Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-01-13
PETER w. COLLINS
GAVE GOOD TALK
TO LARGE CROWD

at the Orpheum theater Sunday even
ing, electrified his audience bv his
frank and straightforward way of
speaking. Il trim my sails to no
one, he exclaimed, and he did not.
neither in his speech nor in the open
forum after the meeting.
), Mr.. Collins is an anti radical. He
Is an ardent advocate of constructive
and not of destructive movements.
that Is why he so frankly lined up
against bolshevism ana the other
lsms whose principles are destruc-
tive. He is opposed to socialism be-
cause ingalls,, the socialist, says that
one of the main principles of social
ism is found in the one sentence:
! There is no Creator" He pleaded
with the people not To fail To differ
entiate between the terms social re-
forms and socialism. Social reforms,
he said, are constructive and aim to
support the government, while So
clalism is destructive and aims to de-
stroy the government. Ninety per
cent of the people do not know what
true socialism means and confuse il
with social reforms, said the speaker.
Collective bargaining is the genie
that obtains justice, better homes,
working man now possesses. This
right should never be denied. In
union there is strength. So said
Benjamin Franklin. Bankers, merch-
ants, ministers, doctors and lawyers
are organized. You could not Join
their ranks without previous training
and without going through certain
formalities. That is to protect them
selves against any incompetent per-
sons entering and injuring their pro-
fession. Likewise with the labor
unions. They are organized to pro-
tect themselves, and are the results
of the noblest efforts of mankind to
promote better America by the way
of better families.
Among the evils discussed by Mr..
Collins in his remarkable talk on
what is Wrong with the World,"I
the most prominent was the "evil of
underpaid working men," During the
Dar prices ~-e~* --sr -.-Aa sua1ae also
but wages never reached the peak at
tanned by prices. After the war
prices dropped but wages dropped
the farther. High rents still pre-
vail. The worker is still underpaid.
An underpaid working man is a des-
perate man. He cannot care for his
family. His children must leave their
schools and go to work. His family
is deprived of the necessities of life.
Mr.. Collins marvels that under
such conditions the working man re-
mains passive; that why, with his
nose to the grindstone, he does not
rear up and crush his oppressor. 1t
is under such conditions that Bolshe-
vism spreads in America through
propaganda. The employer is to
blame for these conditions. Did not
Christ say "the laborer is worthy of
his hire ?" Did not Pope Leo justly
proclaim that "the rights of the work
ing man to a wage of decent living
and comfort shall not be denied him ?"
A wage must be more than a living
wage. 1t must be a saving wage. Ii
must be a wage that will not only al
low the necessities of life, the chances
of education, the enjoyment of some
pleasures, it must not only embrace
| this, but it must include a sum that
can be put in the banks as a buffer
against old age and sickness and
death and misfortune. 1t is the duty
of the employer to pay a saving
wage so as not to cause the public the
cost of public funerals, poor houses,
and hospitals, all coming from the
public Golfers because the employer
squeezed every cent possible out Of
his victims.
The time has come when the en-
ployer cannot run his business as he
| wants to-and crush out the bones
and flesh of little children. To do
this we must be organized to meet the
attacks of the employers who are or
ganiZed.
Mr.. Collins discussed at some length
the evil of unemployment. And a
very pressing evil at the present
time with from four to seven millions
of men out of work. A man with a
large family and no work is des-
perate man. If you were out of work,
couldn't get work, and wanted to
work you could pity these men. What
are the ways to settle the unemploy-
ment question? In the first place,
the man and the job must be brought
| together. The government must use
its credit to keep the men at work.
Did it not loan the railroads and other
private enterprises enormous sums to
i keep them above water? If for no
other reason than a jealous one to
prevent its extinction, the government
should use its credit to keep the men
at work.
Why not open an employment bu-
: reau in every one of the 10000 post
offices in the United States? One
position secured a month by each post
office would be almost million a
year.
Other suggestions the speaker
enumerated on which government
credit could be used are:
1. The United States needs 5,OOO,-
900 new homes to house the people.
2. Millions of acres of land neee
irrigation.
8. Our waterways are undeveloped
High railroad rates would drop un'
der waterway competition.
4. Our forests need reforestry.
All these important needs would
give employment to millions Of work