The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-02-02
OUTSIDERS MAKE
LABOR TROUBLE
MANUFACTURER GIVES VIEWS
CONCERNING CAUSES
OF DISPUTES
SELFISH AG|TATORS STIR UP UNREST
Employer and Employee Can
Be Harmonious

BY j. Il. EdSerton.
Editors Note.-Whether or not you
agree with the following the fact that
it m from the pen of j. E. Edger-
ton, president of the National Associ-
alton Of Manufacturers is enough to
solicit your earnest consideration. He
is the head of an organization whose
total number Of employees u n IN
vast figures. 1t is to be believed that
his opinion is the opinion of the
average member and as such is a
viewpoint upon which the worker can
concentrate his attack or support.
The industrial ~antagonisms that
have done so much to halt the pro-
Gress of civilization as we'll as bring
privGtion and suffering on untold
thousands of innocent persons is as
a rule a situation brought about by
persons whose only direct interest
has been a selfish one.
The understanding between en-
ployer and employe can be made as
near perfect as any relationship
known to man. In many cases it has
been made perfect. In many others
tie understanding has been warped
and twisted. Ill will and an u~nfriendly
spirit has been given birth to and in
stead of mutual benefits from good
team work the two factors have been
forced to a c%ontrariness of direction
that has all but destroyed both.
In the last few years this has been
a condition that has grown rather
than decreased and in tracing the
cause to its source one is convinced
that outside Interference is the
grim, underlying base upon which has
been piled the troubles of capital and
labor and the same base in it's cease
less shift and change keeps these
troubles in endless ferment and makes
their clearing away difficult if not i'm
possible.
Good intention is not a guarantee
against the unhappy consequences Of
unwise action on the part of either
individuals or nations as units. The
intelligent as well as the properly
AoNA'~o - in Po"Sio L
which men are endowed ard Of the
opportunities which are made avail
able to them by a beneficient Creator
is the only formula by which the
highest success and happiness may be
attained. A vast deal more is requir-
ed of us than simply wishing to do
right. Every person according to his
endowments and opportunities has
an intellectual as well as a mora
responsibility. This fact is made en-
phatically clear il the Parable Of
Talents. Through the honest and in
ductrious employment of his energies
and abilities, the man to whom his
master had given five talents doubled
his capital, and the one of lower de-
gree to whom two talents were given
registered also n hundred per cent
profit on his efforts. To the third
member of the historical trio was
gwen only talent, presumably because
OF his inferior mental endowments.
ii many Of his descendants living
ir the present age, he vert off and
hid his talent and finally returned
empty-handed. 1t is not recorded
what he did beyond this. But it might
reasonably be inferred that during
the absence of his master he was de-
livering a course of lectures under
the auspices of the Palestine Welfare
ard Protective Association on THE
Evils of Profteering and the Rights
Of the Down-Trodden Workingman."
At any rate, the two efficient producers
were highly commended and promoted
while the Stacker who was more
concerned about his rights than per
forming his obligations was condemn
ed for his slothfulness.
Blu even if all human conduct
could be assayed and found to con-
tain in perfect proportion the elements
of pure motive and intelligent direc-
ton, there would still sometimes
probably be friction in the relations
of e Indeed, as long as there are
varying degrees of human capacity, a
frictionless world is uncomfortable.
Mems opinions and interpretations of
hioIdi laws are as INVERSE as tnelr
viewpoints, and it is from the clash
ing of viewpoints that friction re-
suits. The problem of removing
friction is, therefore, the problem of
assimilating viewpoints. This would
lot be a very difficuts task if only the
acceptance of abstract principles was
involved. But it is the concrete
application Of commonly accepted
principles that the difference in view
point is always difficult and sometimes
impossible to reconcile.
The abstract right Of organization