every day. No mill in the
country has higher reputation for
neatness and good order than the
great mill at Gary. Gleason, the su-
perintendent there, hates dirt, waste,
rubbish, and will not abide them.
He thinks them unsightly and dan
gerous. And yet they>leave this hu-
man wastage neglected in dark cor
ncrs of the town and wonder that it
flames up in spontaneous combus-
ton.
Well, these ignorant Foreigners
they have never for the most part
been organized in unions at all
hold their meetings. They feel that
something is wrong in the mills.
1t is in the very atmosphere. Some
of them perhaps have read PAM
phlets dealing with the European
revolutionary movements. Every
thing is there so clearly explained!
Nothing is more beguiling to ig-
norant men than a patent remedy,
whether for body or mind. They
want a quick cure, and take it in
stantly., In the early days of the
strike some of these men quite
frankly advocated the immediate
seizure of the mills by themselves
the workers!
No One Explained.
No one has explained anything to
them, or tried to; no one, so far as
they know, has tried to remedy the
conditions under which they feel
that they suffer. .
Nine hundred miles away from all
this in New York sit the command
ing men of the steel industry. They
have given the workers of the town
much good housing and cheap; they
have provided safety appliances at
the mills-really in a wonderful way
they have instituted pension
fund, and they invite the workers
ITO invest their savings in the stock
l.of the corporation on helpful and
generous basis. .
"See what we are doing for them!"
they tell US.
1t seems like black ingratitude that
workers after all this should strike !
Twenty-Five years ago | saw men
and women hungry in the model
homes of the town of Pullman dur
! ing the great strike there. Mr.. Pull
man had done everything Che
thoughD tor his workers; and he
p?ourned like some Lear over the
tragedy Of their ingratitude.
Well, those things do not prevent
strikes. and never have; for they do
not touch the heart of the trouble.
No Vision.
/ puzzled long time at Gary how
best to describe the real trouble
how to express it. ] am not pre-
sumptuous enoughfto imagine | can
explain it all, but one thing at least
n think | see clearly. In the earlier
part of this article, speaking of the
self delineated portrait of industry
as it is to be seen at Gary, referred
10 certain strange aspect of the
eyes. | know now; and feel like
Whispering the truth. Blind! No
Nlsion-or clouded vision. They do
not see what the. real struggle is;
they do not unite to meet it.
For little while last year-that
wonderful year when: Our soldiers
were in France-American industry
opened It's eyes: looked up! Both
sides nearly forgot long hours; they
even forgot profits {some of them)
they forgot to quarrel; they were
united. For once they made the
monster slave OF mechanism sweat at
his task. For they had a vision OF
ships plying the Atlantic loaded
with American soldiers, of a railroad
across France, of guns for our brl-
gades to fight with. How they all
worked and produced for that clear
purpose! The eyes of the whole
world watched with admiration how
we turned out ships aud cars and
rifles.
All that has gone now. We had a