Omaha daily bee., 1920-01-31
Labor Troubles at Gary
Revealed a Lack of Vision
In leaders on Both Sides
Human Strife Crippled the Great Monster of Mech
anism and Cut Production of the Plant to About
25 Per Cent-New Era Coming-City Is Domi-
mated by Mill.

day. lust at dusk, it seemed kind
of titan. dwarfng all the human Lte
around ard within it. So few men
were to be seen, or they were so in
significant, so dim, compared with
the stupcndous machinery, that one
barely noticed them. The mechan-
ism appeared, somehow, to be oper-
ating itself | can scarcely describe
t; but there it was, kind OF mon
ster squatting on the shore OF the
grav lake. A tireless monster that
never sleeps! Regardless OF dispu..
tatious workers and capitalists and
economists and politicians 1t tolls
day and night, summer and winter:
Sundays, Christmas. the Fourth OF
July. its appetite is unappeasaoie'
Thousands Of men, digging tor their
lives in the iron ranges OF Mime,
sofa and thousands more in the coal
fields and quarries of Indiana and
Illinois can scarcely keep it satisfied.
1t drinks the entire flow of river.
/, requires 10000 men at Gary alone,
speaking babel of 20 languages, to
serve the intimate daily necessities
of a single mill.
Implacable Power of Machinery.
Each time I visited Gary these
impressions deepened. More and
more | seemed to feel the implacablc
power OF The mechanism there by
the lake, and. in comparison, the IN
significance of the human element Ill
the process. One evening, as ! was
going out along the high embank
ment from which one can glimpse
the whole enormous aggregahons OF
flaming chimneys and spreading
mills. it came to me. that, i'll its es-
sence, mankind was facing the prob
lem as to whether machinery should
dominate men. or men machinery.
Were men to be merely cogs or serv-
arts OF stupendous insensate me-
chanisms CT were they to stand out
as masters, using easily and freely
and relatively the tools they had
made? Was the genius OF mech
anism," as Carlyle expressed it
long ago. to sit forever like an in
cubus upon the soul of man." or was
the soul of man to free itself and
command the genius of mechanism
think many an observer, visiting
these great industrial towns, will
have the same question vividly pre-
se1ted\ to him; and he will begin
straightway to try with all his
power to see whether or not the
soul of man is really dominated by
the mechanism and why it is-and
how it can come free and triumph
ant in the struggle. For this is the
true theme, the motif of this vast
drama.
Yet the more I looked at Gary
and its mills and its men, the more
| thought about them, the more
amazing, after all, it seemed that
these little insects of human beings
should be there at all, that. they
should have been able, somehow, to
create such stupendous mechan-
ism, such a titanic iron slave, and
! that having created it they should
be able to command for its service
SO many of the forces of nature
| heat and cold, air and water. cleo
| tricity and gas--that they should
! know where to find all OF the varied
ingredients and bring them to-
gether exactly ON time, mix them
accurately and produce finally such
all outpouring of fashioned steel.
The Brains of the Machine.
| went into the immense room
larger than any cathedral. where the
ingots were being rolled. All the
machinery was powerfully at work
| and no other mechanism created
by men gives a sublimer impression
of resistless power than a modern
rolling mill-but nowhere at first
did | see a single man. Not one
1t was almost uncanny! Presently
looked lip. There, in a partly glasset
cage high on the wall sat the worker
among his levers and his buttons
the cerebellum, of the creature! AT.
ter all, it was managed by men!
A moment later it came to mt
with a flash exactly what the trouble
was. Yes, men actually controlled
the monster, but they quarreled with
another about it; there was divided
spirit; there was no common pur,
pose! They were Gripping the will
ing slave of them all, who was toll
ing to give them bread and clothine
and shelter and whatever of books
/ leducation and culture they might b,
able to acquire. There were actuall,
| soldiers patrolling the streets ant
guarding the mills to prevent then
| from killing one another or from
injuring the monster. They hat
| built a marvellous machine-anc
were threatening to break it up be
cause they couldn't agree abou
managing it! ~
l., Is Per Cent Production.
i Nor was this crlppling confne,
merely to times like the. present 0
open strife. IF that were all, w
might speedily find remedy. Blu
it was going on all the time; Their
was no real cooperation; no tru
unity of spirit. A scientist in man
agement, Mr.. CAN'T, after a lifetime
devoted to the study of industria